The Seattle Chamber Music Society has not only emerged from the pandemic slump stronger than ever but seems to have hit on a golden formula. The opening concert of its month-long 2025 Summer Festival attracted a devoted audience to fill downtown’s 536-seat Nordstrom Recital Hall to near capacity – even before the concert officially began. Hardly a seat was empty for the free prelude performance offered an hour before the main event. That concertgoers would forgo a picture-perfect July afternoon in Seattle’s most glorious season speaks volumes about the loyalty and allure this series has cultivated.
The prelude set a strikingly serious tone with Felix Mendelssohn’s volatile String Quartet no. 6 in F minor, composed while mourning the sudden passing of his beloved sister Fanny – just two months before his own tragically early demise. Played by the Ehnes Quartet – including colleagues Amy Schwartz Moretti (violin), Che-Yen Chen (viola) and Edward Arron (cello) – the work’s outer movements smoldered with intensity, its Requiem-like Adagio steeped in barely contained grief. Choosing such a piece as the opening “appetizer” was a bold curatorial move. Even as the weeks ahead promise plenty of charm and variety, Ehnes, in his role as SCMS artistic director, signaled that musical substance remains front and center.
The official program continued in a serious mood, initially at least. Haydn’s Piano Trio in E minor (Hob. XV:12), one of his more introspective efforts, gives the piano pride of place but benefited from luxury casting: Seattle Symphony’s concertmaster Noah Geller and principal cellist Efe Baltacıgil provided graceful, finely calibrated support. Pianist Jeewon Park played with lyrical freedom, leaning toward Romantic phrasing and rubato while leading the finale’s quicksilver interplay with poised intelligence and delight.
Enescu’s Violin Sonata no. 3 in A minor received an especially transfixing account as violinist Yura Lee seemed to summon elemental forces with her dusky low register and folk-inflected phrasing, while Inon Barnatan coaxed an almost ritualistic sonority from the keyboard, at times rhapsodic, at others percussive. Yet for all its improvisatory fire, their interpretation maintained a slight veil of detachment in lieu of full-on frenzy – a touch of refinement reminiscent of, say, Ravel and adding an unexpected layer of cool elegance to Enescu’s folkloric abandon.
The duo’s onstage chemistry conjured flickers of light and shadow – and a sense of rapturous joy in the act of music-making that proved to be a shared thread running through the afternoon. That spirit reached its culmination in the closing work as the Ehnes Quartet, joined by violist Beth Guterman Chu, returned with another perspective on Mendelssohn. From the bristling, exuberant energy of the opening movement of the String Quintet in B flat major to the ingenious intricacies of the finale, the ensemble played with a transparency of texture that allowed Mendelssohn’s contrapuntal brilliance to shine. At the same time, they relished the orchestral sweep of this score, with its dramatic unisons and surging waves.
Chamber music may be intimate by design, but this finale felt gloriously expansive, a fitting launch for a festival that promises both depth and delight.
