Rendering 16

   The article That Corner Spot? It’s Perfect for a Concert was published on the site http://www.nytimes.com  by Steve Smith on May 20, 2013.

   The author begins his article with the Harding’s, a cozy Flatiron district restaurant handsomely appointed in Americana and offering an inventive menu to match, was abuzz on Sunday evening, its dining room filled with the lively sound of customers mingling over glasses of wine. At 20 minutes after 8, a hostess tapped a glass for attention as a pianist, a violinist and a cellist settled into a corner niche to perform.

   He underlines that what followed was the finale from Ives’s Piano Trio, a 1911 work brimming with nostalgia and rustic tunes, including the traditional hymn “Rock of Ages.” The performers — the pianist Benjamin Hochman, the violinist Lily Francis and the cellist Michael Haas — offered a warm, robust account. The audience, which included couples of all ages, as well as families with small children, listened raptly and responded effusively.

   The event was part of an occasional series of concerts called Tertulia, the name a Spanish term signifying a social gathering with an artistic bent. Founded in 2011 by Julia Villagra — the artistic director and host — this series aims to make classical chamber music accessible and appealing to new audiences.

It’e important the Tertulia (as Ms. Villagra refers to each concert) on Sunday was her first at Harding’s, following previous events at various Greenwich Village restaurants and one Upper East Side location. Dinner and sponsor tickets, from $60 to $100, included an appealing prix fixe menu — here, an appetizer, an entree and a dessert — with beverages charged à la carte. (For the record, I paid for my admission and meal.)    Without dinner, admission cost $25.

  It’s interesting fact that each composition on the program is represented by just a movement or two — a choice that could make purists scoff, but intended to keep the evening’s pace manageable and lively. (Between pieces Ms. Villagra encouraged the audience to seek out complete recordings.) The concert program included approachable, insightful notes, as well as succinct tips in basic concert etiquette. Notably, the idea of proper and improper times for applause was dispensed with.

   Dining room service is suspended during Tertulia performances; now and then you saw waiters gently shushing one another. After Ives came dinner, followed by the musical main course: roughly half of Alan Louis Smith’s “Covered Wagon Woman,” a stylistically conservative yet sophisticated 2007 song cycle based on a frontier diary. Daryl Freedman, a mezzo-soprano, performed with profuse charisma and admirable precision, earning a loud, long ovation.

   After dessert came the final musical offering, the last two movements of Dvorak’s String Quintet in E flat. Ms. Villagra’s programming savvy was evident; the Larghetto, a hymnlike theme followed by frolicsome variations, could hardly have been more inviting to a nonspecialist audience, while the playing was enough to reacquaint any connoisseur of Dvorak’s abundant charms.