Disappointing Sierra Ensemble at O1C

Matthew Vincent, Marc Steiner, and Janis Lieberman taking their bow before the intermission (screen shot from the concert being discussed)

Yesterday afternoon Old First Concerts (O1C) presented the second of the two concerts it scheduled for this month. The performers were the members of the Sierra Ensemble: violinist Matthew Vincent, Janis Liberman on horn, and pianist Marc Steiner. This group began performing in 1998, meaning that their quarter-century anniversary is not too far in the future. Under such circumstances, one would have expected more technical skill and rhetorical polish than came to the surface during yesterday’s program.

The horn trio repertoire is relatively limited, and Johannes Brahms’ Opus 40 trio in E-flat major is pretty much the only representative of the genre to receive consistent attention. The first half of the program was devoted to two seldom-encountered European composers, Charles Koechlin (France) and Lennox Berkeley (England). The Koechlin offering, a set of four short (almost microscopic) pieces, reflected his interest in the hunting horn. The Berkeley trio was more conventional but not particularly stimulating. The second half of the program featured the world premiere of a two-movement trio, composed on commission by Richard Aldag. It was preceded by Brahms’ Opus 108 (third) violin sonata in D minor.

Sadly, the performances of all of these compositions left much to be desired. Liberman’s horn work was shaky, uneven, and sometimes just plain off the mark. Vincent’s account of the Brahms sonata was virtually featureless, while much of Steiner’s piano work seemed as if it was trying to compensate with overwrought rhetoric. This was more than disappointing following the intermission, because every new composition deserves a fair shake on its first outing. Sierra left the impression that they were still getting to know all the marks on paper, meaning that they failed almost entirely on the rhetorical obligation to seize and sustain listener attention.

In the context of that forthcoming anniversary, one might be justified in asking, “25 years of what?”