[www.sfcv.org] Chamber Music Green Music Festival, Sonoma State University, July 13 By Janos Gereben ROHNERT PARK - Why would PBS advertise passion? No idea what's behind that current run of incongruous ads on public television for public television, but the one in which members of a string quartet smash their instrument at the finale came into focus at a Green Music Festival concert here on Sunday. Jeffrey Kahane and the Borromeo String Quartet were on fire themselves, playing con fuoco, rushing rather troppo towards the climax of the Franck Piano Quintet in F minor, marked clearly as Allegro non troppo. They put enough muscle into the music to burn down a whole forest. This was unambiguous, unashamed Romanticism, with a capital R. In the great rush (which soon brought the audience to its feet for three loud and sincere rounds of ovation), that PBS image popped up. Will these fine musicians go by way of barbarian destruction? They didn't have to. Passion was writ large in the performance of this passionate-as-hell music, but (except for the all-too-audible breathing of the violist) nothing interfered with the quality of the music. The balance was glorious, Kahane's piano singing over the smoothly billowing surface of the strings exactly right, the violins of Nicholas Kitchen and William Fedkenheuer speaking as one, Mai Motobuchi's viola dark and intense, Yeesun Kim's cello solid and restrained as ever. Sonoma State University's superb concert hall, the Evert B. Person Theater, was only half full on this hot afternoon, but the concert and its reception were as electrifying as anything in the Green Festival's distinguished history. But here's something strange: the Franck - with its gorgeous first movement, gentle Lento, and that fire-eating Allegro - may in the long run end up as not the most memorable part of the program. Debussy speaks, Golijov overwhelms The contest for the title is a toss-up between an utterly simple and "different" Debussy and a large, exciting, contemporary work by Osvaldo Golijov. The latter, "Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind," is perhaps the favorite by virtue of its novelty. But the program-opening Debussy Sonata in G minor for Violin and Piano certainly made its mark. Kahane (who is festival director and takes part in most performances) and violinist Eric Wyrick opened the 1917 sonata as if conducting a quiet, intimate conversation. This simple but powerful work, written shortly before his death, presents a "different Debussy," one of substance and contemplation, rather than the composer of lush, large-scale, coloristic music. Wyrick, a musician who makes his instrument disappear in the performance, played thoughtful, weighty phrases, answering the piano's rumination. Seldom have I heard a non-verbal conversation as clear and yet intriguing as this. In the second movement, Wyrick's violin briefly gave in to a kind of Gypsy passion, interrupting the piano's calm, broad phrases, the roles being reversed in the Finale, Kahane's brilliant notes infused with excitement, the violin now representing the calm center. The two joined in the race towards the conclusion, described by Debussy as "a simple play on a thought that twists itself like a snake biting its own tail." The G Minor Sonata demands to be heard again, perhaps even more than the composer's more famous works. Fixing the world with the screws in grandfather's pocket Brilliance was sustained in the concert's centerpiece, Golijov's 1994 work for string quartet and clarinet... FIVE different kinds of clarinet, all played suprbly by Todd Palmer. The composer, born in Argentina, in 1960, to Eastern European Jewish refugee parents, wrote the piece inspired by a blind rabbi who lived 800 years ago. But, apparently, there are more personal and contemporary connections at play as well. In introducing the work, Kahane quoted Golijov about his childhood, living with his grandfather, and remembering the old man's pocketful of screws with which he would fix broken things about him. Having lost three of his sons and his life's work in the Holocaust, why would the man keep praying and trying to fix what's broken, Golijov wondered. The grandfather's resolution and, ultimately, the composition itself have something to do with the possible existence of hope, faintly evident if at all. The 35-minute work opens with hushed strings, the clarinet slowly joining them, entering as a member of the ensemble, not a soloist. Slowly, thoughtfully, the music shakes off its original melancholy, and the clarinet leads the the strings in a klezmer-tinged Jewish dance. A lively argument ensues, the strings quarreling with each other, the clarinet gradually gaining upper hand over them. So far, "Isaac" has the making of a fabulous film score, to accompany different stories for each listener. But at this point, a major change takes place. Beyond the soundtrack The Borromeo strings break out in harsh, ugly dissonance, no longer a discussion or dispute, but something sinister, threatening. The clarinet protests, passionately, with all its strength (Palmer's performance was stunning at this point), and the world returns to its normal, tonal self, although with faint cries of anguish in the background. The end of the first movement is suspenseful, with intimations of darkness and danger. The second movement also opens with muted strings, Kitchen is featured in a virtuoso passage, a strange, private landscape unfolds before Klezmer dance takes over. A brief transition (perhaps the entire work's only weak spot, not contributing much) leads to a quiet, resigned song, which grows into a manic dance, interrupted by clarinet's "wrong notes," ending in strange, strangulated sounds. Loss, coping with loss, hanging on, the desire to keep fixing broken things against all odds: all that comes through in the work's superb third movement. It opens with a simple folksong, reminiscent of Bartok's music, contemplation turning into desperation, then the strings comforting and strengthening the lonely clarinet, Beethovenesque hammer strokes thunder (try to do that with strings, but the Borromeo does it with ease), as the bass clarinet searches for something in the night descending over the scene. "Isaac" is an extraordinary work; it was performed at the Green Music Festival by Palmer and the Borromeo with conviction, commitment, and mastery. Janos Gereben/SF www.sfcv.org [log in to unmask]