Yesterday afternoon Davies Symphony Hall saw the final chamber music recital the concert season performed by members of the San Francisco Symphony (SFS). As usual, the program was an engagingly diverse one with music from the current century in the first half and selections from the twentieth in the second. It may also be interesting to note that the first half concluded with the newest work on the program, and the program ended with the oldest.
Cover of the first edition of the opera score that may have influenced Fauré (from Wikimedia Commons, public domain)
Indeed, that “final gesture” was the only selection that was familiar to me. That is because the EMI complete-works collection of the chamber music of Gabriel Fauré has been in my collection for longer than I can remember! The music itself portended some finality of its own, since Fauré composed his Opus 120 piano trio in D minor in 1923, the year before the year of his death. That said, there is nothing moribund about the music itself, which was clearly evident in the performance given by Samantha Cho at the piano performing with violinist Florin Parvulescu and Amos Yang on cello. Indeed, Fauré began the final movement with a “punch line” quoting the “climax phrase” from “Vesti la giubba,” the aria from Ruggero Leoncavallo’s “Pagliacci.”
The other twentieth-century work on the program was composed over half a century later, Joan Tower’s “Petroushskates.” Ironically, this music had previously surfaced in the 53rd season of the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, when it was performed on April 21, 2024. Sadly, I was unable to attend that program; so yesterday afternoon was my “first contact.” Most memorable was the cello pizzicato performance by Amos Yang accompanying the saucy clarinet work by Yuhsin Galaxy Su. (Those familiar with the music of Igor Stravinsky know that his music for the “Petrushka” ballet had some saucy clarinet work.)
The most recent work on the program was composed by Sarn Oliver, a member of the SFS First Violin section. The full title of his offering was “CAT (Contemporary Artful Sonorities) String Quartet.” This was a four-movement composition inspired by the cats in Oliver’s house. He led the quartet with violinist Mariko Smiley, Leonid Plashinov-Johnson on viola, and cellist Davis You. They were joined by soprano Jesslyn Thomas delivering the text from (in Oliver’s program note) “cat-themed poetry by Emily Dickinson, Edward Lear and T.S. Eliot.” Unfortunately, Thomas had serious diction problems, which pretty much undermined all of those sources. (I was able to make out “Macavity” from Eliot’s Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats and the Lear phrase about “a ring at the end of his nose” from “The Owl and the Pussy-Cat.”)
Clarity was much more solid in the opening selection. “Taheke” is the Māori word for “waterfall” and the title of a three-movement composition by Gareth Farr. Each movement depicts a different waterfall in New Zealand, the second being on the grounds of the composer’s home. The music is a duo for flute (Blair Francis Paponiu) and harp (Katherine Siochi); and the clarity of their interplay could not have been better. They provided the perfect overture for the high spirits of Oliver’s composition.
Let the summer season begin!
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