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CHAMBER MUSIC REVIEW
February 8, 2004
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By Jeff Dunn
Contrast was the name of the game for five chamber works presented by
members and guests of the San Francisco Symphony. Uniform excellence,
however, was the way of the playing, eliciting cheers
throughout the program.
Bartók's 1938 Contrasts set the undeclared theme at the outset. Vigorous dances accompanied by Associate Concertmaster Nadya Tichman's strummed and pizzicato violin were contrasted by the brilliant and ghostly "night music" of the central "Pihenö" (Relaxation) movement. A "prepared" violin, one set with two strings out of tune for Tichman to grab temporarily, added a suitably peasant-party atmosphere for the beginning of the third movement. Both Tichman and Associate Principal Clarinetist Luis Baez got to show off in brief cadenzas while pianist Marc Shapiro served Bartók splendidly in gray vest and tie.
Then a change of pace, a plunge from the back-county party to the obsessions of the pharmaphilic poet and suicide Georg Trakl, whose set of six poems, "Die junge Magd," was set by Paul Hindemith in 1923. The poetry describes the dreamy wasting away unto death of a young farm girl. The mezzo Wendy Hillhouse wisely chose to stick to Hindemith's relatively objective musical interpretation rather than succumb to a Vampyra approach to lines translated "Her yellow hair flutters and in the yard the rats scream." The result was less morbid, more in keeping with the sadness regarding a victim of the many incurable diseases of the time, and ultimately more moving. Hillhouse was her most haunting on Hindemith's stunning low notes. The accompanying string quartet, flute and clarinet were flawless.
Back from intermission, out of the doldrums, and into a jazz composition of Associate principal trumpet Mark Inouye, "The Bull Behind the Horns." Its presence on the program reminds one that American shrinking art forms ought to stick together. Most of the audience had no trouble shifting to the different convention of applauding each solo of Inouye's trumpet, Robert Roth's tenor sax, and Jeff Massanari's electrified guitar. Only Inouye, however, seemed fully comfortable in the medium. The two sections, "Inapprehensible" and "Lady Bull," offered triple-meter tunes and "90% spontaneity." Lesser memorability, but the audience was well pleased. Next up, Opus 1 of the little-known Russian/Armenian composer Iosif Andriasov (1933-2000), the 1954 String Quartet. Like many an opus 1, it is highly derivative of admired composers, in this case at least three of the "Mighty Handful:" Rimsky-Korsakov, Cui, and Borodin. Not a whiff of the 20th century intrudes. Except for the opening tune, far too reminiscent of Sheherazade's Young Prince and Princess, the eleven-minute quartet was Kismet-pleasant and greeted with whoops at the conclusion. It was performed lustily by Symphony first violinist Victor Romasevich, "regular substitute" violinist Philip Santos, associate principal violist Yun Jei Liu and Symphony cellist Lawrence Granger. Principal Harpist Douglas Rioth brought cheers from the audience with his rendition of Ravel's Introduction and Allegro. The collaborating string quartet, flute and clarinet did a bang-up job, especially the Symphony cellist Barbara Andres.
(Jeff Dunn is a freelance critic with a B.A. in music and a Ph.D. in Geologic Education. A composer of piano and vocal music, he is a member of NACUSA and a Bay Area correspondent for the journal 21st-Century Music.)
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Wendy Hillhouse 