By TOM NEENAN | Special to the Palisadian-Post
For more than two decades, Chamber Music Palisades has been presenting concerts in the visually stunning and acoustically vibrant St. Matthew’s Church on Bienveneda Avenue.
Along with exemplary playing by founding members Delores Stevens (piano) and Susan Greenberg (flute), CMP consistently presents outstanding guest artists in interesting and innovative programs. On Nov. 14, CMP opened its 21st season with a concert of 20th century music.
“Four Medieval Dances” by the Swiss composer Joseph Lauber opened the program. Lauber, born in 1864, studied in Paris and his style is reminiscent of the smooth, modal harmonies of his contemporary Gabriel Fauré. “The Dances” employ the rhythmic characteristics of their medieval precursors (Rigaudon, Mascarade, Pavane, Gaillarde) and served as a delightful aperitif for what was to come.
Greenberg played with authority and style but, as was the case for much of the evening, everyone’s attention was drawn to the beautiful sights and sounds of Cristina Montes Mateo (harp) whose long arms and graceful hands seemed to float alongside her instrument, deftly plucking notes from the air and sending them into the resonant space.
Manuel de Falla was a native of Spain but spent some of his formative years in Paris. In 1914, de Falla wrote his “Suite Populaire Espagnol”—a set of Spanish songs that became so popular that they prompted arrangements for several combinations of instruments.
The melodies were borrowed Falla printed folksong collections, which de Falla transformed into miniature jewels, each with its own personality and charm. Qualities of Spanish music are suggested by fandango rhythms, strummed strings (a la gitarra) and imitations of castanets. Karen Dreyfus (viola) was the passionately lyrical protagonist, stylishly accompanied by Stevens.
The name Jennifer Higdon may not be familiar to those who mostly attend concerts of “old” music, but anyone who is interested in living composers will have heard of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Brooklynite.
She is among the most successful composers on the classical music scene today and, with the likes of Joan Tower and Caroline Shaw, is making a real impact on behalf of women in the male-dominated world of classical composers.
“Dash,” for flute, clarinet and piano, is exactly what the name suggests—a four-and-a-half-minute sprint to the finish for the three players. Don Foster (clarinet) shined in his performance, effortlessly traversing the entire range of the instrument with precision and style.
The technical challenges created by Higdon for the players are significant and the occasional intonation issues were attributable more to the writing than the playing. Had he been in the audience, Emperor Franz Joseph II may have uttered the famous comment attributed to him with regards to Mozart, “Too many notes.”
Debussy’s “Trio for Flute, Viola, and Harp” is a relatively late work, composed in 1915, at a time of harmonic experimentation and melodic invention. “The Trio” at times harkens back to Debussy’s early fascination with music from the Far East, with its exotic scales and patterns of repeated notes but is more abstract than impressionist pieces such as the “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun,” written at the dawn of the belle époque. All of these qualities were to be enjoyed in the transparent and delicate performance by Greenberg, Dreyfus and Montes Mateo.
If Alfred Uhl is a household name to anyone it is only to clarinetists who have devoted themselves to his “48 Etudes for Solo Clarinet” as technique-builders and regular practice pieces.
His “Kleines Konzert” (“Little Concerto”) was composed in 1937 (revised 1988) shortly before he was drafted into the Austrian Army where he spent two years as commandant of a French prisoner or war camp.
Vienna, during Uhl’s formative years, was a hotbed of musical modernism: Arnold Schoenberg was creating his first atonal works and would soon present the music world with its first official 12-tone row.
Uhl opted for a more traditional musical language—one that delights the listener with spicy sonorities rather than assaulting with incomprehensible complexity. “Kleines Konzert” is densely contrapuntal; its generally dark mood lightened occasionally with moments of Mahleresque tunefulness.
Foster, Dreyfus and Stevens kept individual lines clear and well balanced, leaving this listener wanting to hear more of Uhl’s music.
KUSC-FM’s Alan Chapman, the long-time program annotator for CMP offered his usual pithy and insightful commentary.
Tom Neenan is lecturer in music history and theory at Caltech, as well as a frequent speaker for the LA Philharmonic and New West Symphony.
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