Nicholas DiEugenio & Ellen Cockerham Riccio, violins
Fitz Gary & Andriana Linares, violas
Raman Ramakrishnan, cello
Ingrid Keller, piano
Sept. 21, Ryan Recital Hall, St. Christopher’s School
The third season of Richmond’s Belvedere Series of chamber concerts opened with music that hinges, in part, on the stringed instrument that gets the least love: the viola. The program paired major works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who commonly chose viola when playing chamber music (and gave himself more to play), and Antonín Dvořák, who made his living as an orchestral violist before his compositional career blossomed.
In Mozart’s String Quintet in C major, K. 515, the fifth fiddle is a second viola. That scoring places the quintet firmly in the realm of “dark Mozart,” the sonically richer and more expressively nuanced strain of many of his later works. In Dvořák’s Piano Quintet in A major, Op. 81, the viola is given unusually prominent roles as a solo voice and duet partner with the first violin. In both works, the viola’s higher profile beefs up and tonally colors the sound of the ensemble.
In this performance, violinists Nicholas DiEugenio and Ellen Cockerham Riccio, violists Fitz Gary and Andriana Linares and cellist Raman Ramakrishnan nicely balanced bright tunefulness and textural transparency – it is Mozart, after all, and in C major – with the dusky sonic quality and expressive opportunities that an extra baritone voice brings to the ensemble.
The quintet’s enhanced “bottom” also served to spotlight the brilliance of its first violin part, played assertively by DiEugenio. (He returns later in the Belvedere season, playing J.S. Bach’s solo-violin sonatas and partitas.)
Violist Linares made the most of her solo contributions to the Dvořák, especially in its dumka movement, and was a complementary partner with DiEugenio in duets. Those were highlights in a performance that otherwise had sonic and interpretive issues.
The big first movement of the Dvořák quintet moves between high-energy passages evoking Czech folk dance and lyrical, rather wistful melodies, played more slowly. DiEugenio and cellist Ramakrishnan played up that contrast excessively, to my ears, at times turning expressive sighs into swoons. The push-and-pull pacing and swooning were largely absent in subsequent movements.
The ensemble transparency heard in the Mozart proved elusive in the Dvořák. Pianist Ingrid Keller (the Belvedere Series’ artistic director), violinists DiEugenio and Ellen Cockerham Riccio, violist Linares and cellist Ramakrishnan produced a collective tone that turned congested in louder passages, especially fast-tempo climaxes. Balances went awry at several points, with accompaniment more audible than melody.
The five musicians’ concentration, energy and audible rapport compensated for those shortcomings.
The Belvedere Series continues with a recital by tenor William Ferguson and pianist Martin Katz at 7 p.m. Oct. 5 and 3:30 p.m. Oct. 6 in Perkinson Recital Hall, North Court, University of Richmond. Tickets: $45. Details: (804) 833-1481; http://belvedereseries.org