Reviews

Chamber Music Fest delivers must-hear performance

By WILLIAM FURTWANGLER
Post and Courier, Saturday October 21, 2006

The newest organization to present the area with chamber music, Charleston Music Fest, made an impressive splash Friday night a t Ashley Hall.

Co-directors violinist Lee-Chin Siow and cellist Natalia Khoma, both professors at the College of Charleston's School of the Arts, introduced two guest performers: violinist Keng-Yuen Tseng and pianist Boris Slutsky.

The two guests opened with a rock-steady authority in Beethoven's Violin Sonata No. 3 in E-Flat Major, Op. 12. Their partnership was balanced, musically and aurally.

Joined by Khoma, the two guests shifted gears for Schubert's Adagio movement in E-Flat for Piano Trio, D. 897 (formerly Op. 148), a sublime work of deep melancholy. The three performers applied the appropriate temperament, without any sentimental nostalgia.

Keng-Yuen offered Nathan Milstein's exuberant exhibition of violin technique, "Paganiniana." Milstein, one of the great 20th century concert violinists, chose some greatest hits. Keng-Yuen delivered these with fire and clarity.

German pianist/composer Mortiz Moszkowski wrote great light music. Violinist Lee-Chin with Keng-Yuen and Slutsky showed off in his opulently fluffy Suite for Two violins and Piano in G Minor, Op. 71.

Keng-Yuen ended effectively with the Dance Espagnole from Manuel de Falla's opera "La Vida Breve," followed by a encore from J.S. Bach (Partita No. 3's slow movement.)

The program repeats 4 p.m. Sunday at Ashley Hall. Not to be missed.