three concerts

I had a busy weekend.

Friday: Pavel Haas Quartet, San Francisco
Average-quality performances of two average-quality quartets by Dvořák (Op. 61) and Tchaikovsky (No. 3).

Saturday: Santa Cruz Chamber Players, Aptos
I had to attend this, because when I won their bassoon theme competition last year, the prize was a free ticket to one of this year's concerts. The season is almost over and this was the first one I could get to.
But I was interested anyway. Light and reedy tenor Andrew Carter sang 1) songs with piano by Harry T. Burleigh, Dvořák's Black pupil whose work I'd never heard before (very plush late Romantic), 2) songs without piano but with viola (!) by RVW (violist, Polly Malan), 3) a song with both piano and viola by the impresario of this concert, Chris Pratorius Gomez. Pianist Kiko Torres Velasco also unloaded Beethoven's Op. 109 sonata, a bit clumsily at first but with increasing effectiveness as it went on.

Sunday: Esmé Quartet, Willow Glen
For review at SFCV, but I'd want to get to this anyway. The Esmé are supreme at conveying the sprawling masterworks of the SQ repertoire. When they played Dvořák's Op 106, I wrote, "This was awesome, a performance for the ages." When they played Schubert's G Major, I wrote, "one felt floating along in a timeless state of bliss." This time it was Beethoven's Op. 131, a particular challenge to make comprehensible, and I wrote, "This lucid presentation came off as warm, even friendly" and that in all such works, they combine "grace and drive with ideal balance and expression." Most satisfactory.