How many cellos does it take for a chamber music concert?
Normally, just one, or maybe two, teamed with other strings and wind instruments.
But the NouLou Chamber Players will feature a full house of eight cellos in a concert April 14 in the Library music room at Oxmoor Farm.
“And who doesn’t love a roomful of cellos?” says cellist Cecilia Huerta-Lauf, who is one of the eight cellists performing in two cello quartets and an octet on the program. “We’re always a fun bunch. You can’t go wrong with a room full of cellists.”
If eight cellos sounds … er, unusual – it is. Though, in fact, the chamber music repertoire is well stocked with pieces for multiple cellos, including a new quartet by Kentucky composer Rachel Grimes called For the Next Time, which premiers in this concert.
But unusual is normal fare for the NouLou Chamber Players, an informal organization of top Louisville professional musicians, many from the Louisville Orchestra, who just happen to love chamber music. They get their chance to play the smaller-sized works by king-sized composers like Mozart and Beethoven, and others, in a chamber-music sized hall — in which every note may be heard. In its ninth season, the NouLou has settled into a home at Oxmoor Farm, where the famous Library offers a wonderful acoustical experience (plus hors d’oeuvres before the concert). The sound gains resonance from the parquet wood floor and high sculptured ceiling — with 10,000 books to take any hard edge off the notes. It is an elegant setting, and people like being close up with the music and musicians.
Most classical fans are familiar with string quartets, and the NouLou recently presented a Fanny Mendelssohn Quartet that had been lost, simply unknown, for 195 years — until discovered in East Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Just this season, the group has offered a harp and flute duet, singers performing the final Brahms waltzes, and a new work for multiple players by Louisville composer Daniel Gilliam called Suite for Ten Instruments. Gilliam said it could have been called a “decet,” but nobody was quite sure how decet was even pronounced.
Hueta-Lauf notes that the cello is particularly suited for the concert’s quartets and octet because of the depth of its large instrument sound, and the range through octaves. Plus, she says modestly, audiences just love seeing cellists perform. “When you’re watching cello players in the orchestra you can see how passionate they are – and we can feel that passion in all cello choir.”
The eight cellists include, Nicholas Finch, Cecilia Huerta-Lauf, Han Lee, Alan Ohkubo, Allison Olsen, Wendy Doyle, Gabriel Ramos, Jonathan Ruckman and Lindy Tsai.
A highlight of the April program could be the eight-cello Bachianas Brazilians No. 1, by Hector Villa-Lobos. Brazil’s most famous composer brings the vibrant colors of Brazil and its intoxicating rhythms to the music.
“It’s the piece every cellist knows and loves to perform,” says Huerta-Lauf. “You’ll hear those Brazilian rhythms and be dancing in your seat.”
Speaking of cellos, the NouLou Chamber Players will soon release its first album, featuring cellist Nicholas Finch performing three cello concertos commissioned by Finch and the NouLou. It’s called Nou Edition.
On May 9, the NouLou returns to its original home in the Conrad-Caldwell House on St. James Court for a concert of songs by Kentucky composers in the Music at the Mansion Series.
The group also appears in special performances throughout the year with the Filson Historical Society.
Tickets and info: https://noulou.org/tickets
Article written by Bill Doolittle
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