The San Francisco Symphony and the San Francisco Opera are the trophy icons of what we call the cultural life of San Francisco. But an equally true music life of the city resides in the shadows of such icons and is made up of organizations which tend to ply the smaller, less advertised venues of the city.

Old First Presbyterian Church, or "Old First" as it is known among music lovers, the oldest of the city's musical venues in sanctuaries, is host to an impressive number of often bi-weekly concerts that draw their own fans. Sometimes on the cutting edge, sometimes not, these "Old First" concerts show the true vitality of music in the big city.

Terrie Baune, a busy local violinist and Deborah Clasquin, pianist, gave an ambitious recital there last Friday. They chose splendid music, from the Sonata in A minor by Robert Schumann to Two Obereks, written around 1950 by Grazyna Bacewicz, the noted Polish violinist and composer. In between were Nocturne and Cortege by Lili Boulanger, written shortly before the first World War, the Fisherman Song by Chen Yi, the well-known Chinese composer, and sonatas by Ravel and Beethoven.

None of the music was on the "cutting edge" of the art, but the unfamiliar music of Boulanger, Chen Yi and Bacewicz, which seemed to mine lodes of the past, had the virtue of being honest, well written and appealing,

Baune and Clasquin made a fine team, presenting the music in a straightforward manner and letting the music itself make its own points. The only improvement one could want would be for more emotional content, working from a larger palette, as it were. The Beethoven C minor Sonata, especially, needed more of the "dramatic and forceful style" that Terrie Baune herself mentioned in her illuminating notes. The two Boulanger pieces were charming, Gallic frou-frou, serving as a musical sorbet, cleansing the palate after the powerful Schumann Sonata. Chen Yi's Fisherman Song resembled Vaughan-Williams' The Lark Ascending in personality, deriving its inspiration from a long ascending melody, albeit in familiar Chinese-style harmony.

The Ravel Sonata, containing the famous "blues" movement, was rather straightforward and bland, the rollicking Moto Perpetuo posing the only technical challenge of the evening for the Baune-Clasquin Duo. The Two Obereks by Bacewicz-- these are Polish dances related to the Mazurka -- closed the program. Bacewicz again showed her remarkable mastery of string writing, but since she was a remarkable violinist, her masterful incorporation of virtuosic techniques comes as no surprise. .

(Stuart Canin is the former Concertmaster of the San Francisco Symphony and of Hollywood film orchestras, and just retired as the Music Director of the New Century Chamber Orchestra)

©1999 Stuart Canin, all rights reserved