Photo: Frankly Music
Frank Almond
Frank Almond
The Frankly Music series continued last week in a concert at Schwann Concert Hall at Wisconsin Lutheran College. Frank Almond was joined with pianist Victor Asuncion, violinist Yuka Kadota, violists Toby Appel and Linda Numagami, cellist Nicholas Marinscal, and flutist Sonora Slocum. Live performances still seem rather new again. I am so grateful for that. There is nothing like hearing music in person.
Asuncion was brilliant in two pieces by Claude Debussy, Feux d’Artifice (Fireworks) and L’isle Joyeuse (Island of Joy). I haven’t heard a pianist recently who was this impressive, both in technique and musicality. He was joined by Almond in three lovely pieces by Gabriel Fauré, a style that suited both players, with a singing, songlike violin part.
Slocum is one of the best recent additions to the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. She played the Sonata for Flute and Piano with such graceful beauty. It was the first time I had heard Marinscal in chamber music, with Lukas Foss’s playful Capriccio, played with delicious wit.
Wolfgang Mozart was heard in his String Quintet in C Major, K. 515. What a good ensemble this was, all the musicians sensitively balancing their parts. I loved this performance. What city has a chamber series better than this one?
