Disappointing Finale at Atterbury House

Impresario Lara St. John, who organized the eleven live-streamed chamber music concerts that have been taking place since late January at Atterbury House on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, assigned the final slot to violinist Lara St. John. The results were, to say the least, disappointing, particularly when experienced in the wake of the previously performance, a solo violin recital by Augustin Hadelich performed this past May 15. At the very beginning St. John launched herself into Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 1005 solo violin sonata in C major with an abundance of energy and a paucity of intonation and phrasing. She took on the fugue (which, depending on tempo, probably stands as the longest fugue Bach ever composed, due, in part, to his dying before completing one that would most likely have been longer) as if she were auditioning for World Wrestling Entertainment and never really established dominance.

Two Latin American selections followed, which were somewhat more satisfying. There was no longer a need for wrestling, and the durations were shorter. The first of these was a premiere performance of “Danza de la Mariposa” (dance of the butterfly) by Valerie Coleman. This was followed by the “Luciérnagas” (fireflies) movement from Gabriela Lena Frank’s Suite Mestiza. St. John was then joined by harpist Bridget Kibbey and Eddy Khaimovich on bass for a “tour” of traditional music, whose sources were, in order of appearance, Romanian, Klezmer, Celtic (from Prince Edward Island), Cuban, and Hungarian. Had St. John paid more attention to capturing the music in both “spirit and flesh” and less on being a chatty hostess, the program might have been more tolerable.

To be fair, however, she was performing for an audience that responded enthusiastically to everything she did, so perhaps my impressions constitute a minority opinion.