SFS Chamber Music: Mozart and Brahms Rule!

This afternoon provided my first opportunity to attend the last Chamber Music Series concert performed by members of the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) before the end of year. The program was framed by two piano quartets (violin, viola, cello, and piano), both of which hold high places in the overall chamber music repertoire. The two quartets were presented in chronological order: The program began with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 478 quartet in G minor and concluded with Johannes Brahms’ Opus 26 (second) quartet in A major.

By way of disclaimer I should make it clear that I cannot get enough opportunities to listen to either of these quartets, either in performance or on recording. That said, I can also confess that I tend to enjoy the Brahms’ quartet as “the better of the two equals.” This afternoon’s performance featured some of my favorite members of the string section, Acting Associate Concertmaster Wyatt Underhill, Principal viola Jonathan Vinocour, and Acting Assistant Principal cello Sébastien Gingras. The pianist was Julio Elizalde, whom I have been following for many years and most recently encountered in a performance of Ernest Bloch’s first piano quartet live streamed from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

As one can tell from the opus number, this is a relatively early composition by Brahms. He was not yet 30 years old when he composed it. There is no shortage of vigor (even if it is not quite “youthful”); and Brahms’ capacity for adding new twists whenever a theme reappears was at its finest. Indeed, by the time the quartet has advanced to its Finale movement, Brahms is delightfully playful in his unfolding of one-more-time approaches to the primary theme.

Such playfulness is also evident in the Mozart quartet. Indeed, it is easy to imagine him sitting at the keyboard romping through his own music while consistently attentive to the performance of his three colleagues. On the stage of Davies Symphony Hall, the pianist was Elizabeth Dorman, performing with David Chernyavsky on violin, Leonid Plashinov-Johnson on viola, and Gingras on cello. Mozart’s three piano quartets were composed in 1785 on a commission by Franz Anton Hoffmeister; but his finances do not seem to have improved when he “delivered the goods.” Nevertheless, even in a minor key, this quartet has an optimistic disposition, particularly in its concluding Rondo movement; and this afternoon’s performance definitely presented that disposition in the best possible light.

These “selections from the past” framed a twentieth-century composition by Arnold Bax. This was a quintet for oboe (Associate Principal James Button) and strings. The four other performers were Jessie Fellows (Acting Associate Principal Second Violin), Olivia Chen (Acting Assistant Principal Second Violin), Katie Kadarauch (Assistant Principal Viola), and cellist Peter Wyrick (holding the Lyman & Carol Casey Second Century Chair). I learned a lot about Bax thanks to a former Conservatory student, but much of that memory has faded. Nevertheless, the interplay of sonorities made it clear that Bax was an engaging composer, reminding me that it was more than a pity that I did not encounter his music more often.

Taken as a whole, the afternoon served up a generous diversity of chamber music from three different centuries, leaving me to wonder what will be in store for next year.