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CONTEMPORARY MUSIC REVIEW
September 3, 2004
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By Heuwell Tircuit
The only thing better than hearing an excellent set of performances is hearing them when they include old favorites that you have not encountered in ages. Two such opened Friday evening's concert in Old First Church by the Berkeley Chamber Group, pieces by Milhaud and Hindemith which took me back to my student days.
The first two works were Milhaud's Suite for Violin, Clarinet and Piano, Op 157b, and Hindemith's Quartet for Clarinet, Violin Cello and Piano. Following intermission, there was Leonard Salzedo's Tres Modos Rimicos, Op. 58 (Three Rhythmic Modes) and Peter Schickele's 1982 Quartet, scored to match Hindemith's quartet. The musicians included clarinetist Tom Rose, violinist Karen Shinozaki, cellist Eugene Sor and pianist Miles Graber, all stalwarts of the Bay Area scene.
Like much of Milhaud's instrumental music, his Suite originated as incidental music to a play, Jean Anouilh's 1938 Le Voyageur sans bagage (The Traveler Without Luggage). I do not know the play, but it was surely a comedy. Except for the introduction to the finale, the music is all in Milhaud's fresh air folksy style, filled with sophisticated charm. And like much of his music, the four-movement Suite is dotted with little genuflections toward Latin American colors. The four movements, set out as a free sonatina, brimmed with the glitter of a terrific performance. Bravos were due, although none turned up from the audience.
Hindemith's three-movement Quartet seems to reflect the late 1930s, when the Europe he was leaving was on the edge of falling into World War II. In any case, its emotional gravitas strongly suggests that. Even the bravura flickers seem touched by darkness, a thing most uncommon in Hindemith's other chamber music, typically a combination of energy and academics. What startled me was how the musicians were able to transform themselves to meet the needs of each particular work. In contrast with the airy lightness in the Milhaud, something you'd expect for Haydn, the musicians played the Hindemith with an umber richness of timbre à la Mahler. That's what happens when musicianship is complete. They played the music, not just themselves on stage. It was almost as if there were different groups up there for the Milhaud and the Hindemiith. Although Salzedo's (1921-2000) name was Spanish, and the piece's title and sources Latin-American, he was actually born and trained in England. Indeed, his family had moved there four centuries earlier. Best known for his ballet scores, mostly for Ballet Rambert, Salzedo largely earned his daily bread working as a violinist with this or that organization. His three Modes are all dances: a lively Cuban Cinquillo, a very attractive lyrical Yaravi drawn from the native peoples of Peru and Bolivia, and a rather less interesting Brazilian Batuque. They're nice enough, but not exactly the thing one yearns to hear again.
Peter Schickele, the guy best known from his P. D. Q. Bach gags, also composes — sort of. I would say he composes like a musicologist. As with Glenn Gould's feeble efforts at composition, Schickele doesn't seem to grasp basic elements of putting music together for long stretches — and his Quartet is long. Following the rules isn't sufficient! One can't just invent some nursery-rhyme tune and then keep repeating it over and over on different instruments without alteration — unless of course, you're Philip Glass. Surrounding the ditty with fast-running scales won't help. I fear Schickele's Quartet was and is, in two words, hopelessly dilettante, not even good enough to be irritating. It's merely tedious. All the program was played with high artistry, even the Schickele. This marked the opening of Old First's autumn season, which offers Friday evening and Sunday afternoon programs. At extremely reasonable prices, there is always a lot of variety. On September 19th, for instance, there is a recital of cellist Jean-Michel Fonteneau and pianist Mack McCray. On the 26th it's the Veda Piano Duo, winners of Tokyo's International Piano Duo Competition.
(Heuwell Tircuit, composer, performer and writer, was chief writer for Gramophone Japan and for 21 years a music reviewer for the SF Chronicle, previously for the Chicago American and Asahi Evening News.)
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