Chamber Music In The Great Hall?

When Wharton Center was built back in 1982, a third theater was planned - a nice thousand seat hall. It would have been perfect for small operas and chamber music.

Sadly, budgets were cut (ah, if they only played basketball at Wharton it would have been different) and we are left with small 600 seat hall (Pasant) with brittle acoustics, and a very large 2500 seat hall (Great Hall) that is cavernous. Neither place seems to lend itself to chamber music.

Wharton's Mike Brand wants to bring small ensembles to Wharton but it never seems to work very well. This year MSU cello prof Suren Bagratuni has put together a new chamber series featuring MSU musicians and many other world class artists. He calls it the Michigan Chamber Music Society.

I have seen one of these concerts - the Bach program that took place Sunday January 28th in the Great Hall. There were about 300-400 audience members huddled together on the main floor Great Hall.

Bagratuni selected music that is familiar to all music lovers: three Brandenbureg concerti and the Concerto for Two Pianos in c minor. It was an excellent concert, absent the first work.

The opening piece was the interesting Brandenburg No 6, that features no violins, simply violas, cellos, bass and harpsichord. The ensemble lacked cohesion and Hsin-Yun Huang as principal viola played as if she were the soloist. That's too bad since the second violist, Randolph Kelly is the lead violist with the Pittsburgh Symphony and has had a distinguished career. Maybe some more rehearsing together would have produced better results.

After the lackluster first piece, Deborah Moriarty and fellow MSU faculty member George Vatchnadze soloed in an exciting reading of the Bach Concerto for Two pianos. The soloists sat in the back of the orchestra, which was odd at first but then seemed to improve the ensemble feeling of the entire work. Moriarty is always a wonderful performer, and she didn't disappoint. The orchestra was billed as "The MSU String Ensemble" but there was no listing telling us who the players were.

Things continued to look up during the second half of the program. The ensemble performed the very popular Bradenburg No4 featuring U of M violin prof Aaron Berofsky (and Ralph Votapek's son-in-law) along with flutists Richard Sherman and Lorna McGhee.

Almost immediately the audience realized that this was going to be a very special performance. Sherman and McGhee played some of the finest flute duets I have every heard. They blended perfectly and matched their style with the wonderful Berofsky to make a stunning performance. Not to be overlooked, harpsichordist Charlotte Mattax was also superb. She accompanied the ensemble with subtlety, but surprised the Wharton audience with spectacular, and very difficult solos when the opportunity arose.

Mattax's outstanding playing continued in the final piece of the afternoon, the Brandenburg No 5. But, alas, she was overshadowed by the gorgeous and musical flute playing of Lorna McGhee. She was heard in the previous work with Sherman, but here McGhee got to shine on her own, and shine she did. Her tone was full, rich, and lush and her phrasing was eloquent. McGhee displayed a talent that places here at the very highest level of flute players in the world. It was a genuine pleasure to hear her.

Chamber music at Wharton Center? It's not the perfect venue, but great musicians will make the music come alive no matter where it's played.