Back to the Movies with Prutsman and Telegraph

Last night pianist Stephen Prutsman returned to Old First Presbyterian Church to present another program of “live” musical accompaniment which he composed for the screening of a silent Buster Keaton film. As was the case for last year’s A Night at the Cinema program for the San Francisco International Piano Festival (SFIPF), Prutsman was joined by the members of the Telegraph Quartet, violinists Eric Chin and Joseph Maile, violist Pei-Ling Lin, and cellist Jeremiah Shaw, for the penultimate program in this year’s SFIPF. Last year’s Keaton film was College, which, sadly, was one of Keaton’s weaker undertakings. This year Prutsman prepared a score for Sherlock Jr., which had a more engaging narrative, not to mention a plethora of eye-popping episodes.

Mind you, this “incidental music” for a film was incidental unto an extreme. One might almost describe the music as embellished sound effects. Nevertheless, the embellishments never sold the music short, providing Prutsman and Telegraph with a finely-crafted score that deserved all the expressive interpretation that the performers could muster. Still, the eyes were so overwhelmed by the subtle eccentricities of Keaton’s creation and execution that it was nigh unto impossible to give the music much attention. To put a twist on an old joke, if you can teach a pig to sing, the pig will probably be more interesting than the song itself!

Joseph Maile, Pei-Ling Lin, Stephen Prutsman, Jeremiah Shaw, and Eric Chin playing Schumann’s piano quintet at Old First Presbyterian Church (screen shot from the YouTube video of this performance)

Fortunately, music was the focus of attention for the first half of the program. This was devoted entirely to Robert Schumann’s Opus 44 piano quintet in E-flat major. Those familiar with Telegraph know that the two violinists alternate in occupying first chair; and, for this performance, Maile served as leader. As an ensemble, the quartet’s chemistry with Prutsman could not have been better.

Schumann was, of course, himself a pianist; so Prutsman had more than enough to keep him occupied. However, what has always appealed to me in this quintet is the rich diversity of thematic content and the culmination of that content in the concluding Finale movement. It is how that diversity is shared across all five performers that established Opus 44 as a high point in the chamber music repertoire, and it is always a joy when the status of the music itself is equalled by the capabilities of the performers.