Music Academy of the West’s summer festival in Santa Barbara is a hub of innovative music making with several intriguing events being offered for this week: chamber music master classes with the Takacs Quartet, pianist Conor Hanick and a concert that highlighted rarities by Sofia Gubaidulina, Enescu and Milhaud, among others – performed by Music Academy faculty.
The Takacs Quartet was founded in 1975 by four students of the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, of which Karoly Schranz (violin) and Andras Fejer (cello) are still part of the group alongside long-time members Edward Dusinberre (1st violin) and Geraldine Walther (viola). They enjoy an active international career that includes quartet in residence at the Music Academy and University of Colorado at Boulder.
The Takacs master class was unique for the overriding seriousness and total aesthetic immersion of their comments to four student quartets – each member contributing suggestions that pushed participants to an even higher level. At times Walther, score in hand, approached the viola players to point out certain technical or coloration effects, speaking with the nurturing tone of a Girl Scout troop leader.
For example: the Takacs Quartet mentioned that the Finale of Dvorak’s Op. 51 should be delivered with a gypsy feel, the Allegro of Beethoven’s Op. 131 played as a galop and the Tres modere from Debussy’s Op. 10 unfold as an expressive dialogue between instruments where players use body language as a means of achieving a better expressive communication.
This sold-out master class was held in Lehmann Hall with its ballroom style ambience that is adorned with chandeliers and paintings of Lotte Lehmann – a truly elegant venue. Conor Hanick is a noted specialist of contemporary and au courant repertoire, and his chamber music master class at Weinman Hall focused on quintets for strings and piano of Shostakovich and Schnittke, performed by students who seemed very much in tune with this musical genre.
Hanick’s approach is professorial and laid-back, which helps student and audience grasp and feel a part of the learning curve. One group played several movements from the Shostakovich Op. 57 and Hanick not only offered technical tips but shed light on this composer’s sense of dark, often angular sentimentality and contrapuntral intricacies – certainly evident in his 24 Preludes and Fugues Op. 87 for piano.
He remarked that different phrases within movements have different behavioral patterns and one must understand when to move and when to hold back, because sometimes Shostakovichs’ tonality can be resistant to a players way of ‘getting back home.’
The results were immediate as was also the case when another group of students tackled the Lento and Moderato pastorale from Schnittke’s Quintet for Two Violins, Viola, Cello and Piano (1976). This work astonishes for its sonic resonance, use of overtones and a minimalist piano sequence that seemed to vaporize into pianissimos.
Hanick worked with piano and strings alone to achieve textural effects, which he described as a peeling away of layers that hold together degrees of expressivity. Schnittke’s music is in a class by itself and while many works are not part of standard concert repertoire, they should not be underrated.
Wednesday evening’s concert at Hahn Hall presented a collage of mostly unusual works that contained qualities of beauty, kitsch, experimentalism and virtuosity. While on stage, many of the soloists gave introductory remarks regarding the composer or piece to be played. This was particularly effective with Nico Abondolo’s assessment of Sofia Gubaidulina’s Sonata for Double Bass and Piano (1975), which he performed with Jonathan Feldman.
Abondolo described the piece as disfunctional, and while some may find Gubaidulina’s stark, quasi-mystical soundscape ridiculous, there is a certain fascination involved in listening to shimmering tonal clusters, hands on the soundboard metallic effects, pointillist-style bowing and keyboard tappings and over-sized pizzicato and glissando string intonations. A commanding collaboration between Abondolo and Feldman did much to promote the quasi-mythical image of this composer of our time.
By contrast, Mozart’s sonata for violin and piano K. 377 received a reflective and effervescent reading from Pamela Frank (violin - of the Curtis Institute of Music) and Jeremy Denk, who enhanced the work’s buoyant outer movements with an exuberant display of fingerwork and facial expressions.
How awesome it was to hear a work by George Enescu, if only the six minute Legende for trumpet and piano, that infuses lyricism with emotional intangibility – played with great flair and sweep by Paul Merkelo (trumpet) and Natasha Kislenko. Mihauld’s Quatre Visages for Viola and Piano, Op. 238 proved a delightful programming choice.
Milhaud was one of the Music Academy’s original faculty members and a stable at Mills College. Quatre Visages is a portrait of four femme fatale that includes a La Californienne – written of course pre-Baywatch. Richard O’Neill (viola) and Margaret McDonald delivered the right amount of sparkle, delicacy and vigor to bring out the music’s sophisticated and piquant passagework, especially The Wisconsonian. A tres chic performance.
Warren Jones is a guru of vocal piano interpretation and accompaniment and his collaboration with Cynthia Koledo DeAlmeida of Poulenc’s Sonata for Oboe and Piano captured the essence of the work’s perfumed and austere use of melodicism. DeAlmeida’s silky-smooth and resilient tone floated above and with Jones’ palette of nuances to magical effect, especially the Deploration: Tres calme.
An upcoming concert review will feature the Music Academy Festival Orchestra led by Alan Gilbert with American diva Renee Fleming in works by John Adams, Brahms and Richard Strauss.