When musicians meet, they play together

Today five virtuoso musicians met for the first time. Quartet San Francisco (QSF) was warming up in Gilman Chapel in Cedar Grove Cemetery. They had just driven up from Rhode Island where they were staying for a string workshop and concert at the university in their concert tour of Rhode Island, Boston, Lexington, and Martha’s Vineyard.

Robert Bekkers, who gave the inaugural concert of this new concert series, walked into the church and shook hands with them. He and Jeremy Cohen, founder and leader of QSF, had corresponded by e-mail after my introduction. One member of my ukulele pluck ensemble had told me about QSF, and after watching their videos, I was hooked.

Reflection of string quartet concert of Sarn Oliver et al

After attending an Ebb & Flow Arts concert, more and more I find myself unable to write a review about the entire performance.

From a pragmatic point of view, the concert is very unlikely to be repeated at the same venue, in the same format, or by the same performers. Each program is unique. What purpose does a review of a one-off concert serve? A validation for the performers, composers, and the producer? A reminder for those who attended? A snapshot for those who missed the concert? A video recording would perhaps do a better job.

To put it mildly, a review will not do justice to the live performance of Saturday 10 August 2013 on Maui. Neither would a video recording. But I shall “reflect” so that I can remember and share.

A concert of what I call “music of our time” is oddly also music that is unfamiliar to the general public who are accustomed to hearing amplified familiar sounding music. On Maui, occasions to hear unfamiliar music are not only few and far between but also extremely rare, such that every concert fetches a full house. Sadly one would have to repeat the experience several times to fully appreciate the music and the nuances.

Last evening’s string quartet concert at the new creative arts center of Seabury Hall, a high school at nearly 2,000 feet above sea level, is no exception. The concert goer’s journey begins with the drive uphill, a steep and curvaceous ascent towards the famous Haleakala. Despite it being my second visit to this private institution, I was still awed by the fairytale, fortress-like environment — the manicured lawn and gardens, architecturally designed buildings and interiors, all along the path from the parking lot to the A’ali’ikuhunoa Creative Arts Center. The hall, which opened in September 2012, is very modern and open, reminding me of the newer concert venues in the Netherlands where the inside and outside are almost seamlessly interfaced.

I highly recommend getting there an hour early for the pre-concert talk. Although the half-hour talk by Ebb & Flow Art’s founder and artistic director, Robert Pollock, and one or two members of the performing musicians is optional, it generally helps to prepare yourself for what to listen for and understand the choice of music and its programming. Selecting music and putting the pieces in an optimal order is an art. Before seeing the program notes, I could only guess at the possible ways to arrange the order of the compositions: chronological order, reverse chronological order, or alternating tempos (fast, slow, fast, etc). The art of programming for a concert surely deserves a blog post or an update to an earlier research on a related topic.

As a member of the privileged audience, I am reminded that a free concert like this is not to be taken for granted. Someone has to come up with the concept, get the funding to bring the musicians here and publicize the concert. The choice of music is not a coincidence but a deliberate undertaking.

The concert of August 10, 2013 featured two world premieres, compositions by the first violinist Sarn Oliver, and one Hawaii premiere, the rich romantic String Quartet #1 (1946) of George Walker, the honorary president of Ebb and Flow Arts. The string quartet opened with Igor Stravinsky’s Three Pieces from 1914, a work I consider a warm-up, for it was dominated by other more powerful and memorable pieces as time wore on. It’s not uncommon to begin a concert with a warm up or a short overture to introduce what is to come. To swap Stravinsky with the last piece in the program, Shostakovich’s String Quartet #8, would be obviously wrong. But I could imagine Sarn Oliver’s UnderTow for electric string quartet as the last piece, for it made me want to dance. Nonetheless, ending the concert with Shostakovich’s most famous string quartet brings a finality to the evening. String Quartet number 8 is hailed as autobiographical with the initials of the composer, translated into the German letters D,Es,C,H and retranslated into the notes D, E-flat, C and B, a melancholic motif which is repeated throughout the five movement work.

The function of a post-concert gathering is quite different from that of a pre-concert talk: to meet and get to know the musicians. It is perfectly acceptable to stay after the performance, walk back stage to greet and meet the musicians, thank and congratulate them, and even provide some feedback. As a concert producer and performer, I would insist that the audience stay and mingle, for they bring the perspective I long to hear in my preparation for the next concert.

How would I summarize this concert? The highlights for me were the spectacular, modern venue; George Walker’s String Quartet #1, Sarn Oliver’s electric quartet piece, and Shostakovich’s String Quartet #8. In fact, these are the three works I’d like to hear again.

