Intelligence and Intensity

KELLY FERJUTZ continues her reports
from the West Cork Chamber Music Festival

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Day three -- Sunday 1 July 2007

Day three began with a 'six of one, half-dozen of the other' type of situation for me, personally. Finally, the computer/internet problem was solved, so I could be on-line to get these reports finished and submitted in a timely fashion. Unfortunately, by time that was accomplished, I was just slightly late for the first performance of Sunday -- the noon Coffee Concert held in the Rose Drawing Room at Bantry House.

This is actually a double room that seats 96 in the room with the musicians, and 34 in the other, slightly smaller room, from which not all seats have good visual lines. The sound, however, is excellent, from wherever. Actually, it might even be better from the smaller room, which reduces some of the intensity of the volume. Be that as it may, the acoustics of this old house are incredible! The ambiance is beyond that, even.

The performers for this miniature concert were cellist Peter Bruns, and Annegret Kuttner at the piano. The two pieces I missed were Koechlin's from Chansons Bretonnes Op 115, and Beethoven's Cello Sonata in A major Op 69. Those members of the audience with whom I spoke suggested it was an altogether terrific performance. Based on the attention paid to the Pohádka ('A Fairy Tale') by Janácek and Ernst Bloch's Jewish Life, I see no reason to think otherwise. I'm more familiar with the Bloch work -- he spent time in Cleveland in the early 1900s -- and the warm, singing line of the cello brought to mind the cantorial effects heard at services in a Jewish temple. I'm sorry to have missed the other works.

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