Demarre McGill, Michael McHale, and Anthony McGill taking their bows at the conclusion of their recital (from the YouTube video of that recital)
Following up on last month’s two-piano recital given by Garrick Ohlsson and Kirill Gerstein, this afternoon the Baltimore-based Shriver Hall Concert Series (SHCS) streamed a video of the McGill/McHale Trio. The trio couples the McGill brothers, Anthony, who is Principal Clarinet with the New York Philharmonic, and Demarre, Principal Flute with the Seattle Symphony, with pianist Michael McHale. The video is a recording of a recital that took place in December of 2019 at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan. The program was organized around three trios interleaved with solo opportunities for each of the players and one arrangement for the entire group. The video will be available for subsequent viewing until 8:59 p.m. on Wednesday, December 9, accessible at a price of $15 through an SHCS Web page.
Each of the trios could be characterized as descriptive, with considerable variation in what was being described. All three were being given their (virtual) premieres in Baltimore. The opening selection, “A Fish Will Rise” by Chris Rogerson, was inspired by Norman Maclean’s semi-autobiographical book A River Runs Through It. More specifically it provides musical impressions of Maclean’s description of fly fishing during the long summer days in western Montana. Rogerson’s capacity for evocation was strong enough to connect even with those with little (if any) fishing experience. True to its title, Guillaume Connesson’s “Techno-Parade” was inspired by techno dance music, overloading the score with embellishments that go way beyond the incessant repetitions of its source material.
Finally, Paul Schoenfield’s sonatina could easily have been given the title “Café Music Strikes Back.” Those following my writing for some time probably recall that “Café Music,” first performed in January of 1987, was the composer’s unabashedly loopy account of his days as the house pianist at Murray’s steakhouse in Minneapolis. According to my archives, I once described this music as “more suited to the Mos Eisley Cantina, possibly hosting a guest band of Muppets.” The sonatina was composed in 1994 and may well have been directed at those who could not enough of the raucous humor evoked by “Café Music.” Since I was clearly one of Schoenfield’s targets, I could not have conceived of a better way for the trio to wrap up its program.
The trio arrangement was for music that Antonín Dvořák had originally written for piano four hands and then orchestrated. The trio played the last of the eight Slavonic dances in the Opus 46 collection, a furiant in the key of G minor. The was arrangement by Michael Webster, a clarinetist also performing in a trio with flute and piano. His arrangement worked quite well, and the performers definitely did justice to the spirit of Dvořák’s music.
For their solo performances, both of the wind players selected sonatas by Francis Poulenc. The flute sonata was the more playful, managing to throw in a rapid-fire citation of one of the few themes for flute associated with Johann Sebastian Bach. The clarinet sonata gave a more subtle account of shadings between dark and light. This time the composer being cited was Sergei Prokofiev, a somewhat prankish gesture drawing upon his flute sonata. In the interest of keeping the solos on French soil, McHale played “Jardins sous la pluie” (gardens in the rain), the last of the three pieces that Claude Debussy collected in his Estampes (prints).
The entire program lasted for roughly an hour and fifteen minutes; and, between the diversity and the top-notch musicianship of all three players, the experience went by like lightning.
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