Arts & Events

On Saturday evening, March 7, Musaics of the Bay, an organization whose founder and Artistic Director is Audrey Vardanega, gave a chamber music concert at Crowden School in Berkeley. Dubbed “An Evening of Schubert,” the concert featured Franz Schubert’s splendid Piano Trio No. 2 in E-flat Major, D. 929. Also included was Mozart’s Violin Sonata in E-flat Major, K. 481. Performing with pianist Audrey Vardanega were violinist Nigel Armstrong and cellist Tanya Tomkins. This illustrious group of musicians all have local origins and ties, though they each have performed worldwide.  

Franz Schubert’s Piano Trio No. 2 in E-flat Major was the centerpiece of this program. Written in the last year of his life, (Schubert died young at the age of thirty-one), this piano trio offers moments of vivacious vitality and other moments of Sturm und Drang. In her introductory remarks Audrey Vardanega lauded this E-flat Major Piano Trio as one of her favorite works in the whole piano repertory. Melody was Schubert’s greatest gift. He once said that no sooner did he write one melody than others began crowding his thoughts.  

In the E-flat Major Piano Trio, melodies are abundant and rich in poetic content. In the opening movement, marked Allegro, there is a lovely melody shared initially by violin and cello, delightfully played here by Nigel Armstrong and Tanya Tomkins. Then that melody is taken up and developed by the piano, beautifully rendered here by Audrey Vardanega. Earlier, Armstrong’s violin and Vardanega’s piano traded snatches of a melody broken by momentary hesitations. The second movement, marked Andante con moto, offers great emotional depth. Piano and cello open with a slow marching rhythm, introducing what seems to be a funeral march. Then the cello spins an elegiac melody against a marchlike accompaniment in the piano. (This theme will be heard again in the work’s final movement.) Midway through this slow movement there is a dramatic episode full of Sturm und Drang, which functions as an outpouring of grief in the midst of this funeral march. The third movement is a Scherzo, brief and bouncy. The fourth and final movement, the work’s longest, lasting nearly twenty minutes, is in the form of a rondo. The piano opens, then a melody is stated first by the violin and next by the cello. Then this melody is taken up by the piano, beautifully performed here by Audrey Vardanega. Accompanying the piano here are pizzicato pluckings by both Nigel Armstrong’s violin and Tanya Tomkins’ cello. Throughout this finale the performers offered sparkling rhythmic articulation. On the whole, this was a splendid interpretation of one of the great works in the piano trio repertory.  

Opening the program was Mozart’s Violin Sonata in E-flat Major, K. 481. Chosen perhaps because it is in the same key as Schubert’s Piano Trio No. 2, this violin sonata by Mozart is full of ingratiating melodies and graciously flowing harmonics. In the first movement, marked Molto Allegro, Nigel Armstrong’s violin often joined with Audrey Vardanega’s piano to finish a phrase begun in the piano alone. The second movement, a slow Adagio, is wholly delightful. There is plenty of interaction between violin and piano, adroitly performed by Armstrong and Vardanega. The third and final movement, marked Allegretto, offers bouncy rhythms and a dramatic 3-chord figure that gets dramatic repetition. As a program opener, this Mozart Violin Sonata in E-flat Major paired beautifully with the featured work, the Schubert Piano Trio in E-flat Major. This felicitous pairing made for a wonderful evening of chamber music at its finest. Congratulations are due to Audrey Vardanega for spearheading this musical venture. May she bring us many more such events.