On Saturday night at Queen Anne Christian Church, Gallery Concerts presented a delectable program of chamber works on period instruments showcasing different members of the clarinet family, with clarinet maker and performer Thomas Carroll. (The group’s next concert, on January 13 and 14, 2018, features Tekla Cunningham, violin; Vijay Chalasani, viola; and Nathan Whittaker, violoncello; performing trios.)
Johann Nepomuk Hummel was represented by his Clarinet Quartet in E-flat major, then came a rarely heard Quintetto in F major for String Quartet and basset horn by Johann Georg Heinrich Backofen, and two works by Mozart, his string Quartet in D minor No, 13, and the very well-known Clarinet Quintet in A major, for basset clarinet and strings.
I wish I could say the concert was a terrific success, but unfortunately, Carroll’s instruments were so bright that they tended to overshadow the much quieter strings and the balance was distinctly lopsided, particularly in the Hummel, where the clarinet pitch was highest. Here the instrument is given pride of place, in the second movement scurrying all up and down the range, but Carroll rarely played at a lower dynamic level than mezzo forte, and it would have helped considerably had he toned it down.
The Backofen work is of interest mostly for the basset horn, an instrument which, when it is included in an orchestral work, is usually buried among the musicians, and this gave concertgoers a chance to see what it looks like, an instrument with an almost right-angled joint in the middle and a bell. Otherwise the Backofen is a slight, charming piece, but a great vehicle for highlighting that horn’s capabilities.
In both works, the group was often not quite together. Given that all the string players—violinists Christine Wilkinson Beckman and Ingrid Matthews, violist Laurel Wells, and cellist Page Smith—are well known, highly trained musicians, one imagines there had just not been enough rehearsal time.
Synchronization was better in the one work without clarinet, the early Mozart quartet composed when he was 17. In it Mozart gives the lion’s share of activity to the first violin, played here by Matthews, while the others are relegated mostly to an accompanying role, until the last movement where suddenly the whole becomes far more interesting with chromatic scales going up and down on all instruments. Matthews was not at her normal stellar best in this and elsewhere in the concert, with a thin sound, some squeaks, and even a couple of moments when she was slightly off the note.
The final work, the Mozart quintet, was the best performance of the evening. Perhaps the deeper notes of the basset clarinet made the balance more even, the whole was better together, and of course the music is a joy to hear. Warm, mellow tone came from violist Wells in her variation in the last movement.
Carroll is a consummate clarinet player on all his instruments. He accomplished the trickiest moments with apparent ease, his tone was smooth, warm, and impeccably clean. However, a more nuanced approach to dynamics could have improved these performances.
