Sevenars Music Festival, Worthington, MA
August 5, 2018
by Michael J. Moran
For the second week in a row, the family member featured in
concert at Sevenars was Lynelle James, last week as a member of the Piazzolla
Trio, this week as piano soloist. This family-based music festival, founded by
Robert and Rolande Schrade and named after the first letter of their names and
those of their five children, celebrates its 50th anniversary season this
summer.
Lynelle is the daughter of pianists David James and the late
Robelyn Schrade-James and a granddaughter of the founders. The repertoire on
her program was typically adventurous for this venue, all demanding the utmost
technical facility and interpretive depth, requirements that she met with room
to spare.
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Lynelle James |
She opened with a sparkling account of Mozart’s Sonata, K.
332, which dates from his early maturity around 1783, and which James noted in
spoken comments reflects the drama of his operas and was a favorite of her
mother. The “Allegro” first movement exuded classical poise, while the central
“Adagio” conveyed a luminous stillness, and the closing “Allegro Assai” was a
joyful romp. Concluding the concert’s first half, by contrast, was Liszt’s
colorful Mephisto Waltz No. 1, which James rendered with unfailingly virtuosic
flair.
The program’s second half began with several fascinating
short pieces by the concert’s least-known composer, Nikolai Roslavets, a
twentieth-century Russian modernist whose music can sound, as pianist
Marc-Andre Hamelin, quoted by James, put it, “like Scriabin on acid” (both
pianists have recorded Roslavets). Her playing of four miniatures, recently
recovered from long obscurity, reveled in the composer’s quirky originality.
James closed her program with a bracing performance of
Chopin’s masterful and challenging third piano sonata. She effortlessly
captured the full range of its powerful emotions, from a warm opening “Allegro
Maestoso,” to a mercurial “Scherzo,” a radiant “Largo,” and a thundering
“Presto Ma Non Tanto” finale.
Nurtured in the bosom of a loving musical family, whose
tradition of excellence is entertainingly chronicled on the walls of the
Sevenars concert hall, this distinguished third-generation musician seems
clearly destined for a major career.