Last night the eighth annual San Francisco International Piano Festival (SFIPF) got under way at Old First Presbyterian Church. Readers may recall that last year’s Festival focused on French keyboard music with particular attention to the centennial of the death of Gabriel Fauré. This year’s Festival will continue the “French influence,” this time celebrating the 150th birthday of Maurice Ravel.
Kindra Scharich performing Ravel’s Histoires naturelles song cycle, accompanied by Jeffrey LaDeur (screenshot from last night’s live YouTube video)
For Opening Night the pianists were Festival Director Jeffrey LaDeur and Gwendolyn Mok. The violin sonata was performed by Chili Ekman, a Young Chamber Musicians Alumnus. The vocalists were mezzo Kindra Scharich and soprano Heidi Moss Erickson. The entire program recreated a recital that Ravel himself performed on a tour that took him to San Francisco in 1928. This included three song cycles, the violin sonata (which may have been Ravel’s reflection on his friendship with George Gershwin), selections from the solo piano suite Le Tombeau de Couperin, and three solo piano compositions, “Pavane pour une infante défunte,” “La vallée des cloches,” and “Habanera,” all played by Mok.
I have to confess that I tend to approach performances of Ravel’s piano music with trepidation. My most recent disappointment came from the solo piano recital by Martin Janes Bartlett for the Shenson Spotlight Series performed in Davies Symphony Hall this past April. On the other hand, the all-Ravel program prepared by Louis Lortie for his San Francisco Performances recital this past March could not have been a better tribute to the composer. That said, both LaDeur and Mok did justice to Ravel’s compositions in both letter and spirit. It did not take long for trepidation to yield to satisfaction, which then sustained for the entire program!
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