Video Ineptitude Spoils Garner’s Showcase

Pianist Dale Tsang accompanying Jerome Simas on bass clarinet (screen shot from the video stream of the SFCM concert being discussed)

Once again a live video stream from the Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) undermined what could have been an engagingly informative recital. The victim of this ineptitude was composer David Garner, who had prepared a showcase of his recent chamber music. Those streaming the concert knew that things were off to a bad start when Garner’s opening remarks were inaudible, even though he was speaking into a microphone. Fortunately, the music was more audible; and the fixed camera was kind to the two opening duo selections, a suite for bass clarinet (Jerome Simas) and piano (Dale Tsang) and a sonata for trumpet (Aaron Priskorn) and piano (Tsang).

However, the high point of the program was supposed to be the second-half offering, a sinfonietta for double wind quintet. This work was given the 2023 Hoefer Prize for composition. Scored for a pair of flutes (Victoria Hauk and Jihyun Choi), oboe (Russ DeLuna) and English horn (Glenda Lindgren, also on oboe), clarinet (Jason Wilcox) and bass clarinet (Simas doubling on clarinet), and pairs of horns (Daniel Wood and Jaxon Padgett) and bassoons (Jamael Smith and Saejin Park), there was no end of imaginative approaches to combining these instruments. However, because the video signal was provided by the same fixed camera deployed for the first half of the program, the viewer had to struggle with grasping all of those diverse combinations.

Live-stream technology emerged as a major asset for SFCM when conditions began to recover gradually from the COVID pandemic. Indeed, the service may well have been responsible for enlarging audiences for many of the Conservatory offerings. Now, however, it seems as if the technology is doing more harm than good, at least in Hume Hall. Tonight I plan to check out the video stream for Chamber Music Tuesday at the Barbro Osher Recital Hall. This is a newer structure, which may have been planned for both video and “live” concert experiences; and past video streams have been consistently satisfying.

Indeed, the Osher videos have consistently included “banners” at the bottom of the screen, which identify individual movements and their tempi. No such supplements were provided for Garner’s program. Information about movements may have been in program books for the “physical” audience; but that content was nowhere to be found on the SFCM Web site. If no one cares about the quality of videos coming from Hume Hall, perhaps the whole video experience should be abandoned, shifting all contributing technical resources to the crew responsible for capturing Osher performances.