Chamber Music for Low Strings on SFSymphony+

SFS musicians Charles Chandler and Amos Yang playing Shinji Eshima’s “Bariolage” (courtesy of the San Francisco Symphony)

The second Chamber Music Series streamed offering by SFSymphony+ involves music by a local composer written for two members of the San Francisco Symphony (SFS). Shinji Eshima currently plays bass for both the San Francisco Opera and the San Francisco Ballet, holding the position of Associate Principal Bass for the latter. However, he has also accumulated an extensive catalog of compositions dating back from 1991. His “Bariolage,” scored for cello and bass, was written in 2016 for SFS musicians Amos Yang (cello) and Charles Chandler (bass) on a commission by Michèle and Larry Corash; and SFSymphony+ is now offering a fifteen-minute video of this composition played by the musicians for whom it was written.

The title refers to a bowing technique that dates back at least as far as the Baroque period. In involves the rapid alternation between notes on adjacent strings; and one of those strings is usually open (not fingered). This usually makes for highly energetic bowing, and the energy level is even higher when the technique is applied to low strings. As a result, there is much to admire in the physical prowess of both Yang and Chandler where this device is involved.

Fortunately, Eshima’s music involves more than just showing off a flamboyant rhetorical device. Indeed, the composition is basically structured in two parts, the first of which involves energetic bariolage exchanges between the two players. The prevailing rhetoric is more enthusiastic than argumentative; but, roughly half-way through the duration, the execution becomes more reflective, possibly suggesting that a personal bond is emerging between the two instruments (if not the players of those instruments).

Eshima’s composition technique is readily accessible. It would be reasonable to assume that it reflects his own perspective as a performer. The attentive listener might detect a hint or two of Antonín Dvořák (the Opus 96 string quartet in F major, not the Opus 104 cello concerto in B minor!) as the intensity begins to ebb into a more lyrical disposition. However, Eshima’s inventions and rhetoric are decidedly his own. He clearly knows how to draw the listener into his music and maintain focus from beginning to end. Nevertheless, as already observed, this is music for viewing, as well as listening; and, for the most part, the video direction facilitates guiding both ear and eye through the structure of this quarter-hour offering.