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CHAMBER MUSIC REVIEW
San Francisco Symphony Musicians December 17, 2006
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Symphonic Summit at the Mansion By Janos Gereben
When you have outstanding musicians onstage before you, thoughts rarely turn to backstage matters or the front office. And yet, as the splendiferous violist Geraldine Walther, and five prominent former colleagues of hers from the San Francisco Symphony took their places on the stage under the high ceiling of Kohl Mansion's Great Hall Sunday evening, the question became obvious: How did this conjunction of high talent come about ... in Burlingame’s high school building?
Music at Kohl was presenting members of the San Francisco Symphony at this
"holiday celebration concert," so Walther, who has left her principal violist chair to join the Takács Quartet, appeared as a "special guest," "special" being redundant when applied to her. Bona fide current symphony members were violinist Amy Hiraga, cellist Peter Wyrick, bassist Scott Pingel, clarinetist Luis Baez, and pianist Robin Sutherland. How did this august list get cobbled together?
Kohl Mansion entrance
The answer is: Patricia Kristof Moy, executive director of Music at Kohl. This former longtime director of the Stern Grove Festival, later of the San Francisco Boys Chorus, and a veteran French diction coach at the San Francisco Opera has producer's mojo. Add Moy's formative years in France, and you can count on such imports as the Parisii Quartet to Burlingame, an important ensemble formed by four prize-winning graduates of the Paris Conservatory. Moy also secured the services of the quaint — and apparently excellent — Trio con Brio Copenhagen, formed in Vienna by two Korean sisters and a Danish pianist. Coming up is the local Alexander Quartet (Jan. 7); the Amelia Piano Trio (Feb. 4); another French import, the Modigliani Quartet (Feb. 25); the Bay Area's FOG Trio of Jorja Fleezanis, Garrick Ohlsson, and Michael Grebanier (March 11, introduced by Michael Steinberg); the Baltic's Vilnius Quartet (April 1); and — back to Sunday — the San Francisco Symphony musicians.
Music is performed in a royal venue that looks much like the dining hall of a medieval court — it was, in fact, the Kohls' living room — but with surprisingly good acoustics. The audience of about 250 squeezed around the tiny stage, ample bonhomie making up for the lack of business-class comfort. As Hiraga, Walther, and Wyrick launched into the Beethoven String Trio in C minor, Op. 1 No. 3, the slow, deep, dramatic opening notes instantly transformed the large, cold-ish venue into a warm, intimate space. The lively Scherzo and weighty Finale were wonderful, but the opening Allegro manifested that inimitable sense of "playing together" that comes from years and years of shared work and pleasure.
Kohl Mansion interior Schumann's infrequently performed Märchenerzählungen (Fairy Tales) was a rare treat. Baez's clarinet and Walther's viola spoke as one instrument and Sutherland's smooth, effortless piano accompaniment provided a firm base. In spite of the title, the work portrays no specific story, but each of the four movements (similar in tone and tempo) can easily be used a "soundtrack" to a tale unspooling in your mind. Charm — no, enchantment — was especially evident in the third movement, one of those musical moments when time feels suspended. A robust — although still amply romantic — "antidote” came with Schubert's "Trout" Quintet. Sutherland, Hiraga, Walther, Wyrick, and Pingel filled every inch of the stage physically, and every nook and cranny of the Great Hall with the emotional-spiritual perfection of ensemble playing, the genius of individual excellence.
(Janos Gereben is a regular contributor to San Francisco Classical Voice. His e-mail address is janosg@gmail.com.)
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Geraldine Walther
