For the person or persons on your list who is hard to please, who may "have everything," what about a gift subscription to the National Philharmonic at Strathmore?
Some music lovers in Northern Virginia are hesitant about going out to Strathmore, but there is no difficulty, I can assure you, as a frequent customer who finds the Old Georgetown Road exit off the Beltway with a right turn on Grosvenor Lane the easier route, but there is also the Rockville Pike/Tuckerman Lane exit, too.
Strathmore has plentiful free parking at the Metro station garage across the street with an elevated, covered walkway to connect to the music center.
One of the joys of the Philharmonic is its chamber music series where I was able to hear another tribute to Leonard Bernstein's 100th birthday celebration when chamber players performed "What is a Melody?" at the John Kendall Recital Hall at Potter Violins in Takoma Park.
The program opened with a short video devoted to Mr. Bernstein who defined melody as repeating ideas in a simply arranged method, such as birds flying together or the sound of humming bees (if live bees are a possibility).
Two masterpieces by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), String Quartet in B Flat Major OP. 18 and Grosse Fuge for String Quartet OP. 133 began and ended the program, exquisitely performed by Hanbing Jia and Sara Matayoshi on violins, Lori Barnet on cello, and Colin Sorgi played the viola and directed.
The first movement in B Flat Major started cheerily with an energetic answer to the cello and violins, while the viola seemed content to linger in the background. The violins played in tandem with an emphatic end to the movement.
A strong cello led the second movement with more repetition and energy to introduce the third movement whose mazurka similarities and a demanding violin solo all ending happily enough with the fourth.
Next came Blueprint by Caroline Shaw (b. 1982), a Pulitzer Prize winner whose creation linked to Beethoven's String Quartet.
Exclaimed Director Sorgi: "It really is fun and we hope you enjoy it," and the audience did. It is delightful to hear new compositions, the variations in the outcome, and a millennial's perspective.
In program notes, Ms. Shaw wrote the basis for the work originated as "a harmonic reduction" of Beethoven's String Quartet Op. 18 which she has played many times with friends. "Chamber music is ultimately about conversation without words," she noted.
As in dialogue with friends, there are pauses here, too, but it is a contemporary work which is unobnoxiously modern for this traditionalist (and definitely beyond "millennialism").
Because I am a huge fan of Russian history and culture, the inclusion of String Quartet no. 3 by the Russian Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998) was of keen interest and presented no disappointment despite its stylish sway.
A modern piece by a modern composer with a tense spirit, unpleasant and uncompromising, with hints of Alfred Hitchcock here and there. A sadness and gloom seemed to permeate the structure in which the composer included attention to Orlande de Lassus, Beethoven's Grosse Fugue, and Dmitri Shostakovich.
Mr. Schnittke composed symphonies, operas, ballets, concertos, and scores for more than 60 films (any of Hitch's?). He is buried in the renowned Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.
The last selection, Beethoven's Grosse Fugue, was labeled "surely one of the composer's most inspiring achievements" in program notes by Mark Steinberg from Yale's School of Music and a member of the Brentano String Quartet. Certainly, another one which the chamber players performed with precision and flair.
Upcoming dates for the Chamber Players at Potter Violins are:
Feb. 3, 2019: The Road to Paris
Apr. 28, 2019: Musical Atoms
The entire orchestra will perform Holiday Pops, December 7, at 7:30 p.m. at Strathmore.
patricialesli@gmail.com
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