MOZART, BRAHMS, AND REDEMPTION Metaphors often are helpful guides to meaning and insight, but they can be
passages amid lyricism, and chords conjure a chorus from the Bahamas in
stretched too far. Or can they? The Mozart and Brahms works on this program
“The Wind Blow East” (No. 3). In “The Keys To The Prison” (No. 4), skittish high
have no need for extra-musical analysis; their narratives allow each of us to
statements, folksy gestures, and plaintive harmonics evoke a boy in prison
enter a world of feelings that can never be adequately expressed in words.
singing to his skeptical mother about possessing the keys that will enable him
Judith Weir’s work for solo cello, which ChamberFest Cleveland’s Roman
to escape.
Rabinovich relates to “the theme of political oppression in Czechoslovakia” as portrayed in Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being, is another
Speaking of skeptical, one can only wonder what Leopold Mozart must have
matter. These songs are pleas for redemption, to be set free, to be treated
thought when his son wrote to him in March 1784 about his newest work, the
fairly and humanely. What all of the pieces on this program share is a spirit of
Quintet in E-flat major for Piano and Winds, K. 452: “I myself consider it to
generosity cast in music of striking eloquence.
be the best thing I have written in my life.” Big words. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had already composed 37 symphonies, 16 piano concertos, 16 string
British composer Judith Weir (born 1954) is the first woman, since the post
quartets, and a number of operas, including Idomeneo and The Abduction
was created in the 17th century, to serve as Master of the King’s Music, or,
from the Seraglio. Then again, who are we to argue with Mozart, who could
as she was appointed by Queen Elizabeth II in 2014, Master of the Queen’s
be forgiven for changing his mind in coming years upon creating such works
Music. Her duties include writing music for royal events, among them the
as The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, the late symphonies, and so much
Queen’s state funeral in September 2022. Weir has written numerous operas
more? (But not enough, given his death in 1791 at the age of 35.)
and musical-theater works, as well as pieces in other genres. She composed Unlocked in 1999 for cellist Ulrich Heinen. She has said that the collection
The piano-winds quintet is a sterling score in which the instruments are
of five movements arose “out of my interest in the magnificent collection
equals — no easy feat, given the virtuoso piano part. But the keyboard, while
of American folk songs in the Library of Congress, Washington, collected by
occasionally a bit of a show-off (as was its original interpreter, Mozart), is mostly
John and Alan Lomax in the 1930s. A significant proportion of the songs were
collegial in the three contrasting movements. Once the ensemble establishes
collected from prisoners — mostly Black prisoners in Southern jails. The piece
the key of E-flat in the first-movement introduction and the piano plays the
is made up of freely composed cello ‘fantasias’ inspired by five of these songs.”
opening theme, the winds have their expressive say as they all wend their way to the main body. What follows is glistening and playful repartee, with Mozart
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The soloist on this program, Zlatomir Fung, who in 2019 became the first
taking the instruments briefly away from the home key before deftly thickening
American in four decades to win first prize in the Tchaikovsky International
the plot and summoning acrobatic flourishes from piano and horn to bring the
Cello Competition in Moscow, discusses Unlocked in a YouTube video. The
activity to a close. The winds are in a serene mood in the Larghetto, passing
songs have a common thread, he says, “which I think is what makes these
tender phrases to one another while the piano provides subtle commentary. A
pieces relevant today, and that thread is the promise of hope for a better future.”
few stern moments aside, the aura is lyrical and empathetic, as if the Countess
Fung will play three of the songs. “No Justice” (No. 2) is a set of variations
in Figaro — not to be born for two years — is sharing her bittersweet plight.
on a prison song from Georgia that uses such techniques as strumming, foot
The piano announces the main theme in the last movement, with the winds
stomps, and tapping to reflect the urgency of the text. Yearning lines, pizzicato
in perkiest form as they add their buoyant two cents. They shift into minor