Anchorage Daily News

Amid the roar of a world grown particularly strident, sour, obstreperous and chaotic of late, one briefly felt a sweet breath of civilization Friday night at the first concert in the Alaska Airlines Autumn Classics chamber music series.

Grant Hall was full, so I wasn't the only one eager for this concert season to get going.

It began quietly, pensively, with violinist Paul Rosenthal, cellist Jeffrey Solow and pianist Charles Abramo-vic performing Haydn's two-movement Piano Trio in E-flat Major. The slow first movement, a set of extended variations, is where the meat lies in this piece. The threesome did not consistently find the perfect balance of sensitivity, power and precision, but when they did it was worth the wait.

Chopin's G Minor Cello Sonata followed. It's an oddly un-Chopinlike piece, one of the handful of works by that composer in which the piano does not dominate and where he employs obviously formal devices -- brief canons, for example -- rather than letting the music run wild like a stallion on the sand. Solow nicely wrung the long melodic lines from his instrument and handled the double-stops firmly.

Not until after intermission, in the Piano Quartet in E-flat Major by Dvorak, could Abramovic be heard decisively. He was joined by violinist Agnes Gottschewski and violist David Harding along with Solow in a satisfying, lively, even beefy reading of this rewarding work. The strings hit their unison opening notes with energy and accuracy and returned to that level several times in the first movement.

The violin and viola pizzicatos, in counterpoint to the cello solo in the slow movement, came off ineffectually, though the ensemble work was otherwise good. The third movement, with its mixture of waltz and hurdy-gurdy elements, and the snappy finale found them even more in sync.

But though the playing was, as expected, of a high order, it was the event itself and the music that seemed to leave the crowd refreshed -- two hours of intense wordless conversation unburdened by cant, accusation, Internet rumors or any agenda save deep delight in being human.

Find Mike Dunham online at adn.com/contact/mdunham or call 257-4332.

ALASKA AIRLINES AUTUMN CLASSICS CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES continues with performances at 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday at Alaska Pacific University's Grant Hall. Tickets are $21-$24. Call 277-4852 or visit sitkamusicfestival.org. adn.com/artsnob

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