SFSymphony+ Streams Montgomery’s “Strum”

SFS Assistant Concertmaster Wyatt Underhill playing the opening measure of “Strum” (screen shot from the video being discussed)

One week ago the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) uploaded a new round of videos to the SFSymphony+ streaming site. All of these are available for viewing free of charge. The content includes both SFS performances and chamber music played by SFS musicians.

Since this Thursday’s holiday has made this a relatively quiet week, my wife and I made our first visit to this new collection last night. We opted for the chamber music selection, a performance of Jessie Montgomery’s “Strum.” This music was originally composed for string ensemble; but Montgomery subsequently prepared a chamber version for two violins (Wyatt Underhill and Jessie Fellows). viola (Matthew Young), cello (Barbara Bogatin), and bass (Daniel G. Smith). The video document of this performance was recorded this past January.

Montgomery’s name will probably be familiar to those that follow this site regularly. Her “Starburst” was performed by the SFS Youth Orchestra this past Sunday afternoon. Joseph Young conducted SFS in a performance of “Banner” during the summer series of concerts in Davies Symphony Hall this past June. In October One Found Sound launched its ninth season with a performance of “Records from a Vanishing City;” and the Left Coast Chamber Orchestra is scheduled to play her “Peace” this coming April.

Montgomery will turn 40 at the beginning of next month, and it is clear that she has been building an impressive repertoire. Over the course of my own reading, “Strum” was probably the first of her compositions whose title I encountered; and it would recur many times, providing the title for her 2015 album released by Azica, Strum: Music for Strings. However, last night was my first opportunity to listen to the music, albeit in its chamber version.

The title declares itself in the very opening measure. However, over the course of only about eight minutes, the score unfolds through a panoply of different techniques engaged by string performers. By virtue of the transparency of the chamber version, one was keenly aware of not only the diversity of those techniques but also the skillful interplay among them. Having previously played second violin in the Catalyst Quartet, appearing on their Azica UNCOVERED album of the music of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Montgomery’s command of composing for those techniques is grounded in her own experience as a violinist.

The video, in turn, leads the attentive listener through that diversity with a skillful progression of camera angles that guides that listener through thematic statements and developments. There is no shortage of wit that unfolds during the listening experience, but each of the five players is clearly focused on that clarity of presentation without out which those witty turns would not be evident. In its chamber version “Strum” serves up a stimulating listening experience; and the SFS musicians deliver a thoroughly engaging account of that experience.