Our February Salon Concert was an eclectic program.

It opened with the Kodaly Sonata played with great skill by Douglas Harvey, the remarkable young principal cellist of the Austin Symphony. Harvey’s performance, as fine as it was, didn’t erase memories of Janos Starker’s rendition at least 45 years ago in Toronto.

After Kodaly came the Poulenc Oboe Sonata played by Ian Davidson, also of the Austin Symphony, with Kathryn Mishell at the piano. A wonderful, bittersweet late work played with love and expression.

Finally, before intermission, a new work by Kathryn, inspired by her trip to Russia last spring: Souvenirs of Russia. Upon her return to Austin from Russia, Kathryn did some research on Russian folk music and came across some old vocal recordings. The piece is essentially a set of four Russian folk songs arranged for string quartet and oboe. Very effective with some lusty shouts from the players in the lively dance movement at the end.

After intermission we heard the Richard Strauss Piano Quartet. The piece itself is very minor Strauss but deserves an occasional hearing. Not his métier at all. At age 19 pretty impressive but only four years later came Don Juan, a work of astonishing genius and originality.

Classical Music Blogs