An Uneven Earplay Concert at O1C

Last night’s performance by the Earplay chamber ensemble at Old First Presbyterian Church turned out to be a perplexing affair, at least for those of us that did not attend the pre-concert conversation. The first selection on the program was the world premiere performance of “Mouthpiece 40,” composed by Erin Gee on a commission shared by Earplay and the Fromm Foundation. The work was scored for the full complement of Earplay musicians: Tod Brody, playing two sizes of flutes, Peter Josheff on bass clarinet, violinist Terrie Baune, Ellen Ruth Rose on viola, cellist Thalia Moore, and Keisuke Nakagoshi on piano, conducted by Mary Chun.

The Earplay ensemble about to begin the performance of “Mouthpiece 40” (screenshot from the YouTube video)

The title suggested a vocal performance, and the program indicated that the composer herself would join the ensemble. However, as can seen from the above screen shot, the composer never appeared; nor was there any explanation of her absence! (There may have been an explanation during the pre-concert event, but those of us that missed it were left in the dark.)

Sadly, the music itself was not particular engaging, muddling its way through three movements with little sense of progression. The good news was that, for the rest of the evening, things got better! There were two throughly engaging duo performances on either side of the intermission.

The first of these was “Syriac Fugato 2” by Lebanese composer Sami Seif. This was the prizewinning submission to the 2023 Earplay Distance Shores competition, and one could relish the Middle Eastern rhetoric that unfolded in the interplay between violinist Baune and violist Rose. George Walker’s “Perimeters,” on the other hand, was a three-movement duo for clarinet and piano. Composed in 1966, this music still has a freshness to it the reminded me of how much I enjoy the intimacy of chamber music.

The program concluded with The Headlands Suite, composed by Byron Au Yong and performed by the full ensemble. The title comes from a San Francisco noir detective story; and each of the seven movements (except for the fourth) is associated with an episode in the narrative. Nevertheless, the music was perfectly capable of standing on its own merits without belaboring the text fragments taken as movement titles. This was a world premiere performance; and, as far as I am concerned, it deserves further listening experiences!

So, if things got off to a perplexing start, the Earplayers did not waste any time in regaining their “musical footing” to provide engaging accounts with their limited instrumentation!