Mount Desert music festival begins 27th season in good form

NORTHEAST HARBOR — The 27th season of the Mount Desert Festival of Chamber Music started off on Tuesday night in the vastly renovated Neighborhood House. Its restoration done through a community effort, it has an addition that includes a well-equipped kitchen, an accessory to the pleasant receptions given after each concert in the series. No longer does one have to descend a back staircase to dreary rest rooms, these having been replaced by gleaming new ones on the same level as the auditorium. Some years ago, the future of Neighborhood House, forlorn and seedy, looked pretty grim, but the face lift it has received has given it a bright new lease.

It hardly seems possible that I have been listening to music by the Composers Quartet for a quarter of a century. And unlike most ensembles of its kind, its personnel, fortunately, has been stable. Matthew Raimondi and Anahid Ajemian, first and second violins, respectively, and Mark Schuman, violoncello, have played together these many years. Only the violist — Ronald Carbonne — is new, and he is a decided asset inasmuch as he demonstrated sensibility and strong musicianship in his work at this initial concert.

One might easily assume that after so many years Raimondi would be jaded, but the contrary is true. He performs every piece as though he is coming to it for the first time. With a silken tone that always sings and with consummate musicianship, he is clearly devoted to whichever music he happens to be playing. His solos in the Beethoven trio (Opus 1, No. 1 in E-flat major) and in the Schumann quartet (Opus 41, No. 2) displayed freshness and charm. There was nothing that smacked of routine or staleness. At all times Raimondi is with and in the music, and never is there any trace of sentimentality, although there are sweetness and tonal fragrance.

In the Beethoven trio Raimondi and Schuman were joined by the French pianist Evelyne Crochet, a frequent guest at this festival. Although a strong player, at no time did she allow the piano to become obtrusive. Rather, she blended in with her colleagues beautifully, letting her instrument sing out as the music demanded or merely underlining and supporting what her colleagues were doing.

In four well-defined movements, the Beethoven trio starts with a vibrant allegro followed by a melancholic adagio cantabile (which these artists really did make sing). After this introspective note came a scampering, playful scherzo and, finally, a rollicking, capering presto in which there are hints of humor and lightness. Throughout, the enunciation of the themes and their development was admirable. But it was that wonderful adagio, with its soulfulness and its eloquent solos, that impressed deeply.

Afterwards Crochet regaled her audience with four etudes by Debussy (from a set of twelve). Hers was not a hothouse approach. Quite the contrary. On the recordings the composer himself made certain that in his piano music there is no trace of mawkishness or daintiness. His was a sanguine approach. The etudes were meant as studies in thirds, fourths, opposed sonorities, composite arpeggios and so on, but, like Chopin’s, they emerge as interesting, viable pieces, hardly the malleable, precious items that one might expect from a man dying of cancer. Unfortunately, they are seldom heard.

That Crochet has an excellent technique that enables her to cope with any pianistic problem goes without saying; but, more than that, she has imagination, style and temperament, all of which were abundantly shown in the last etude she played. This one, effulgently romantic, is tightly knit and lean and has a dramatic flair in which the pianist reveled. She took full advantage of its motoric propulsion. At all times she played with cleanness and precision, evoking as much sonority from her instrument as it could give. (It needs voicing.)

Schumann has sometimes been accused of long-windedness, but his String Quartet, Opus 41, No. 2, is terse and pointed. Without over-decorating it in the least, the Composers Quartet played it for exactly what it is worth: a strong statement couched in becoming broad melodic lines. The details were all in place, but none was overstressed. The music was allowed to flow naturally, eloquently.

On Tuesday, July 24, the program will be Mozart’s Quartet for Oboe, Violin, Viola and Cello, K. 370 in F (with Shelley Woodworth, oboist), Gabriel Faure’s Sonata for Violin and Piano and Johannes Brahms’ Trio for Piano, Violin and French horn (with guests Todd Crow, pianist, and Sharon Moe, hornist.