My last report on a streamed video in the Chamber Music Series of SFSymphony+ involved a duo performance by San Francisco Symphony (SFS) members Amos Yang on cello and Charles Chandler on bass. Their selection was a contemporary one, “Synchronicity,” composed by the Argentinian bassist Andrés Martin. Exactly a week ago a new video was uploaded to the Chamber Music Series Web page. It is another duo performance but a much more traditional one.
The selection is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 423 duo for violin and viola in G major, one of two three-movement compositions that Mozart wrote for this combination of instruments. The performers are violinist Yukiko Kurakata and violist Matthew Young. Both of the duos are short works, about a quarter of an hour in duration.
As might be guessed, this composition involves an ongoing give-and-take between the two performers. As in vocal duos, one finds a combination of exchanges of melodic material, but always with a rich account of the harmonies implicit in the two parts. While the video work often involved an “audience-eye” view of the performances, some of the more intricate exchanges were presented with through split-screen technique:
screen shot courtesy of the San Francisco Symphony
As a result the visual experience enhances awareness of Mozart’s imaginative polyphony in ways that might not be grasped when watching the performers up on stage from an audience-member’s vantage point.
Thus, one is likely to encounter a more intimate account of this rather brief offering than one might expect.
No comments:
Post a Comment