A CALIFORNIA TREE INSPIRES AN EAST-WEST PREMIERE 
                                              By D. Rane Danubian
        artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area music and dance 
                                                                 Week of March 9-16, 2009
                                                                  Vol. 11, No. 74
          SAN JOSE---A concert ping-pong between a string quartet and the San Jose Chamber Orchestra put them together for an atmospheric world premiere by Hyo-Shin Na.
            Bay Area composer Na, 49, was inspired by long examination of an English walnut tree in Golden Gate Park in order to create her programmatic composition “Not the Object Alone” for strings---all western strings, despite the many Korean gestures in her score. It’s yet another sensitive entry into the growing east-west repertory spanning the Pacific, featuring unusual effects that drew the listener inexorably into her 17-minute creation. This is the most effective of the Na works featured over the years by the SJCO.
            She calls for some unharmonized Far-Eastern-style four-note themes, repeatedly, as well as glissando slides suggesting a world not at all predictable, not entirely firmly rooted. The signature gesture here is the bowing of the vibraphone by the added percussionist (Galen Lemmon), providing a haunting, high-pitched intrusion into a world of softly wailing winds, scudding bows, and unexpected off-beat pizzicatos. I particularly liked the glissandos by the two contrabasses, as if descending into the deepest roots of the tree. 
            The only weakness is the drawn-out fade-out ending. As if with prolonged hugs to a beloved at the train station, the composer seemed reluctant to let go and conclude. The Ives Quartet was at the center of the proceedings, but was never given a separate identity in the mix. Barbara Day Turner led the premiere to good effect, with welcome softness,  and a more mellifluous  interpretation than she would have given in the early years of this ensemble now in its 18th season.
            Overall, her orchestra was responsive and authoritative.
            George Walker, 86, created his share of pieces in modern style. But in “Lyric” he reverted to a sweet pastoral idiom reminiscent of British composers like Delius and Vaughan Williams. It’s a stately opus created by Walker, who in 1996 at age 73 became the first African-American composer to receive a Pulitzer Prize (You’re never too old, folks---in 2002, Henry Brant was evven awarded  a Pulitzer in music for a recent San Francisco Symphony piece at age 88!)
            From the era of Copland Americana, we also got the lively “Rounds” by David Diamond, a toe-tapper with animated fiddle-faddle and an orgy of fugues. 
            The Bay Area’s Ives Quartet got a new lease on life a couple of years back with the addition of two members formerly on the Solisti Veneti ensemble, and now on the S.F. Conservatory faculty. First violinist Bettina Mussumeli and violist Jodi Levitz joined Susan Freier and cellist Stephen Harrison to produce high discipline and deft bowing in the popular Dvorak “American” Quartet, Op. 96. Despite the name, it was, ironically enough, the only non-American work on this March 8 program. 
            The SJCO is a unique institution, with a playing roster of 16 women and seven men. South Bay audiences are notorious for avoiding modern music, and yet founder/conductor Turner fills up most of the house at the inviting intimate site of Le Petit Trianon in program after program, often without a single familiar selection being played. That takes a little wizardry---or perhaps a baton that turns into a magic wand before concerts get underway.
            San Jose Chamber Orchestra, Barbara Day Turner, music director, at Le Petit Trianon, San Jose. Next: May 17 season finale. For info: (408) 295-4416, or go online.
        ©D. Rane Danubian 2009

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        D. Rane Danubian has been covering the dance and modern-music scene in the San Francisco Bay Area with relish -- and a certain amount of salsa -- for years.
    These critiques appearing weekly (or sometimes semi-weekly, but never weakly) will focus on dance and new musical creativity in performance, with forays into books (by authors of the region), theater and recordings by local artists as well.
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