Perhaps the most interesting thing about this afternoon’s Chamber Music Series concert in Davies Symphony Hall, presented by the San Francisco Symphony (SFS), was the fact that one can now prepare a “three centuries” program that spans from the 19th to the 21st century. The “extremes” of this span provided the most interesting subject matter, while the 20th-century selection came off as more than a little short-changed. Furthermore, in the overall scope of the program, the 19th century still commanded that One Ring to Rule Them All.
That century was represented by Johannes Brahms’ Opus 88 (first) string quintet in F major. Composed in 1882, it stands in the Brahms chronology between the Opus 87 (second) piano trio in C major, completed earlier in the same year, and the Opus 90 (third) symphony in F major, composed in 1883. These are all major-key compositions that present Brahms’ rhetoric at its sunniest.
However, what makes Opus 88 particularly interesting is the intricacy of its textures. It is only when the eye can observe which instrument is playing which passage that one can begin to revel in Brahms’ capacity for inventiveness. Fortunately, seating facilitated such observation. Second violinist Polina Sedukh was situated behind first violinist Leor Maltinski in such a way that the eye could keep track of how passages were exchanged between them. On the opposite side of the performing space, second violist Katie Kadarauch could be observed as clearly as first violist Jonathan Vinocour; and, more often than not, their “accompanying” passages were anything but. Then, centered behind these four musicians, Sébastien Gingras provided the foundational content of the cello part.
In other words, this was a performance in which following the musicians themselves could be more informative than trying to follow a printed score. In that setting the chemistry among those musicians could not have been better. Clearly, all five of them appreciated the rich expressiveness of Brahms’ music, and they were determined to pass their appreciation on to their audience. The general consensus on audience side was that they could not have succeeded more effectively.
The program began with the most recent composition, “Trio for Five Instruments” by San Francisco composer David Garner. The reason for the title is that Stephen Tramontozzi was the only member to play a single instrument, double bass. Russ deLuna alternated between oboe and cor anglais, while Jerome Simas divided his efforts between clarinet and bass clarinet. The result made for a wider spectrum of sonorities than one usually expects from a trio.
The work was also distinguished for pursuing some of the affordances of serial techniques applied to a tone-row while, at the same time, designing that tone-row to favor consonant intervals. This made for a surprisingly interesting listening situations. This was probably due, in part, to the extent to which phrasing emerges through dissonance resolving into consonance. Thus, while there were some innovative approaches to developing thematic lines for each of the instruments, the overall rhetoric favored a relatively tonal framework. Nevertheless, considering how much Garner packed into his score, one could appreciate the need to follow up with an opportunity to listen to this music a second time.
Between these two offerings was situated the one disappointment of the afternoon, Bohuslav Martinů’s H. 229 piano quintet. Marc Shapiro took the piano part, performing with the quartet of violinists Jessie Fellows and Mariko Smiley, violist Gina Cooper, and cellist Anne Pinsker. This quintet was composed in 1933, when Martinů was living in Paris. It was a time when a wide diversity of composers were all exploring ways to “liberate” dissonance. Martinů’s quintet abounded with such dissonances, but the SFS players never really caught on to how they still served underlying chord progressions through which one could sort out core thematic material from embellishments. This was one of those disappointing cases in which the players seemed to be making a dutiful effort to read the notes from the page, without paying attention to the syntax structuring all those notes. Thus, while the composer’s dissonances offered a generous supply of shock value, the intensity of the shock quickly diminished, leaving the listener with little else to draw attention.
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