Chamber concerts: 1807 and Amerita

People who've grown up listening to big-orchestra music sometimes think the chamber music repertoire consists of delicate miniatures. Anyone who still harbors that misapprehension should listen to a good performance of the Schubert C Major string quintet, as played Monday night by 1807 and Friends.

This quintet lasts as long as many major symphonies. Its four movements cover the same range of emotional and musical variety, and it demands just as much energy and ability from the musicians. They play it without a conductor to guide them, and they must drive through the whole thing without any help from other instrument sections that can take the lead and give them a rest. The deserved applause this work evoked sounded just as awed and excited as the applause that follows the biggest and most popular orchestral works.

One extra-musical attraction at some recent 1807 events is the sight of Lloyd Smith playing with guest cellist Yumi Kendall, who succeeded him as the Philadelphia Orchestra's assistant principal cello when he retired in 2003. For those of us who value tradition, the transition to a new generation is always a moving event— a tangible sign that a great heritage will continue to survive.

In the musical world, the handoff can include more complex overtones. Lloyd Smith is still an active chamber musician, so we can also watch him work side by side with his successor.

Leading man, leading lady

For the Boccherini quintet that filled the program's first half, Kendall played the first cello role, which includes duets with the first violin as well as passages in which Boccherini pushed the range of the cello and actually had it play above the violin. In the Schubert, Smith took the lead and Kendall played the second cello part, which is less prominent but provides the foundation for some of Schubert's most important passages.

As it happens, I heard the exact same musicians play the Boccherini piece just a few days before, at the end of the Amerita Chamber Players' first concert this season. Astute concertgoers may have noticed that the Ameritas and 1807 have developed a family resemblance. Nancy Bean now plays first violin in both groups, Lloyd Smith is the resident cellist, and the versatile Davyd Booth plays second violin at 1807 and harpsichord at the Ameritas, in addition to his day job with the Philadelphia Orchestra. (Booth has also been known to play the accordion, but that's another matter).

The 1807 violist, Pamela Fay, joined the Ameritas for this event; Yumi Kendall filled the guest slot; Booth reverted to the violin for the Boccherini; and consequently the same fivesome could play the same quintet under two brand names.

For local chamberphiles, it was a rare chance to hear the same piece twice in a few days. For the musicians, it was no doubt a rare chance to squeeze two performances out of one set of rehearsals.

Happy prelude, or anti-climax?

At 1807, the Boccherini was a distinguished, happy prelude to the Schubert. At the Ameritas, it was something of an anti-climax after the piece that preceded it: Vivaldi's G minor concerto for two cellos. In his spoken introduction, Davyd Booth called the Vivaldi one of the masterpieces of the Baroque, and he wasn't exaggerating. Smith and his young successor Kendall produced a hypnotic cascade of Vivaldian energy and creativity, and the machinations of these two cellists were enhanced by a superb, three-musician string section consisting of Bean, Fay and another mainstay of the Philadelphia chamber scene, violinist Barbara Govatos.

In the world of the arts, gender and age are ultimately irrelevant. The only thing that counts is the work and its effect on the audience and the artists.