Winds Rule in SFS Chamber Music Program

Yuhsin Galaxy Su with her clarinet (from her Meet the Musicians Web page)

With the exception of the first offering on the program, this afternoon’s chamber music performance in Davies Symphony Hall was devoted to wind instruments with a bias in favor of the clarinet family. Yuhsin Galaxy Su played clarinet in two quintets, both composed in the first half of the twentieth century. The earlier of these was the second work on the program, Carl Nielsen’s “Serenata in vano,” for which she was joined by bassoonist Joshua Elmore, Jesse Clevenger on horn, cellist Anne Richardson, and Daniel G. Smith on bass. This was followed by another quintet, Sergei Prokofiev’s Opus 39 in G minor, with the other four performers being James Button on oboe, violinist Florin Parvulescu, Katarzyna Bryla on viola, and bassist Bowen Ha. Su also performed in a trio of basset horns, joined by Matthew Griffith and Jerome Simas in a performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K.Anh. 229 divertimento in the key of B-flat major. The program began with a string quartet arrangement of two of the movements from Harry T. Burleigh’s Plantation Melodies Old and New. The quartet members were violinists Kelly Leon-Pearce and John Chisholm, Gina Cooper on viola, and cellist Barbara Bogatin.

As usual, the program was as engaging as it was diverse. The Burleigh arrangement was particularly noticeable in allowing each of the four quartet players to contribute to the theme. In the second of the two movements of An Ante-Bellum Sermon, that theme was “Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho,” bringing a new perspective on a familiar spiritual. Particularly engaging, however, was Su’s capacity to address the eighteenth century with as much spirit as the twentieth. Clearly, she could fit into the ensemble of three basset horns as comfortably as a wind quintet.

That said, I found it particularly satisfying that the program concluded with the basset horn trio. Each of the four works on the program took its own unique approach to instrumental sonorities; but, even though it was the earliest work on the program, the Mozart divertimento came across as a real eyebrow-raiser! It made me appreciate that the SFS musicians knew better than to stick with the usual string quartet and wind quintet combinations. Clearly, this series is as adventurous in exploring sonorities as it is in presenting a diverse perspective of chamber music instrumentation.