Dohnányi quintet a tasty goulash at Mimir Chamber Music Festival

By SCOTT CANTRELL / The Dallas Morning News
scantrell@dallasnews.com

FORT WORTH – Whip up a sauce of rich Brahmsian harmonies, toss in a heady dash of paprika, turn up the youthful passion and what do you get? Why, the C minor Piano Quintet of Ernst von Dohnányi, which made for quite a stirring close to Tuesday evening's Mimir Chamber Music Festival concert.

Dohnányi, a Hungarian pianist and composer (and grandfather of conductor Christoph von Dohnányi), was all of 18 when he penned the Piano Quintet, in 1895. Budapest and Vienna were still part of the same crumbling empire, and Brahms was a widely revered éminence grise.

Dohnányi's melodies are shorter-breathed than Brahms', and the finale improbably drops a fugue into some, well, immature music. But never mind: The piece is a great romp, and it's hard to imagine it more lovingly – and more excitingly – played than by pianist Alessio Bax, violinists Curt Thompson and Erin Keefe, violist Che-Yen Chen and cellist Brant Taylor.

Though assembled from hither and yon, these musicians sounded as if they'd been playing together for years. They were all superb, but Mr. Bax made an especially powerful and expressive case for the big piano part.

If a single player has stood out in this year's Mimir concerts, at Texas Christian University's PepsiCo Recital Hall, it's been Mr. Taylor. While there have been alternate violinists, violists and pianists, Mr. Taylor has been the cellist. Even with all this music to play, he has been spinning out one elegantly nuanced phrase after another.

If his three colleagues in the Verdi E minor String Quartet had been as lovingly attentive to shape and direction of phrases, this piece might have seemed less deserving of its obscurity. The first movement's lyric second theme, succulently harmonized, is an oasis of quite special beauty. The rest of the piece, while pleasant enough, passes in one ear and out the other. Ms. Keefe, Mr. Thompson and Mr. Chen played capably, but without Mr. Taylor's magic.

Opening the concert, Ms. Keefe and Mr. Bax offered a group of tangy Bartók arrangements of Romanian folk dances. The final "Mãruntel" whipped up quite a stomp and swirl.

PLAN YOUR LIFE The final Mimir Chamber Music Festival concert is at 7:30 p.m. Friday at PepsiCo Recital Hall, Texas Christian University, University and Cantey, Fort Worth. $25; discounts for students, seniors. 817-257-5443, www.mimirfestival.org.