|
CHAMBER MUSIC REVIEW
An Equivocal Memorial January 26, 2002
|
By Michelle Dulak
That the San Francisco Conservatory should present a memorial concert for Isaac Stern is only natural — Stern spent much of his life in San Francisco and used his prestige to the good of the Conservatory whenever he could. Saturday's Isaac Stern Memorial Concert, though, was a strange event. The music on the program might have all been connected up to Stern, but no one made the attempt. The only obvious reminder of the concert's dedicatee was the panoply of Stern photos just outside the doors of the hall.
Krista Bennion Feeney led off the afternoon with the first half of Bach's B-minor Partita, and already I was wondering, why this? Why solo Bach? One of the very few parts of the standard repertoire that Stern didn't take up into his regular repertory. After she'd played it I still didn't know.
Feeney played from the score, which surprised me very much. Students are routinely asked to memorize solo Bach, and it was a bit bizarre to see an instructor reading from the printed music, and fussing over the fold-out in the transition from the Corrente to its Double, where most violinists (having the music in their heads) would have gone attacca. Nonetheless, it was that second Double that was the best — kaleidoscopic, nimble, and neat. The rest sounded, frankly, a little under-practised. Feeney made a fantastic sound on the upper two strings, but when she had to play chords, she sounded distinctly less comfortable. A whistly E-string might happen to anyone. But I should have expected so gutsy a violinist to dig in more to the lower strings.
Chen Zhao, who followed Feeney on the program, holds the Isaac Stern Chair in the San Francisco Symphony, so it made all sorts of sense that he'd play this concert. He performed the first movement of the Brahms G Major Sonata with a lean tone and a quick vibrato, both rather wiped out by pianist Steven Bailey, who seemed particularly fond of the hemiola bits in the Brahms and overpowered Zhao more often than not. The Debussy Fille aux cheveux de lin that followed, though, was practically perfect, graceful and eloquent. Ian Swensen, Bonnie Hampton, and Nathan Schwartz took on the slow movement of the Schubert E-flat Trio. Schwartz is now very frail (two people helped him both onstage and off), but his playing seemed as strong as ever, apart from the occasional unevenness of touch. Swensen and Hampton were a magnificent team, their rich sounds perfectly matched.
Andrea Segar, apparently a student in the Preparatory Division (that is, pre-college) gave a scorching performance of Kreisler's “Praeludium & Allegro” (without music — take that, Feeney!), all sultry sound and chops. But the best performance of the whole afternoon came from a student ensemble in the first movement of the Brahms piano quintet. Ariana Kim and Megumi Stohs were the violinists, and though both played beautifully, it's Stohs who deserves the palm; it's not so difficult to project as a first violinist, but for a second to match such a first takes real guts. I've never heard the two violin parts balanced as well as this. Add a couple of strong lower strings and Kana Mimaki's terrific, agile-but-muscular piano playing, and you have a real performance. This was playing that really did make a fitting memorial to Isaac Stern. (Michelle Dulak is a violinist and violist who has written about music for "Strings," "Stagebill," "Early Music America" and The New York Times. ) ©2002 Michelle Dulak, all rights reserved |