SFS Chamber Music: Instrumental Diversity

Yesterday in Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco Symphony (SFS) presented the second Sunday afternoon program in the 2022–23 Chamber Music Series. Like the first of these performances, the program consisted of three selections. Yesterday’s program also presented three compositions, this time covering only two centuries in reverse chronological order. Thus, the program began with the “seasonal” performance of André Jolivet’s “Pastorales de Noël” (1943), followed by one of Benjamin Britten’s earliest compositions, his Opus 2 “Phantasy Quartet” (1932), scored for oboe, violin, viola, and cello. The second half of the program “retreated” to the middle of the nineteenth century with a performance of Felix Mendelssohn’s Opus 87 (second) string quintet in B-flat major (1845).

This made for an engaging approach to presentation. The first half of the program could have been given an overall title: Early Twentieth-Century Modernism on Either Side of the English Channel. The young Britten is already exploring techniques to serve up innovative sonorities, bringing intimations of dramatics to what might otherwise be viewed as abstract chamber music. Jolivet, on the other hand, was a member of La Jeune France (young France), the modernist group that followed in the wake of the better known Les Six. The Jeune France composer Olivier Messiaen is more familiar to most listeners than is Jolivet. Both of them composed music for the ondes Martenot; but, while Jolivet’s effort was a concerto, Messiaen was interested in more dramatic qualities.

While “Pastorales de Noël” did not require an ondes Martenot, its scoring for flute (Catherine Payne), bassoon (Steven Dibner), and harp (Meredith Clark) clearly reflected a sensitivity for innovative sonorities. This may have reflected Debussy’s trio, which situated the harp between the higher register of the flute and the lower register of the viola. The movement titles provide the music with a narrative perspective, which Dibner explained to the audience in his opening remarks. However, the music came across more as an exploration of diverse sonorities, probably motivated by the “plan” of those movement titles.

Britten’s quartet, on the other hand, comes across as an adventurous exploration of sonorities. The oboe (James Button) is clearly distinguished from the string instruments; but it is not a domineering soloist. Indeed, Britten’s innovative approaches to sonorities are deployed by the very first measures composed for the cello (Amos Yang). As the music unfolds, one quickly appreciates that no instrument in this ensemble is “first among equals;” and it is through the diverse breadth of sonorities that Britten made one of his first marks in commanding imaginative timbres.

The Mendelssohn quintet on the other hand was more “bread-and-butter” in nature. All five of the musicians are given richly energetic passages that weave among each other expressively. Sadly, only three of the names in the program book accounted for the performers on stage. These were the violinists Jessie Fellows and Nadya Tichman and violist Katarzyna Bryla-Weiss. The program book lacked any insert to account for the changes in the performances of first viola and cello. Nevertheless, the second half of the program made for an engaging listening experience, balancing the adventurous modernism of the first half with good old-fashioned nineteenth-century expressiveness.