Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective 1

Dirleton Kirk, 5/9/2025

Adam Walker (flute), Elena Urioste (violin), Vicki Powell (viola), Laura van der Heijden (cello), Tom Poster (piano)

 Programming gems of unjustly neglected repertoire with more familiar goodies is very much the stock-in-trade of the  Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective and their mission of advocacy (alias voyage of discovery) always wins sympathetic ears at Lammermuir.  This year the focus of their first concert was the piano quartet as a genre, with a cheeky flute thrown in for good measure, with more flute goodies promised for the second concert the following afternoon.  Dirleton Kirk on the night of 5th September was the venue for the first programme.

My favourite of Mozart’s 4 Flute Quartets is No.1 in D major K285.  When three amateur musician friends from Ireland, an engineer violist, a teacher flautist and a policeman cellist, came to visit me in rural Wiltshire, where I’d already been working for a year, in the Easter period of 1985, that is what we played together.  The weather was matched by the sunny D-major music.  In Dirleton, flautist  Adam Walker, violinist Elena Urioste, violist Vicki Powell and cellist Laura van der Heijden  made the sun shine afresh.  Lovely conversation between violin and flute, a satisfying exposition repeat, cloud shadows in the key exploration of the development, a sweetly simple recapitulation and a playful coda made the first movement sing.  Gluck-like charm radiated from the pensive slow movement, a rhapsodic flute serenade over string pizzicato with more than a hint of Baroque elegance.  The playful rondo finale had gorgeous chamber dialogue in the episodes and the teasing rallentando in the final ritornello was a delight.  Mood-enhancing music in every way.  I can vouch from personal experience that it is a joy to play but, even if I couldn’t, that much was clear from the faces of the players.

For Bartók’s  ‘Suite Paysanne Hongroise’ in a flute-and-piano arrangement by Paul Arma, Adam returned with  pianist Tom Poster.  As a set of rustic dance melodies from ‘Greater Hungary’ with a 20th-century veneer, they have some similarities with the Romanian Dances, but with, to my ear at least, a more impressionistic vibe, especially in the slower dances, which bear comparison with Kodaly in similar mood.  An engaging, persuasive and enjoyable performance.

The first of the two piano quartets was that of Hungarian-born but ethnically Croatian (and of aristocratic lineage but informed social conscience) Dora Pejacevic: a 1908 4-movement youthful work in D minor.  Tom Poster introduced it, mentioning the rarity of the genre and how pleased they had been to find a piece to reveal as the perfect programming companion of the Brahms that was to follow after the interval.  I cannot disagree: a gem was indeed revealed.  The influence of Brahms was clear, but my ear prefers to compare it with Dvořák.  The first movement was a well-crafted sonata form, with a turbulent passionate first subject, a playful bridge and a wallowing late romantic second subject.  Quite scrumptious.  The short slow movement was a lyrical love song, begun by the piano, but soon joined by the strings in rich harmony.  A soulful minor-key central section introduced by Elena’s violin was exquisite.  Haydnesque wit and charm suffused the capricious minuet, while its melodious lyrical trio featured delicious sul-G violin playing and a lovely cello solo from Laura.  The rondo finale was full of delightful mischief, including scampering pizzicato, cheeky answering and imitation,  A super piece given a persuasive outing (and a first hearing for me).

Sheet music replaced tablets for Brahms’ Piano Quartet No 1 in G minor Op 25.  Spooky sotto voce opened, before a driven, tempestuous theme let us know this was Romantic Brahms.  The more lyrical second theme was introduced by the cello, joined by the violin, reaching for solace as the music flickered between the major and the minor.  The stormy development was awarded playing of the utmost expressiveness, with phrasing and tone to match.  New facets to the drama were pointed in the recapitulation before the mysteriousness of the opening returned to drift out of our hearing.  The scherzo, furtive and conspiratorial with the strings muted, set an anxious mood, dispelled for a while by the lighter trio with its displaced accents, before the shivers reprised.  A song of devotion in the unison strings opened the slow movement, restated in full harmony.  A central dancelike section was initially joyful but became quite agitated.  When the love song returned, it was more impassioned and expressive, subsiding to a calm afterglow.  The finale?  Oh, that finale. In his youth, Brahms met Hungarian Jewish violinist Ede Reményi, sparking a lifelong fascination with Hungarian dance music, which was liberally peppered with ‘Zigeunerweisen’ (Gypsy style) and Klezmer fusion.  These influences surface in that bonkers Gypsy rondo finale, a brilliant romp.  It was fabulous.

A sweet encore, an arrangement for piano quartet of a Clara Schumann song was played with gorgeous cantabile and was achingly beautiful.  Its valiant attempt to dislodge the Gypsy earworm was unsuccessful, however.