Chamber season opens vividly

The Chamber Music Cincinnati season opened Tuesday with a marvelous performance by the Daedalus Quartet and pianist Awadagin Pratt. The concert was held in Corbett Auditorium at CCM. Classic works of Haydn and Brahms were juxtaposed with a recent work by David Horne.

The quartet consists of four outstanding young musicians: violinists Min-Young Kim and Kyu-Young Kim (who are sister and brother), violist Jessica Thompson, and cellist Raman Ramakrishnan. They have performed in several prestigious venues, including Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, and the Musikverein of Vienna.

The concert opened with Haydn’s String Quartet in F minor, Op. 20, No. 5. This work explores a slightly darker side of Haydn’s personality than we hear in most of his chamber music. The Daedalus musicians brought out the emotion in this work while demonstrating smooth, elegant phrasing and incredible lightness of tone.

Next on the program was David Horne’s Flight from the Labyrinth (String Quartet No. 3). Horne, a Scottish composer born in 1970, composed this work for the Daedalus Quartet, who gave its premiere in 2004. Although the group’s name and its accompanying Greek legend provided the initial inspiration, Horne says his work is more or less abstract. This piece offers many challenges, including writhing thematic lines, several varieties of pizzicato, and intricate textures involving harmonics. The musicians played this thorny work with agility and sensitivity.

The breathtaking summit of this concert was the Brahms Quintet for Piano and Strings in F minor, Op. 34. Awadagin Pratt, world-renowned pianist and CCM faculty member, joined the quartet for this gorgeous masterpiece.

Pratt’s deep, sonorous tone was a nice complement to the quartet’s more pure, bright sound. They launched into the opening movement with fervor. Their balance was excellent and they connected Brahms’ organically developing lines with fluidity. Pratt made restrained use of the sustain pedal, giving the piano sound a clear, linear quality to blend with the strings. In the second movement, they achieved a lyrical, passionate quality that almost seemed operatic. The scherzo was emphatically joyful and exhilarating. The finale showcased the tremendous emotional power of these musicians, from the swelling, sobbing opening to the ecstatic conclusion.

Unfortunately, this concert does not repeat. Chamber Music Cincinnati’s next concert will feature pianist Joseph Kalichstein performing solo works by Schumann, Mendelssohn and Chopin. For further information about Chamber Music Cincinnati’s concert season, visit www.cincychamber.org.