Music Reviews : Chamber Works by Women Composers

A chamber music concert Sunday at Mount St. Mary’s College provided irrefutable proof--if any were still needed--that women of the past century could write significant classical music. For women of this century, of course, there is no such question.

Trios by Clara Schumann and Fanny Mendelssohn, and Grazyna Bacewicz’s Sonata No. 4 for violin and piano (composed in 1951) showed complete mastery of form and a satisfying range of imaginative and emotional utterances.

A 20-minute neoclassical work cast in traditional four movements, Bacewicz’s sonata is chock-full of ideas. It begins with sober folk melodies and ends with folk dance rhythms. In between there are ghostly evocations of a dance hall and an edgy, skittish scherzo.

The work, in what was billed as its first Los Angeles performance, received expert attention from young violinist Dorota Anderszewska and pianist Nancy Fierro.

Less satisfactory were performances of the other works on the program, although Fanny Mendelssohn’s Trio in D minor--an important essay--received more committed and polished playing than did Clara Schumann’s lyric and impassioned Trio in G minor.

Fierro’s fluent pianism frequently overbalanced the strings. However, cellist Antony Cooke was particularly self-effacing. He allowed himself one sudden--and short-lived--emergence into prominence in the Andante of the Mendelssohn Trio, then quickly retreated to his pale partnership.

Violinist Robert Korda played with strength and grace but tended to produce thin, wiry, at times unpleasant tone, and suffered pitch problems.