Violinist Mayuko Kamio’s Imaginative Program

Yesterday afternoon in Herbst Theatre, Chamber Music San Francisco presented the penultimate program in its 2024 season, a violin recital by Mayuko Kamio, accompanied at the piano by Noreen Cassidy-Polera. The first half of the program offered the sort of music one would expect from such a recital, coupling a sonata by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (K. 304 in E minor) with one by Johannes Brahms (Opus 100, the second, in A major). Kamio preceded these with a solo performance of Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 1006, the third partita, in the key of E major, in the collection of six sonata and partitas for solo violin.

All of these selections were given disciplined accounts of the music. Kamio even honored the “unwritten invitation” to provide her own embellishments to the movements of the Bach partita. She also knew how to establish the individual characteristic qualities of each of the partita’s dance movements. Where the sonatas were concerned, each composer had his own approach to expressiveness; and Kamio knew just how to honor both of them. Given that the piano was Brahms’ primary instrument, the interplay in his sonata was particularly evident and could not have been better reflected by the duo’s joint interpretation.

Those of my generation probably remember the British comedy duo of pianist (and composer) Donald Swann and singer (and lyricist) Michael Flanders. Flanders did most of the talking; and his most memorable line was, “We’re running a little late, so we are going to perform all our encores in a single burst!” Kamio did him one better: She devoted the entire second half of the program to nine short selections, all of which are usually performed as encores!

The “order of appearance” of these pieces was as follows:

1. César Franck, Salut d’Amour
2. Antonín Dvořák, Songs My Mother Taught Me
3. Manuel Ponce, Estrellita
4. Fritz Kreisler, Liebesfreud
5. Fritz Kreisler, Liebesleid
6. Sergei Rachmaninoff, Vocalise
7. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Waltz-Scherzo
8. Grigoraș Dinicu, Hora Staccato
9. Vittorio Monti, Csárdás

These were followed by the “real” encore for the program, Antonio Bazzini’s Opus 25, his “Scherzo fantastique,” better known by the title he attached: “The Dance of the Goblins.” While this approach to programming threatened to be “one damned thing after another,” the combination of diversity and expressive interpretation resulted in a thoroughly engaging overall journey.

2021 cropped photograph of violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter (provided by Quincena Musical, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license, from Wikimedia Commons)

While I usually do not report on such matters, I feel it is worth reporting on Kamio’s taste in strapless gowns (one for each half of the program). My generation recalls Anne-Sophie Mutter (above), who had a similar wardrobe. She has been reported as saying that any fabric provided a surface that was too slippery. As I recall, the way she put it was that she wanted to feel her instrument on her own flesh. I have no idea whether Kamio was influenced by Mutter, but there was no questioning her sure command of every gesture with her instrument!