“Nostalgia is just History after a few drinks.”
The Knoxville Symphony Orchestra’s Concertmaster Series as hosted by Concertmaster William Shaub has always enjoyed displaying its dual personality of virtuosic violin showmanship contrasted with deep dives into the heart of the major chamber ensemble repertoire. For its opening event for the season in its mid-week concerts at the Knoxville Museum of Art, Shaub and Friends happily embraced that scheme, finishing with the Brahms epic Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 34.
However, this was an evening of both nostalgia and history. For the first half, Shaub and pianist Kevin Class took a journey titled “Somewhere in Time.” That journey centered on the wistful nostalgia of John Barry’s theme composed for the 1980 film Somewhere in Time. For his virtuosic opener, Shaub got the audience in the mood with the delightfully fun Polonaise in D Major by Henri Wieniawski.
The following works were something of a contrast, to say the least. The “ancient” traditional melody “Danny Boy” was followed by Paul Frucht’s What a Time. With composer Frucht present for this performance—he was a college friend of Shaub—this was the world premiere of the violin and piano version of the work that was inspired by the societal chaos of the 2020 pandemic shutdown. In this instance acting as something of a palate-cleanser, the work sets up edges of texture that are exploited in rhythmic tangles of tension in the piano, while the violin lays out an abstract narrative of the pain and unease, but ending with a lyrical sense of hope amid the troubled times.
The necessary staging reset at intermission gave us an opportunity once again to clear our heads and prepare for the Brahmsian onslaught that is the Piano Quintet in F minor. Shaub was joined by violinist Rachel Loseke, violist Kathryn Gawne, cellist Andy Bryenton, and pianist Class.
With Brahms’ ability to portray both ebullience and tension simultaneously, the ensemble launched into the Allegro non troppo, a complex movement that seems both spirited and foreboding. The Andante was tender, but with a hard edge, while the Scherzo exploded with excitement, although one could have hoped for more. The Finale and its gypsy flavored passage transitions solidly to the admittedly surprising conclusion.
The Concertmaster Series returns on January 31, 2024, with a program that celebrates legendary violinist Jascha Heifetz with a trip back the Golden Era of Hollywood. The featured ensemble work will be César Franck’s Piano Quintet.
