Music Reviews : Violist Cynthia Phelps in Pro Musicis Recital

It is always satisfying to attend a well-planned program delivered with technical accuracy, emotional feeling and precision of ensemble. Listeners heard all of these qualities at the County Museum of Art Wednesday evening as violist Cynthia Phelps and pianist Kirsten Taylor presented the latest recital in the Pro Musicis series.

Hindemith’s unaccompanied Sonata, Opus 25, No. 1, testified convincingly to Phelps’ fine control and wide range of expression. The Los Angeles-born musician, currently the Minnesota Orchestra’s principal violist, produced a full, penetrating sound in all registers of her instrument; she contrasted that with spellbinding pianissimos. Exhibiting unshakable accuracy, the former student of Primrose and McInnes made the 1923 work a powerful, dramatic statement.

Taylor joined Phelps in the other works on the program. The two provided a model of teamwork in a well-balanced, rhythmically secure and consummately polished reading of Brahms’ Sonata in E-flat, Opus 120, No. 2. Both proved alert to subtle nuances and implied rubatos; both brought arching lyricism and probing expressivity to their playing.

The premiere performance of Stephen Paulus’ “Seven for the Flowers Near the River” preceded the Brahms. Conservative without being reactionary, episodic but logically constructed, the evocative work exhibits captivating rhythms and interesting counterpoint. The Atlanta Symphony’s composer-in-residence, Paulus shows a sure understanding of the viola’s expressive capacity during the many moments of rhapsodic lyricism, on which Phelps artfully capitalized. The work is less successful in the fast passages, which seem to spin around aimlessly, but these moments do not last very long.

The pair opened the program with a crisp, clean, and for the most part historically accurate (the piano notwithstanding) account of Bach’s Sonata in G, BWV 1027. Only a slight degree of rhythmic disunity occasionally detracted. Beethoven’s relatively insubstantial Variations in E-flat (WoO 46), in a refined, elegant reading, followed.