Making Harmonic Connections: the Orion Ensemble

The Orion Ensemble

Chamber music is known as the “music of friends.” The first publicized season of the Orion ensemble was in 1993-94. Kathryne Pirtle (clarinet), Florentina Ramniceanu (violin), Diana Schmück (piano), Judy Stone (cello) and Jennifer Marlas (viola), That is clearly a lot of friendship.

Listening to a chamber music concert is a refreshing harmonic interlude in an often disconcerting world. Spending a couple of Sunday hours with Chicago’s award-winning Orion Ensemble might delude you into thinking the world is a place of beauty and the passion of dedicated artists (instead of the messy discordant place we know it really is).

On Sunday, March 28 at Evanston’s Nichols Hall, Ageless enjoyed the Orion Ensemble as they performed the third concert program of its 2009–10 season; Robert Kritz’s “Connections,” written expressly for Orion, along with works by Baermann and Tchaikovsky.

This year’s season-long theme of the Orion Ensemble is “Musical Connections.” Connections for Clarinet, Violin, Viola, Cello and Piano written by Kritz in 2001 is the season’s inspiration. Mr. Kritz was in attendance at the Sunday concert, where he spoke briefly about his desire to understand the cosmic connections of the universe, an ambition he was only able to address through his music.

The three movements of Kritz’s piece are connected by a recurring motif, very much in the style of the late 19th century. Within this traditional structure, Kritz infuses a jazz-influenced sound and challenges the Orion Ensemble to be at the top of their game. Kritz’s reaction to Orion Sunday clearly expressed his appreciation of their spot-on performance of Connections.

Heinrich Who?
Alright, we admit it. We’d never heard of Heinrich Baermann before Sunday’s concert. It turns out Baerman was the Benny Goodman of his time. He played a mean clarinet. His composition Quartet in B-Flat Major for Clarinet, Violin, Viola and Cello, Op. 18 suited Kathryne Pirtle’s clarinets warm, expressive tone.

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky wrote the Trio in A Minor, Op. 50, for Violin, Cello and Piano as a memorial to his mentor and friend Nikolai Rubinstein, premiering it on the first anniversary of Rubinstein’s death in 1882. The sweetness and depth of Tchaikovsky, the best known Russian Romantic composer, echoed throughout the concert hall.

You have a chance to experience this program when the Orion Ensemble performs Wednesday, March 31, in Roosevelt University’s Ganz Hall in Chicago.

Brahms on Mother’s Day
Orion’s 2009–10 season concludes with an all-Brahms program, featuring special guest CSO violinist Baird Dodge, in May and June. Take mom out to the Sunday afternoon program at Nichols Hall on Mother’s Day, May 9 at 3pm. How perfect is that?
In addition to its annual four-concert series in three communities, the  Orion Ensemble also tours, performing in chamber music concerts and series across the country. Its most recent CD is Twilight of the Romantics.