Easton Chamber Music Festival’s opening concert at Covenant Congregational Church on Friday night began with Oscar Navarro’s (b. 1981-) Juego de Ladrones (Game of Thieves), a suite for woodwinds inspired by Cervante’s 1612 novel, “Rinconete y Cortadillo in the hands of Vanessa Holroyd, flute; Catherine Weinfield-Zell, oboe; Amy Advocat, clarinet; Rachael Elliot, bassoon; and Neil Godwin, French horn. Navarro’s forward states that he wishes to capture musically the saga of Pedro del Rincón and Diego Cortado, two young, roguish drifters who join a thieves’ guild in Seville. The first two movements, The Dark Tavern and Rinconette and Cortadillo, capture the two on the prowl. The contrasting timbral qualities of flute, oboe and clarinet came across beautifully as the theme passed among them. The texture was further enhanced by the harmonic underpinnings, played staccato, by bassoon and horn. The performers’ rhythmic precision and tight ensemble communicated the impish quality. “Seville” opens in a serious mood, with four of the five instruments outlining a C major chord, while the flute shifts up a half step. The penetrating sound of Weinfield-Zell’s oboe contrasted with the bright, lovely notes of Holroyd’s flute. Evocations of the many moods of the city terminate triumphantly with all instruments playing the scalar theme fff together. In “Games of Thieves” we return to the roguish mood. “Monipodeio” is a study in textural contrasts. Finale, opens as Advocat’s clarinet exuberantly expressed the melody with fluidity and precision. The exuberance continues as the theme and fragments of it are thrown in a carefree manner among the instruments. The piece ends triumphantly on a fffff D-flat major chord.

Sandra Piques Eddy, mezzo-soprano; Alexey Shabalin and Becca Kasdan, violins; Don Krishnaswami, viola; Emmanuel Feldman, cello then gave us Samuel Barber’s (1910-1981) Dover Beach, Op. 3 for Voice and String Quartet. Written on the eve of World War II, it sets the poem , Dover Beach, by Matthew Arnold (1822-1888). Both text and music are awash in melancholy lyricism. In an outstanding moment of passion, the performers effectively conveyed “Ah love, let us be true to one another” with Piques Eddy reaching a poignant and agitated ff while the strings followed with a strong sforzando before falling back to a rocking gloom. The piece ends pp on an open fifth.

Jacques Ibert’s Deux Interludes followed, with Vanessa Holroyd, flute; Joy Cline Phinney, piano; and Emmanuel Feldman playing the violin part, as written, on the cello. In this piece and all others Feldman used the TekStand. His own invention, it allows the cellist to play standing. The first movement of the Ibert is a minuet— slow, stately and poised. Phinney’s fluid arpeggios underpinned the flute and cello, as the two instrumentalists effortlessly wove their solemn melodies around one another. The second interlude, its energy imparted by the performers’ expressive phrasing, has a strong Spanish flavor.

The Adagio opening of Amy Beach’s Piano Quintet, with its held notes in the strings and expansive arpeggios in the piano, grabs our attention from the outset. Becca Kasdan and Alexey Shabalin, violins; Don Krishnaswami, viola; Emmanuel Feldman, cello; and Victor Cayres, piano; were in full command of the drama, executing mood and dynamic shifts with ease. At the Allegro moderate section of movement 1, the violin enters with a sweet solo above arpeggios in the piano. Violinist Becca Kasdans’s entrance was lyrical but not forceful enough. However, a dialogue amongst strings grows from the beginning statement and all strings met these moments with confidence and clarity. The piano at times accompanies, and at other times participates directly. Cayres diplayed firepower and versatility from the opening measure. A delightful exchange of short motivic material occurs between cello and piano, then viola and piano at m. 45. Feldman, Krishnaswami and Cayres brought this off perfectly. The movement is as much about drama and energy as it is about lyricism and sweetness. Mood changes were effortless, yet convincing. Beach, possibly showing her own expertise on the insrtument, is forever challenging the pianist with melodic material embedded among accompaniments and other decorative material. Cayres’s fingers proved absolutely equal to the multitasking. The movement’s ending recalls the dark, brooding chords of the opening.

The Adagio espressivo opens with a passionate, deeply romantic melody. We hear in this movement the same kind of melodic interchange we heard in the first, although here Beach extends and more fully develops individual episodes, causing sweetness and lyricism to prevail over drama and raw energy. One illustrative example occurs at m. 96. The cello plays takes up the opening theme to a novel triplet accompaniment in the other strings, with the piano playing arpeggios. At this moment, the ensemble was effective, the cello soaring, with the other strings and piano in accompaniment mode, while nonetheless paying heed to their own articulations and dynamic requirements. The cello theme is passed to the second violin, played equally lovingly by Shabalin, which is then joined by the other strings to create a rich, symphonic sound, Ultimately the first violin surges above the ensemble to conclude the movement.

The Allegro agitato gets off to a flying start with virtuosic scales in all instruments. A lyrical theme in the first violin makes its appearance at m. 13, but is ultimately turned into a statement of energy and power when taken up by all strings at m. 32. Again, the musicians brought off these transformations convincingly, with the lush and authoritative string performances countered by the heftiness of the piano part. The quintet ends as the players recall familiar themes with a tranquil and tender touch.

The audience thoroughly enjoyed the concert, the first in ECMF’s tenth season. The remaining two concerts promised to be equally delightful. We look forward to another ten years of the eclectic and diverse musical choices that characterize the Easton Chamber Music Festival.

Retired medical biology researcher Dinah Bodkin is a serious amateur pianist and mother of Groupmuse founder Sam Bodkin.