9th chamber concert brings solid talent, but has its ups and downs

The ninth of the Spoleto Festival USA Chamber Music concerts in the newly-renovated Memminger Auditorium presented two works of Johann Sebastian Bach and Antonin Dvorak.

Dvorak's "String Quartet in G major," Op. 106, gave us a chance to hear a familiar combination of instruments with familiar players (the now venerable St. Lawrence String Quartet) in the Memminger space.

The Quartet sounded thin, which was partly Dvorak's fault because he forsook broad Romantic melodies in this late work for little motives.

But the St. Lawrence made a good case for this work, which earned the usual standing ovation.

Geoff Nuttall, formerly the first violin of the Quartet, was playing second.

Maybe this is because he is now partially the host for the event, or maybe they have decided that Scott St. John's sound works particularly well on top of the ensemble (which it does).

And Nuttall is turning out to be a very informative, at-ease host.

He had only one joke and it was a good one, compared to Charles Wadsworth's constant corn-pone humor.

Violist Lesley Robertson, with her music arranged sensibly in a notebook, and cellist Chris Costanza make up the remainder of the St. Lawrence.

They are solid musicians.

Not so solid, though, was the opening work, Bach's familiar Fifth Brandenburg Concerto. The soloists were flutist Tara Helen O'Connor, violinist Daniel Phillips, and harpsichordist Pedja Muzijevic.

The stage arrangement was poor, with the harpsichord at the back of the stage where it was easily covered up.

I couldn't decide whether this eccentric performance of the Concerto was over-rehearsed or under-rehearsed, but it sure didn't hang together.

The remainder of the ensemble was Yoon Kwon, violin; the versatile Nuttall on viola; Alisa Weilerstein as an overly aggressive cello continuo; and Charleston Symphony's own Ed Allman on double bass.

The concert repeats today at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.