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CHAMBER MUSIC REVIEW
Schubert to Dvorak With the FOG Trio March 25, 2002
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By Benjamin Frandzel
Two great local players of the past and present and a favorite visitor gathered themselves as the FOG Trio in the intimate music room of Burlingame's Kohl
Mansion on March 25 for an exploration of two major works of the trio repertory. Michael Grebanier, the SF Symphony's longtime principal cellist, joined the
Symphony's former associate concertmaster Jorja Fleezanis and frequent guest soloist Garrick Ohlsson for outstanding readings of music by Schubert and
Dvorak. It was hard to believe that this is only an occasional group. Their collective musical empathy made it seem as though they had been playing together
for years on a regular basis.
Opening with Schubert's E-flat major trio, D. 929, the FOG players placed an immediate emphasis on the composer's great sense of forward motion, exuding a bright and very rich sound as the piece rolled along. Schubert's propulsive bass lines, in the form of left hand piano figures or string pizzicatos, formed the pillars of the
movement. While this underpinning went churning forward, the upper lines, handled deftly by Fleezanis and Grebanier, fulfilled the possibilities of the composer's granitic bass lines.
Ohlsson's virtuosity was especially striking, as he anchored the movement's development with his mighty left hand while providing delicate figurations with
his right, supporting the foreground development in the strings. One of the only notable flaws in the evening's performance came about as Grebanier and
Fleezanis seemed slightly eager to move ahead of Ohlsson's measured pace, but by the second movement, the ensemble had settled into a wholly unified mode.
For the Lieder-like second movement, on Schubert's borrowed Swedish folk-song "Se solen sjunker" (The Sun is Setting), Grebanier provided some gorgeous playing here, singing out over Ohlsson's steady chords. Schubert's ability to develop material while keeping the melody at the forefront was eminently present, thanks to the trio's ability to sustain the music's line. A memory of the folk-song was present in many of Schubert's figures even as they grew and changed, fragments of it used to provoke harmonic surprises. The FOG's finely-honed sense of balance was equally valuable in the scherzo, as its canonic construction was evident throughout, the imitative lines overlapping but all sounding clearly. The finale, a sweeping summing-up of all that came before, received much of its structural clarity in Ohlsson's contributions. He had extraordinary control of the many brief buildups that occur in the movement, modulating the force of each to fit into the overall scheme. While he intensified enough to find the work's drama, he left enough energy in check to ensure that the next crescendo would have even more impact. As a pure accompanist, as in the return of the Swedish folk theme, his playing was felt as much as heard, the pianist's subtlety putting Grebanier's beautiful playing front and center. Dvorak's F-minor trio, Op. 65, occupied the program's second half, providing a study in the development of the piano trio in the 19th century. The lead role was far more intertwined among all three players than in the Schubert; ideas were exchanged more rapidly, the emotional tone more heated from the very opening of the piece. The FOG let loose with the Brahmsian fury that animates this movement, intensely focused at all times and tuneful in the music's more relaxed passages.
As in the Schubert's scherzo, Ohlsson provided a wonderful dancing quality to the music of the following Allegretto Grazioso. While the theme seemed light in his hands, Fleezanis and Grebanier demonstrated Dvorak's ability to make the most of a melody when they took over the same theme with a stomping intensity. For the slow movement that followed, the string players switched to their richest sound and most probing exploration of the music. The pathos of the opening cello theme was answered and deepened beautifully by Fleezanis. When the material repeated, the trio found new and surprising ways to articulate it, and continued their travels further into the music's emotional corridors. In the concluding movement, the music returned to the stormy mode of the opening, as melodies were tossed about with great sweep over excited textures. The players were able to pound it out when necessary, and to draw back effectively for Dvorak's series of false climaxes. Each tempestuous buildup was shaped so well that the sweetness, then brief, joyful rush that ended the evening felt wholly earned and deeply rewarding. (Benjamin Frandzel is a Bay Area musician and writer. In addition to writing concert music, he has collaborated with dance, theater, and visual artists, and has written about music for many publications and musical organizations. He is currently a graduate student in composition at San Francisco State University.) ©2002 Benjamin Frandzel, all rights reserved |