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Sound Minds
By MARK G. SIMON

CAYUGA CHAMBER ORCHESTRA, FORD HALL, WHALEN CENTER, MAY 5.

THE Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, Ithaca's "junior"-sized orchestra, went shopping in the "women's" department last Saturday and still came out with a good fit. Under the direction of Kimbo Ishii-Eto they finished off the 2001 season in a big way, with 19th century repertory by Chopin and Beethoven usually reserved for the full orchestral ensembles. They were joined by solo talent in pianist Jeffrey Biegel.

THINKING BIG: CCO CONDUCTOR
KIMBO ISHII-ETO TOPPED OFF THE
SEASON WITH TEMPO-DEFYING
PERFORMANCES OF PIECES BY BEETHOVEN.

Chopin's Piano Concerto no. 2 in F minor makes minimal demands on the orchestra, the better to emphasize the brilliance of the pianist. Jeffrey Biegel had brilliance to spare, and a very elegant playing style, which subsumes the fireworks into the overall structure of the work. Central to this concerto is the Larghetto movement, in which the teenage composer's musical personality is revealed already fully mature. Biegel displayed a fine understaanding of Chopin's florid writing, played a fine understanding of Chopin's florid writing, with an ability to distinguish the fundamental from the decorative notes. Many of Chopin's most imaginative flights of fancy were shown here to be ingenious ornamentation on standard chord progressions from the Italian opera of his day. Although he was said to have complained of the heavy action on the Ford Hall piano, there was nothing heavysounding in the graceful way Biegel executed Chopen's many arabesques. After dancing through the glittering display of the concerto's coda, Biegel came back with a virtually weightless account of his giddy encore, Rush Hour in Hong Kong by Abram Chasins.

One of the major sources of debate in the performance of Beethoven's music is in regard to tempo. Beethoven was the first of the great composers to leave metronome markings for his scores. He counted the inventor of the metronome among his personal friends and expressed great enthusiasm for the device as a way of communicating the composer's true intent to performers. Unfortunately, the metronome markings he left us are so much faster than what the performance tradition dictates for his compositions, that it is widely assumed that Beethoven's metronome must have either been miscalibrated or broken.

And yet there are undaunted conductors who still attempt them. One sits in eager anticipation of the two evenly spaced, tempodefining hammerblows which open Beethoven's Symphony no. 3, the Eroica. What will it be, fast or traditional? Conductor Kimbo Ishii-Eto dashed all expectations by stretching the spaces between the two opening chords to at least double their written length. After this all bets were off and one listened without preconceptions waiting only to see what happens next. In the event, the music did settle into a pretty much traditional tempo, but with a forward momentum which survived the rarely heard first ending and exposition repeat and exceptionally lengthy development section. Ishii-Eto favored a cumulative approach, which gradually increased the emphasis placed on Beethoven's jaggedly misplaced accents, from hardly any to quite a lot. As the momentum increased, so did the tempo, so that the first movement ended probably very close to Beethoven's marking.

Kimbo set the funeral march which forms the second movement, at Beethoven's faster tempo, but it only took two bars for the strings to rebel and settle into the more lugubrious pace one usually hears in this music. By stretching out their grace notes to arrive behind the beat, the basses intensified the suggestion of a mourner's heavy tread. Not until some of the stormy episodes, which occur later on, did the conductor get the faster tempo he wanted. In the meantime there was a lovely oboe solo in the major key section, and nice "sobbing" effect with the return of the main theme towards the end. One might have wished for greater low string power in the sudden outburst of turbulence initiated by a cello A flat. This was the only moment when I really missed having a full string section.

The scherzo was a rush of energy with a wonderfully strong and secure horn section in the middle. The finale had intermittent ensemble problems, for instance with the strings in the first variation, and the winds in the Andante section. But they stuck to Beethoven's tempos and really made them work; especially the Andante, which usually overstays its welcome in other performances.

The Cayuga Chamber Orchestra tried for, and achieved big things in their final concert of the season. Next season they will make even bigger inroads into the full orchestra repertory, with Brahms' Fourth. Can Bruckner and Mahler be far behind?