As anticipated, last night’s video stream from the Barbro Osher Recital Hall of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) was a vast improvement over Monday night’s ineptitude. This was no great surprise, since the monthly streaming of Chamber Music Tuesday has been consistently satisfying since I first started viewing the series. Nevertheless, last night was a Chamber Music Tuesday different from other Chamber Music Tuesdays for at least two reasons.
Maria van der Sloot, Jungeun Kim, and Christine Lee performing Vivian Fung’s “Ominous Machine” (screen shot from the live video stream)
Most importantly, this was SFCM’s contribution to this month’s California Festival: A Celebration of New Music. Furthermore, this particular celebratory event also involved a homecoming. As usual, last night’s program included visitors to perform side-by-side with SFCM students. However, last night’s visitors were three SFCM alumni that formed L’Arc Trio, the piano trio consisting of Maria van der Sloot on violin, cellist Christine Lee, and Jungeun Kim on piano. As the hucksters like to say, “And that’s not all,” since L’Arc gave the world premiere performance of a piano trio by Vivian Fung entitled “Ominous Machine.”
Fung completed this trio in 2021. However, due to pandemic conditions, the plans for its world premiere had to be postponed. Last night saw the conclusion of the waiting time, and the occasion could not have been more satisfying. Fung displayed an ingenious capacity for intricacy, allowing the dynamic lines for each of the three instruments to fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. This was music that could easily have sustained a second performance had it not been for the other works on the program.
One of those was another recent composition, a string quartet by Jonathan Bingham entitled “Pareidolia,” composed in 2022 for the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra. The quartet players were violinists Daniel Dastoor and Shintaro Taneda, and the violist was Isabel Tannenbaum. Lee returned to perform the cello part. Like “Ominous Machine,” this was music that would have benefitted from a second performance.
The entire program was framed by significantly older compositions. The second half of the program was devoted entirely to Ernest Bloch’s first piano quintet, performed by violinists Yip Wai Chow and Mathea Goh, Tannenbaum again on viola, cellist Ayoun Alexandra Kim, and Julio Elizalde on piano. Bloch is frequently known for his rhetorical capacity for vigor. His ability to modulate energy levels extended across all three movements of his composition, even in the second movement given the tempo “Andante mistico.” Bloch composed this work in 1923 during his tenure as the first Musical Director of the Cleveland Institute of Music; but, about two years later, he moved to San Francisco to lead SFCM.
The program began with one of the least known works by Gustav Mahler. His single-movement piano quartet in A minor was composed in 1876, and it would be fair to say that the composer was just beginning to find his own voice. Nevertheless, those familiar with the later Mahler repertoire will probably find at least a few intriguing “omens” of his works to come. Violinist van der Sloot and pianist Kim participated in the performance, joined by Tannenbaum on viola and Constantine Janello on cello.
Taken as a whole, last night’s performance provided a decidedly engaging contribution to the California Festival.
No comments:
Post a Comment