Oeuvre: Concerto a Tre

Chamber Music International kicked off its 27th concert season on Saturday evening at Southern Methodist University. The centerpiece of the program was John Williams’ Quartet La Jolla, and the other works all used various combinations of these instruments.

Ingolf Dahl’s Concerto à tre is a three-movement piece (but played without breaks) for clarinet, cello and violin. Although it was a very fluid piece, there were many different elements within the music. The violin often played a classical-sounding melody, whereas the rhythm, drive and repetition of the piece at times reminded me of the American minimalists.