NOVA CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES, Libby Gardner Concert Hall, University of Utah, Nov. 13

Sunday’s NOVA Chamber Music Series concert featured music by just two composers, Andrew Norman and Ludwig van Beethoven.

Norman is a young American who writes music that is bright, colorful, rhythmic and frequently virtuosic. His harmonic language is filled with modernistic idioms; it can be dissonant or it can also be tonally centered in a broad, non traditional sense.

Sync Up, for piano, was the first of the two pieces by Norman that were played. It’s a busy piece that has the pianist all over the keyboard. University of Utah pianist Heather Conner played it and her technical acumen allowed her to pull it off admirably.

The other work, The Companion Guide to Rome, for string trio, received its United States premiere Sunday. The piece is filled with some colorful string sounds and special effects. Its nine movements are intended to depict nine churches in Rome, and the coloristic element to the work is descriptive. It’s not really substantive – the work is based on juxtaposing and blending sounds – but it’s an effective piece, nevertheless.

Utah Symphony colleagues Rebecca Moench, violin; Brant Bayless, viola; and Walter Haman, cello, gave a convincing account of the work and exhibited some remarkable and cohesive ensemble playing.

Starting the concert were University of Utah colleagues Robert Breault, tenor, and Jeffrey Price, piano, in two works by Beethoven – the song Adelaide and the cycle An die ferne Geliebte (To the Immortal Beloved). Breault and Price make a first rate musical team. Price’s playing was assertive but he never overpowered Breault. There was a finely honed balance between the two.

Adelaide is a wonderfully lyrical piece, and Breault captured the character of the music in his nuanced account. His singing was expressive and fluid.

The same was also true for An die ferne Geliebte. The yearning and tenderness expressed in the words and music was brought to the fore in Breault’s treatment. His singing was beautifully phrased and delivered, and both he and Price brought out the nuances of the music in their perceptive and thoughtful collaborative interpretation.

Rounding out the Beethoven half of the concert was the Cello Sonata in A major, op. 69, played by Haman and Conner. Without question Beethoven’s most melodic and captivating work for cello, the two brought out the music’s lyricism with their expressive playing. And as with Breault and Price, the Haman/Conner partnership was also that of equals. Too often pianists unknowingly dominate the proceedings to the detriment of the others in the ensemble. That was never the situation with Conner. She balanced Haman’s rich, warm, dark tones wonderfully. It was an example of what chamber music truly is – a collaboration of like minded individuals