Eminent British chamber ensemble opens North American tour here

After a customary and unsolicited compliment to Carmel's Palladium, the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields chamber ensemble got down to business as it opened its current North American tour with Carl Nielsen's Serenata in vano.

The Danish composer's playful quintet, composed in pre-war 1914 and reflecting the golden twilight of the romantic era, is scored for clarinet, bassoon, horn, double bass, and cello. It made an ingratiating start to Saturday's concert in the Center for the Performing Arts' Classical Series. Hornist Stephen Stirling's droll introduction from the stage, including that praise for the hall, was also apt for the implied scenario it set behind the three-movement piece.

The unusual instrumentation in particular allowed each instrumental voice to stand out and display the Palladium's fine acoustics for unamplified music. The strings and winds frolicked conversationally in the interplay of the finale, a movement that implied the vainly serenading young men's indulgence in drink during their lark. 

Dvorak's sprawling String Quintet in G, op. 77, filled out the concert's first half. Scored for two violins,

Antonin Dvorak loved trains.*

viola, cello, and bass, it evinces the composer's having written it for a competition. It's stuffed with adroit exchanges around the ensemble, and it has the kind of swinging rhythmic pulse characteristic of the Czech composer, who responded early and often to the dance music native to his region. 

His gift for sweet melody also has an abundant, flowing presence in this prize-winner. The finale in particular seems to pick up on Dvorak's inveterate passion for trainspotting; it chugs along with the bustling energy of steam locomotives in the Golden Age of Rail Travel. The work's variety and dynamism was well-represented in this performance. 

The second half was splendidly occupied by Beethoven's Septet, op. 20, a work of such renown for the young composer that he tired of it and once claimed it was by Mozart. It's got the multi-movement spread of the divertimento form so well-cultivated by Mozart in his Salzburg years. In this performance, I was struck by the excellence of the three wind players, especially clarinetist Tim Orpen. He blended so well with his colleagues and introduced the second-movement melody in a perfectly warm and billowing style. 

The theme-and-variations fourth movement made evident the ensemble's compatibility and careful preparation. Stirling led the way suavely as the horn dominated in the Scherzo. In a decisive indication that the virtuosity of string players ruled at the turn of the 19th century,  Tomo Keller's lean, well-articulated violin shone in the extraordinary cadenza before the Presto finale gallops away with a masterpiece that Beethoven thought was too light to love long. We have the privilege of disagreeing with him when we get the gift of such a performance.

*Because the available photos of the ensemble don't show the current personnel, I've chosen to use a composer photo instead.