by Stephanie Manning
Both parking and seating were at a premium for ChamberFest Cleveland’s June 27 concert, which concluded this year’s festival right where it began less than three weeks earlier. Kulas Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music hosted the culmination of the fourteenth season with its optimistic program, titled “Convergence.”
ChamberFest finales often feature a seminal small ensemble work — last year it was the Brahms’ Piano Quintet in F minor, this year it was Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet. Ultimately, the final concert of 2026 leaned more traditional, a choice that felt a bit anticlimactic after a season that otherwise concentrated a good deal of energy on contemporary works.
Still, the Saturday evening performance did include one piece by a living composer: Olli Mustonen’s Nonet II. As Donald Rosenberg’s program notes reminded us, the three pieces on tap were all generally sunny and upbeat, and the players came dressed in colors to match: yellow, pink, purple, and cream, to name a few.
In the Mustonen, not even the third movement Adagio could cross over into melancholy. The surrounding three movements showed off more of the piece’s energetic character, with punchy rhythms that found a groove while being irregular enough to keep the listener on their toes. The composer knows how to use a string ensemble, combining pairs of instruments for unisons one moment and spreading back out into nine complex parts the next.
A highlight was the breathless finale, marked Vivacissimo, where the relentless flurry of violins (Steven Copes, Michelle Barzel Ross, Diana Cohen, and Geneva Lewis) threaded through pizzicato interjections from violists (Emad Zolfaghari & Teng Li), cellists (Jay Campbell & Oliver Herbert), and bass (Nathan Farrington).
Ernő Dohnányi’s String Trio, Op. 10 then divided the group by three, leaving Cohen, Zolfaghari, and Herbert to tackle the Hungarian composer’s work. Although a 20th century piece that premiered in 1904, its style leans more traditionally Romantic, borrowing inspiration from Hungarian folk songs across all of its five movements.
Much of the fun here comes from the various interlocking parts, but there are also solo turns along the way. Zolfaghari’s big viola moment arrived in the second movement, allowing the opportunity to appreciate his phrasing, and the fourth movement turned the spotlight toward Herbert and the singing quality of his cello playing. Like the Mustonen, the finale was full of perpetual motion, although here the effect sometimes felt labored.
Franz Schubert’s Piano Quintet in A Major, “Trout,” kept spirits high, even if its inclusion felt more for familiarity than programmatic reasons. The “Convergence” theme between the evening’s three pieces never really materialized.
Kulas Hall’s acoustic favorably emphasized the piano sound of Mishka Rushdie Momen, who was joined by a string quartet of Lewis, Li, Herbert, and Farrington. The pianist kept things crystalline and coordinated with the larger group, with dynamics that always felt intentional. Momen and Lewis joined forces in the first and fourth movement for some pleasingly bouncy melodies, and the second movement featured a lovely viola and cello duet from Li and Herbert.
Capping off a quintessential summer evening — and another successful ChamberFest season — the audience then made a beeline for our complimentary cups of Mitchell’s ice cream on the way out.
Published on ClevelandClassical.com July 8, 2026
Click here for a printable copy of this article
