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RECITAL REVIEW
February 21, 2006
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By Jonathan Russell
On Saturday night, at Trinity Chapel in Berkeley, Sarah Cahill, the Bay Area's queen of contemporary piano music, presented a rich and varied solo program featuring mostly recent works, as well as two rarely performed works of Leo Ornstein. Cahill played all with nuance and a strong sense of the style called for in each piece, from boogie-woogie to impressionism to minimalism. A few technical mishaps indicated that Cahill had perhaps not had as much time as she would have liked to prepare this program (this was also evidenced by the cancellation of one premiere listed on the program, Steed Cowart's Garibaldi), but this was only minimally disruptive since the more important aspects of character, style, and understanding were all fully present.
The highlights of the program were Luciano Chessa's Le miniere (2005) and Lois V. Vierk's To Stare Astonished at the Sea. Chessa is a native of Italy who currently lives in Davis, California, and, in addition to composing, is active as a musical saw soloist. Le miniere is one movement of a larger work called Quadri da una città fantasma, about five historic landmarks in Virginia City, Nevada. This was briefly the nation's wealthiest city, due to the silver mines on which it was built, but later was virtually abandoned as a ghost town and has recently been revived as that most American of institutions: the Tourist Trap. Le miniere is about the mines, described by Chessa in the program notes as the “unconscious of the tormented city” which “still tells the story of Virginia City's sudden rise and fall.”
The piece began with repeated bell-tones on the top two piano pitches — which are supposed to be B and C, but since the piano at Trinity Chapel only goes up to A, it had to be changed for this performance to G and A. Low, murky, sinewy lines then came in underneath, with an oscillating half-step figure in the bass and then unpredictable, yet lyrical, melodic lines above, rising to a climactic landing on those top two piano pitches again, before subsiding. It was a deep, dark, insistent, brooding piece whose character recalled “Bydlo” from Mussorsgky's Pictures at an Exhibition (the movement with the high tuba solo in Ravel's orchestration). It could have become monotonous but did not, because of Chessa's well-heard and well-timed harmonic shifts and Cahill's strong feel for these shifts and melodic contour, which brought out all the dark beauty of the composition.
Vierk's To Stare Astonished at the Sea (1994) took place entirely inside the piano, with Cahill banging, thumping, and, with a guitar pick, plucking and strumming the piano strings. There were plenty of interesting atmospheric effects, but what really made this piece more than just another cool-weird-sounds-inside-the-piano piece was its vitality, with a definite rhythmic contour and profile to the banging, thumping, and strumming. I also don't think I have ever heard the sound of a guitar pick on piano strings, and it is fascinating, suggesting some sort of demonically possessed harpsichord. There is something visceral about it that pulls you in; I could feel it on my skin and in my bones. Though it didn't really sound like the sea, it had a surrounding, entrancing quality such as one might sense watching and listening as ocean waves crash ashore — making its title entirely apt. The only piece I didn't care for was Daniel David Feinsmith's Thank you for saving my soul: song from EL. It was a moody, modal piece sounding almost like a lame new-age pop song. To be fair, though, it was just one excerpt of a much larger work in progress, so it doesn't deserve harsh judgment; in the context of a longer piece this passage might work just fine. The concert also included Andrea Morricone's entrancing Studio I (2002), which I discussed recently in my review of Cahill's New Music Séance concerts in December; the premiere of Guy Klucevsek's off-kilter 7/8 blues Don't Let the Boogie Man Get You (2005); and two pieces by Leo Ornstein (Rendezvous at the Lake (1977) to start the program and Three Fantasy Pieces (1962) to close it). Rendezvous is a lush, swirling work sounding at some times a bit like Ravel, at others, Scriabin, with pianistic flourishes like both composers. The Fantasy Pieces are also lush and unabashedly romantic, almost reminiscent of Rachmaninov. I wouldn't have guessed it when I walked in, but Trinity Chapel turned out to have great acoustical qualities for this concert — the piano sounded rich and deeply resonant, but not booming, echoey, or indistinct. This was especially nice for Ornstein's lush writing and for the unusual textures of Vierk's piece. As usual, Cahill spoke before most of the pieces, setting just the right tone, with interesting anecdotes about the composers and explanations of what we would hear in the music, thus creating a nice informal, friendly atmosphere of exploration and discovery.
(Jonathan Russell is a professor of musicianship at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and an editor with PBA Music Publishing. He is active in the Bay Area as a clarinetist, bass clarinetist, and composer.)
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Sarah Cahill
