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CHAMBER MUSIC REVIEW
December 5, 2005
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By Heuwell Tircuit
In my experience, most concerts are good, some merely ordinary, some few a bit weird, others genuinely great and
memorable. The Left Coast Chamber Ensemble's program in
the Green Room of Veteran's Auditorium on Friday
combined a little of all of these, while covering three
modern works (including one premiere) plus one overheated
Bach Brandenburg Concerto.
The program was titled "The Violas in Our Lives," and each
of the four compositions featured the instrument in some
way or other. Yu-Hui Chang's Perplexing Sorrow
(2001/02) for viola, flute and piano opened the event,
followed by George Benjamin's Viola, Viola (1997)
for two unaccompanied violas. Following intermission
came the premiere of Kurt Erickson's Self Portrait
#43 (2005) for viola duo and piano, and the program
was rounded out with Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 6.
The sizable audience obviously loved it all.
Erickson has been successful in writing choral music
(church music in particular), and Self Portrait #43,
with its combination of novelty and accessibility, gives some
idea why. The sense of melody is basically tonal, but the
music is certainly modern in its colorations. There was also a
touch of folk color, usually set forth in minimalist terms.
Happily, Erickson knows when enough is enough, so he did
not hang on his repeated motives ad nauseam.
Besides these qualities, his control of form was strong
and original. Portrait opens with a sizable passage for
the unaccompanied violas (Kurt Rohde and Phyllis Kamrin),
mostly in toccata fashion, before the pianist (Karen
Rosenak) tears into a solo that most resembles a small
cadenza. Once all the protagonists have been put forward,
the main body of the music then continues with the full trio,
modern in its voice without ever going overboard with
dissonances of harmony or rhythm. (Also, the composer's
program notes informed us that his title is a pure abstraction,
neither a self portrait nor anything from a numbered chain of
pieces. There are no numbers 42, 41, 40, . . .) Of the three modern works, Benjamin's Viola, Viola was easily the most impressive. The style lies somewhere between Britten and Berio, a most unusual crossover integration but one ultimately rewarding for the ear. Benjamin uses several technical devices dear to contemporary composers, such as deliberately "roaring" the low register into a sort of rasp, playing on the bridge, and the like. These, however, sounded perfectly functional and unobtrusive. Spread amid the general brilliance of the piece are lovely bits of pure lyricism, so the music never jolts the listener. And, of course, the fact that it was marvelously played by Rohde and Kamrin added greatly to the experience. Chang's Perplexing Sorrow was composed in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, hence the title. Her sonic vocabulary followed all the mannerisms expected of a with-it young composer, but I found it lacking in any sort of personal touch. She employed a slow-fast-slow form for her layout, but the whole did not seem to progress from one idea to the next. It was almost as if you could hear every time she had set down the pencil. (I once had a theory professor who considered making a first sketch of anything in ink as "the height of arrogance.") The evening concluded with a most odd and, frankly, annoying stab at Bach's Sixth Brandenburg. The ensemble did not have all the exact instruments — that is, two violas, two gambas, a cello, and a bass, with, by inference, a keyboard instrument to support the bass line. What we heard was the two violas, two cellos, one gamba, and bass. Neither that nor the lack of a keyboard is a major flaw, to me. The original manuscript, after all, contains no figured bass numbers under the bass line (although others of the Brandenburgs do). What bothered me were the tempos. The first movement was taken at an uncommonly brisk clip, which added a bit of country prance to the music. While effective, it deprived the music of the weight I expected. But that's acceptable, if odd. Then the slow movement — an "Adagio ma non tanto" (Adagio but not too much) — was transformed into an ultra slow, steamy romanza replete with 220-volt vibrato dripping with sweetness. This was followed by a frenetic performance of the final Allegro, played at what sounded like Molto vivace. It came off as a triumph of performers' ego over basic common sense. Bach, ladies and gentlemen — Bach, not Bloch. (Heuwell Tircuit is a composer, performer, and writer. He was chief writer for Gramophone Japan and for 21 years was a music reviewer for the San Francisco Chronicle, and previously was a reviewer for the Chicago American and Asahi Evening News.)
Left Coast's next concerts, "New Voices in Expressionism," are February 2 in Mill Valley and February 6 in San Francisco, and feature music of Roberto Sierra, Massimo Lauricella, Toru Takemitsu, and Carl Schimmel.
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George Benjamin
