"Sextet Spectacular' by 1807 & Friends

For its latest chamber music concert, 1807 and Friends staged an event that creates a serious problem for a conscientious reviewer. It was one of the best concerts I've attended this season— a thoroughly satisfying evening that left me with the kind of glow a good chamber concert should cast over your day. Most of the people in the audience obviously felt the same way. But what can you say once you've said that?

I could compare the Friends' work with some classic recording and note that their rendition of the tenth bar in the slow movement of the Dvorak string sextet in A Major didn't quite match the standard set by the all-star Impeccable Sextet during its legendary 1937 Gramofone Obscura recording session in Madrid. But there comes a time when that type of criticism seems fundamentally irrelevant. We attend chamber concerts because we want to hear good musicians dazzle us with the spirit and beauty of great works of art. If they deliver that, the finicky distinctions of the wine connoisseur sound like idle chatter.

This concert scored partly because the program featured two of the most enjoyable pieces in the repertoire— the Dvorak sextet and Tchaikovsky's Souvenir de Florence. The two sextets have become familiar works because both were written by composers who were working at the top of their form. Both are packed with melody, high spirits and inventive effects. Both composers keep surprising you with the extra possibilities they found in an ensemble that adds two instruments to the string quartet.

And neither piece can be considered overworked, despite their popularity. I spoke to one highly active concertgoer who mentioned that she'd never heard either one. String sextet performances aren't that common. When you do hear one of these pieces, it's usually offered as the finale of a chamber program. You don't expect to hear both in the same evening. The Friends weren't exaggerating when they dubbed this concert a "Sextet Spectacular."

But the best scores in the repertoire can't produce music by themselves. The concert featured six of the best chamber enthusiasts in the Philadelphia Orchestra playing like musicians who know they're working with music that will reward every ounce of effort they put into it.

The Friends have been presenting some good programs this season. If you haven't attended their Monday musicales, consider giving them a try. For their next concert, March 23, they've scheduled a promising novelty. The Philadelphia Orchestra's new principal tuba, Carol Jantsch, will play tuba arrangements of a great trumpet piece, Carnival of Venice, and a Baroque favorite, Couperin's Pieces de Concert.