four concerts

Last Sunday, Israeli Chamber Project. I wasn't the only person who had to dash from the St. Lawrence Quartet concert at Stanford (which I was reviewing for SFCV: I linked to that one last week) to Kohl Mansion for another chamber music concert. So was the cellist of the St. Lawrence Quartet, who was giving the pre-concert talk for the latter. We both made it. Who didn't make it were three of the five intended musicians, who stayed in Israel with their families. Who did make it were the two already based in the U.S., the pianist and violinist, and they added an American clarinetist who was the teacher of their Israeli clarinetist. We had music for clarinet and piano (all arrangements), for violin and piano, and for all three from the offbeat pair of Khachaturian and Bartok. I reviewed this for the Daily Journal, assuming you can see the whole review and not just the first two paragraphs.

Thursday, JACK Quartet. One hour of string quartet music by John Luther Adams, a renowned contemporary composer not to be confused with the other composing John Adams. Most of this was in the thin, ghostly sound of harmonics, except that one movement proved you can also play harmonics loudly. I hadn't known that; nobody in my presence had ever tried before. The music was made of hushed figures forming chordal clouds. The same phrase would be played overlapping over itself, in a tumbling effect forming different irregular patterns. This was much the same formula used by Timo Andres last week, except Andres' music sounds precisely and coldly mechanically constructed, while Adams's feels human and breathing. The kind of music that emotionally satisfies me but would scandalize a rigid modernist. The only other music I can compare it to is that one movement composed of falling figures (it depicts walking down a mountainside) reminded me of Carl Orff's Entrata after William Byrd.

Friday, San Francisco Symphony. Elim Chan, a young (36) female conductor who was a late substitute, proved her mettle with this program. Les Illuminations, a song cycle by Benjamin Britten in French, was not something I anticipated with enthusiasm, but while I could not make out a word being sung even with the lyrics open in front of me, underneath it was a really interesting string orchestra work. Followed by Gustav Holst's epic The Planets with the ideal dynamism and sweep, and with every exotic instrumental color exactly where it should be. Special credit in the Saturn movement, where the alternating implacable/frantic passages were extremely implacable and exceedingly frantic.

This Sunday, Sonoma County Philharmonic. I drove two hours to hear this volunteer orchestra perform Alexander Glazunov's Fifth Symphony, a favorite work I'd never heard live before. It was worth it. Where Russian recordings are heavy and lumbering, this was a lively cavorting animal. I got to speak to conductor Norman Gamboa afterwards and thank him for it. Also on the program, Franz Liszt's Les Preludes, a familiar piece also somewhat reinvented for the occasion, and Robert Schumann's Cello Concerto with soloist Starla Breshears, a 15-year-old SF Conservatory student who had not only superb tone quality but also displayed a wide range of expression. Excellent work, and not just for her age.