West Stockbridge — At another standing-room-only concert by the West Stockbridge Chamber Players Friday, May 24, many in the audience reached Vaber Hall on the second floor of the Old Town Hall via the newly installed ADA-compliant elevator. Robert Salerno, president of the West Stockbridge Historical Society, greeted those assembled and thanked them for their help in completing this major step forward in the restoration campaign as well as for their much-needed contributions to the emergency oil spill appeal. He also noted that this was the 10th Memorial Day concert so generously performed by the West Stockbridge Chamber Players, led by artistic director Catherine Hudgins, to benefit the West Stockbridge Historical Society’s efforts to restore the acoustically beautiful Old Town Hall.
The world-renowned players for this concert were Amanda Hardy, oboe; Sheila Fiekowsky, violin; Lisa Kim, violin; Daniel Getz, viola; and Oliver Aldort, cello—and each had numerous opportunities to shine during the performances. The program started with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Oboe Quartet in F major, K. 370/368b, which Mozart had written to show off the virtuosity of his oboist friend Friedrich Ramm—a role that Amanda Hardy stepped into beautifully.
Catherine Hudgins addressed the audience before the next piece, explaining that she had created the program to feature three Austrian composers—two universally known (Mozart and Schubert) along with the far more obscure Hans Gál. In fact, when Hudgins asked for a show of hands, no one in the audience had heard of the composer whose life and career were disrupted by the rise of Nazism and World War II. But the stirring performance of his Serenade for Clarinet, Violin & Cello, Op. 93 did much to affirm his status as a leading composer in the Austro-Germanic classical tradition.
After the intermission, Sheila Fiekowsky introduced the final piece: Franz Schubert’s String Quartet No. 13 in A minor (the Rosamunde Quartet), D 804, Op. 29. She noted that, while the piece was written during a time when Schubert was deeply depressed, the quartet nevertheless had moments of great spirit and even joy. At the time of its first performance, a critic wrote that the audience had applauded after the minuet section. Given license by Fiekowsky to express its appreciation, the audience for this performance applauded not only after the minuet section, but after the first and final sections, as well.
A reception followed the concert downstairs in the Old Town Hall where the audience mingled with the musicians and enjoyed light refreshments.
