San Francisco Classical Voice

In a program yoking together the old and the new, one work stood out at the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble concert last Monday in the Green Room at the Veteran's Building. Pulse, by Ross Bauer, was given its first performance in a dramatic, clearly articulated rendition by Mark Brandenburg, clarinet, Kurt Rohde, viola, and Eric Zivian, piano.

In this 12-minute, single-movement piece there is an interplay between quiescent lyricism and agitated instability. The clarinet and viola behave as Jekyll and Hyde, often dogging each other's footsteps, sometimes reversing roles, occasionally playing a line in unison. The piano has a supportive part helping first one side and then the other. But in at least one place, the piano takes over, as a passage of accelerating, cascading figuration lands on an important climax. The piece ends satisfyingly but inconclusively, with the dichotomy unresolved.

Martha Horst's Passacaglia, for horn and strings, provided an evocative opening for the program. A set of variations on a slow, widely spaced four-note figure, this piece had considerably intensity. Often the instruments were deployed in rich, shifting, dissonant lines so that the underlying figure was only dimly perceived. Some variations employed sudden accents and ornamental flurries. Occasionally the horn, well played by Joshua Garrett, was featured in an especially dramatic solo.

The passacaglia motive was handled freely enough so that it never became monotonous. Toward the end, Horst created a kind of tidal ebb and surge that was very effective with the slow, steady pace she maintained throughout the composition. The string players were Sarah Knutson, viola, Rohde, and Ellen Ruth Rose, violas, Moriko Kishi, cello.

The best part of Terry Riley's El Hombre, for piano and string quartet, was the driving, dynamic piano part, played with verve by Zivian. The string quartet played in a mostly four-part harmonic style that never rose to the same level of interest. The two forces were often pitted against each other, with the strings inevitably sounding like some kind of accompaniment. In contrast, the whole ensemble was sometimes joined for slower, hymnlike episodes. By the end, the texture grew more fragmentary, eventually breaking apart as the piece faded away. The music generated some surface excitement and appealing contrasts but not enough inner cohesiveness to engage me fully.

The final work on the program was Brahms' Sextet in G Major, Op. 36. The energetic, vigorous lyricism essential to any performance of Brahms' chamber music was largely missing in this performance. Violinists Brian Lee and Joseph Meyer in particular produced thin, dynamically pallid tone with insufficient vibrato. There was no clear sense of direction. Instead the piece felt episodic and inadequately realized. In addition, the Green Room's overly resonant acoustic had a miasmic effect on this piece, as it did on all of the evening's music. Chamber programs like this need a better hall in which to display their riches.

(Jules Langert is a composer and teacher who resides in the East Bay.)

©2000 Jules Langert, all rights reserved