More “Three Centuries” SFS Chamber Music

One of the interesting features of Davies Symphony Hall programming this season is the emergence of “three centuries” programs that span from the 19th to the 21st century, rather than from the 18th to the 20th. Furthermore, the instances of the programming I have encountered this season all seem to unfold in reverse chronological order. Thus, this past February’s Chamber Music Series concert, featuring San Francisco Symphony (SFS) musicians, began with “Trio for Five Instruments,” recently completed by San Francisco composer David Garner, followed by Bohuslav Martinů’s H. 229 piano quintet, and concluding with Johannes Brahms’ Opus 88 (first) string quintet in F major. Then the first subscription series concert of this month, conducted by Xian Zhang, began with the first SFS performance of Nokuthula Ngwenyama’s “Primal Message,” which she completed last year. This was followed by Florence Price’s 1933 piano concerto; and the program concluded with Antonín Dvořák’s Opus 95 (ninth) symphony in E minor, composed in 1893 and best known by its subtitle, “From the New World.”

The same plan guided this afternoon’s SFS Chamber Music program. The program began with the string quintet version of Jessie Montgomery’s “Strum,” composed in 2006, followed by Benjamin Britten’s Opus 55, the third of the five compositions in his Canticles collection entitled “Still Falls the Rain.” The intermission was then followed by Dvořák’s Opus 44, entitled “Serenade for wind instruments, cello and double bass” in D minor.

This all made for a uniformly engaging listening experience. Montgomery’s quintet included a double bass, rather than a second viola or cello. This allowed for a broader spectrum of sonorities. Those sonorities were achieved through not only strumming but also pizzicato and bowing techniques.

Montgomery described her music as follows:

Within Strum I utilized texture motives, layers of rhythmic or harmonic ostinati that string together to form a bed of sound for melodies to weave in and out. The strumming pizzicato serves as a texture motive and the primary driving rhythmic underpinning of the piece. Drawing on American folk idioms and the spirit of dance and movement, the piece has a kind of narrative that begins with fleeting nostalgia and transforms into ecstatic celebration.

This description was sufficient to guide the listener through the performance by violinists Wyatt Underhill and Jessie Fellows, violist Katie Kadarauch, cellist Barbara Bogatin, and Daniel G. Smith on bass. The musicians appeared to be enjoying themselves, and the audience seems to have followed suit.

Instrumentalists John Wilson and Daniel Hawkins, accompanists for tenor Nicholas Phan's performance of Benjamin Britten's “Still Falls the Rain” (courtesy of photographer Michael Strickland)

Tenor Nicholas Phan was joined by pianist John Wilson and Daniel Hawkins on horn for the Britten selection. He preceded the performance by explaining that, in the text by Edith Sitwell, the rain was metaphorical, referring to the World War II bombings that Great Britain had to endure in 1940. Sitwell’s capacity for metaphor also extended into images of the Crucifixion. All of her text was delivered clearly and expressively by Phan. Nevertheless, it would have been of greater benefit to include the words in the program, since this was a text that deserved reflection deeper than what arises during in-the-moment listening.

As might be guessed, Dvořák’s Opus 44 was an engaging unfolding of richly diverse sonorities, realized through structural forms that included a march, a minuet, a “classical” Andante movement, and an Allegro molto for a climactic finale. Sadly, the program sheet gave an inadequate account of the participating instrumentalists (overlooking entirely the inclusion of a double bassoon in the instrumentation). Still, one could appreciate the “lead” performances by oboist Russ de Luna, clarinetist Jeannie Psomas, and Hawkins again on horn. This is music that deserves more exposure than it gets, but assembling the necessary instrumentalists is seldom an easy matter. Rather than quibbling over problems with the program sheet, one could simply sit back and let this music work its magic!