Shenson Spotlight Disappoints Again

Violinist Njioma Grevious (photograph by Jiyang Chen, courtesy of the San Francisco Symphony)

Apparently, Nathan Amaral’s violin recital this past April was the only satisfying performance in the Shenson Spotlight Series this season, presented by the San Francisco Symphony in Davies Symphony Hall. Readers may recall that the significant adjective that I applied to the January and February performances was “dim.” Most of last night’s violin recital by Njioma Grevious settled back into that same spirit, but at least there was one moment when things picked up a bit. This was “Levee Dance,” the second in a set of short character pieces collected by Clarence Cameron White for his Opus 27. It would not surprise me to learn that she came to know this music through the recording Jascha Heifetz made for RCA Victor, since that is the only source I know for the composition!

The program was structured around three “classical pillars.” It began with the Grave movement from Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 1003 sonata for unaccompanied violin in A minor and concluded with Sergei Prokofiev’s Opus 94a violin sonata in D major, originally composed for flute. The “middle pillar” was Johannes Brahms, with the Scherzo movement he contributed to the “F-A-E Sonata.” Sadly, none of these made a lasting impression, as was the case with the most recent work on the program, “Within the drifting contours of the land…,” composed by Electra Perivolaris explicitly for Grevious.

Ultimately, the only really satisfying offering came in the middle of the program. This was the “Theme and Variations” that Olivier Messiaen composed in 1932. He wrote this for the violinist Claire Delbos around the time that he married her! Grevious knew exactly how the deliver the theme in such a way that an attentive listener could appreciate its transformation into the following five variations. That attentiveness surfaced only one more time, which was in the Scherzo movement of the Prokofiev sonata.

Grevious’ accompanist at the piano was Andrew Goodridge, making his first appearance in Davies Symphony Hall. He is on the faculty of the New England Conservatory Preparatory School. If he enjoyed his trip to San Francisco, it might be nice to see more of him in more conducive circumstances.