Ebb & Flow Arts present North South East West Festival 2013

Seabury Hall, Makawao
August 10 @ 7:30 pm

Chamber Music from San Francisco

Sarn Oliver, violin
Mariko Smiley, violin
David Kim, viola
Sebastien Gingras, cello

Tree Pieces (1914) – Igor Stravinsky

Transparence and Transcendance ** (2013) – Sarn Oliver

String Quartet #1* (1946) – George Walker

UnderTow** for electric string quartet (2013) – Sarn Oliver

String Quartet #8 (1960) – Dmitri Shostakovich

Replaced by a string quartet

It’s 8 am in London. My next door neighbor starts practising promptly. I have only met his wife who explained yesterday that he had a concert that evening. They moved into this neighborhood, what, 4 ? 5 years ago. Yet I never bothered to get to know them because one of them smokes, perhaps even both, albeit outside. The cigarette smoke drifts into my garden. And for that, I did not bother to get to meet, much less, know this virtuoso Russian concert pianist.

As the “Flight of the Bumble Bee” wears on, I find myself as the beneficiary of live background music. Ten years ago, I housed a young pianist who practised this exact piece every day while I made my move to the Netherlands. I could only imagine what my neighbors experienced through the brick walls.

Just last week, I unpacked my suitcase to the live background music of the classical guitar — Robert practising for his 3 gigs.

The third guitar concert culminated in Mauro Giuliani’s Theme & Variations. It was a piece I knew like the back of my hand. We went through it many times, the guitar struggling to be heard, the piano unresponsive and unsympathetic. After many years of tug and war, I finally relented.

The guitar cannot sound well if the guitarist has to force it to sound louder than the grand piano. Although it is absolutely possible, as Amsterdam-based composer Allan Segall proved in his first piece for piano and guitar, in most other cases the guitar has to struggle and the piano has to give in. The traditional way in which the duo is written assumes the piano is a fortepiano or some other subservient predecessor of today’s modern piano.

So Robert upgraded to a “concert guitar” — built to match the concert grand piano.

But I still had work to do. I had to constantly adjust to the volume and quality of the guitar sound.

There in Williams Hall at the New England Conservatory, on Tuesday 8th May, at approximately 9 pm, Robert performed Giuliani’s work with a string quartet. The four string players, by sheer nature of their instruments, brought out infinitely more color and texture than I could produce with 88 keys. Each of their four strings was a different instrument. They had the bows to help produce sound at different parts of the strings. They could pull, pluck, strum, hit, and more.

I sat back, resigned to my fate.

I had been replaced by a string quartet.

In the simplest case, my right hand was replaced by two violins and the left hand by the viola and cello. Thinking like this, every piano guitar duo piece can result in guitar and a string quartet or wind quartet or other combinations.

My eyes moistened as I thought of the years of preparation that led to this day. The guitarist can go on — playing solo with other instruments.

The pianist?

I’ve sold my Gerhard Adam grand piano in this Victorian cottage where I experimented with chamber music, house concerts, and eventually decided to pursue a degree in music. My Steinway Grand is sitting in a piano shop in Zeist, the Netherlands, waiting to be noticed, tried, and bought.

And I?

I have returned to where it all began. No piano. No audience. No house concert, but neighbor to a concert pianist who practises all day long.

C’est la vie.

Duo rehearsal with string quartet in Taipei

One definite highlight of our trip to Taiwan in April 2010 was meeting and playing with a Dutch/Taiwanese string quartet. I’m not sure they have a name yet, but they certainly have a purpose.

Their purpose is to get together on a regular basis to make music and have fun. When they are ready for a concert, they book a hall, publicise and promote the event, sell tickets, etc. What a joyful way to make music, no strings attached.

Rehearsal with string quartet in Taipei

Our host, a Dutch violinist whose passions include scuba diving and writing, met us at the Taipei Artist Village after our Rotary Club luncheon in central Taipei. How we came to meet Josine is the subject of another blog, perhaps one that will get featured on LinkedIn as a success story. She became our gateway to everything musical and Dutch in Taiwan.

Around 4 pm, Josine warned us that we would not be able to leave the rehearsal until midnight. There was THAT much music to be played and THAT much fun to be shared.

The Dutch/English cellist welcomed us into her home. While she made tea and coffee, Josine, Robert and I dived into Dutch composer Jacob ter Veldhuis’ TRIO, a piece we had performed with Korean violinist Naeon Kim at Utrecht Conservatory several years earlier.

When Robert took a break, we tried a piano trio with the cellist.

Hungry musicians need to eat. As soon as the viola player and the first violinist arrived, we all went to get dinner. Next door was a typical family-run Szechuan restaurant. It was not decorated by any means. But the food was heavenly. I should have asked for a copy of the bill to remember what was ordered. The viola player took care of it.

Szechuan dinner in Taipei

After dinner, I succumbed to watching “Finding Nemo” with the kids. There was no need for a piano in Boccherini’s Fandango or Tedesco’s Concerto. I will ask the rest of the musicians to LEAVE A REPLY below, for I fell asleep in the tatami room while they pressed on. It was Robert’s dream come true: to rehearse with a string quartet.