BRATTLEBORO — It wasn’t so much the Mendelssohn or the Schubert, but it was Friday’s performance of Vaughn Williams that gave most substance to the ensemble’s name, Espressivo! Violinist Jaime Laredo, violist Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, cellist Sharon Robinson and pianist Anna Polonsky, joined by bassist Harold Robinson, delivered an impassioned, riveting performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ 1903 luscious and deeply Romantic Piano Quintet in C minor, at a sold-out concert at the Brattleboro Music Center. More than that, these four expert players blended, soloed and “sang” their way through this dense Brahmsian work, releasing its emotional power. Their opening Allegro con fuoco was lush, lyrical and romantic, yet full of tender intimacies.
The Andante ranged from rhapsodic and intimate — with an exquisite extended solo by Polonsky — building to grandeur and back. The final variation-style Fantasai ranged from intimate to rich and passionate, all the time richly lyrical. It was all there, and what a joy! Laredo, one of this country’s foremost violinists, and Robinson, his wife and a virtuoso cellist, founded Espressivo! after their Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio ended after 45 years with the sudden death of pianist Joseph Kalichstein in 2022.
Laredo and Robinson introduced a younger element with the addition of Pajaro-van de Stadt and Polonsky, two expert players. Two words come to mind when hearing Espressivo!: masterful and joyful, and those feelings .