Wednesday, April 28, 2021

South Bay chamber music—A Covid season retrospective 2


Steven Vanhauwaert, Artistic Director for the Second Sundays at Two series.

Classical Crossroads
DAVID J BROWN

As with the 2020-21 season of the South Bay Chamber Music Society (see the previous LA Opus post, with links to all seven of the SBCMS's pre-recorded concerts), the South Bay area's other principal purveyor of live chamber music, Classical Crossroads, Inc., also tackled head-on the challenge of maintaining its mission in the face of the constraints imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Arguably, the task Classical Crossroads faced was even more daunting, with 19 events planned across two series. In fact, the Saturday afternoon "The Interludes" series (frequently reviewed in LA Opus in previous years) was suspended, but for this season, along with First Fridays at First!~fff—recorded at the usual venue of First Lutheran Church and School, Torrance—Classical Crossroads took under its wing the previously separate Second Sundays at Two, performed in Rolling Hills United Methodist Church

Fortunately, all the streamed recordings are still available to be enjoyed on YouTube, and the high standards of performance and video and audio presentation achieved by the team of Jim Eninger (publisher of the invaluable Clickable Chamber Music Newsletter) and Karla Devine for "First Fridays at First!~fff" and Artistic Director Steven Vanhauwaert of "Second Sundays at Two" can be appreciated at the links below. 

However, professional concerts free of charge to the audience, whether live or virtual, need sponsorship. If you enjoy any or all of the following, please consider a donation to Classical Crossroads here!


(Kevin Kwan Loucks, piano; Iryna Krechkovsky, violin; Ross Gasworth, cello)
MENDELSSOHN: Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 49 (mvts 1, II)
DVOŘÁK: Piano Trio No.4 in E Minor, Op. 90, "Dumky" (mvts IV, VI)

(Canadian pianists Bernadene Blaha and Kevin Fitz-Gerald from USC Thornton School Faculty)
BEETHOVEN: Three Marches for Four Hands, Op. 45
DEBUSSY: Petite Suite for four hands, L65
DVOŘÁK: Slavonic Dances Op. 46: Nos. 5, 2, 1
SCHUBERT: Marche Militaire in D Major, D733, Op. 51 No. 1

(Pianist Mi-Hyun Suh was first-place winner of Peninsula Symphony’s 2020 Knox Competition)
LISZT: Piano Sonata in B minor, S.178

(Fabio Bidini, Piano Chair at Colburn Conservatory, and LACO Principal Cellist Andrew Shulman)
BEETHOVEN: Cello Sonata No. 4 in C Major, Op. 102 No. 1
BEETHOVEN: Cello Sonata No. 5 in D Major, Op. 102 No. 2

(Steven Vanhauwaert, piano; Clive Greensmith, cello)
DVOŘÁK: Silent Woods, Op. 68
DEBUSSY: Cello Sonata in D Minor
SCHUMANN: Adagio and Allegro, Op. 70

(Mark Robson, piano)
BEETHOVEN: Piano Sonata No. 23 in F Minor, Op. 57 "Appassionata"
LISZT: Tre sonetti di Petrarca S.158
LISZT: Franz Liszt: Valse oubliée, No. 1 S.215/1

(Sung Chang, piano)
SCHUBERT: Drei Klavierstücke, D946
LISZT: Liebestraum No.3 (Love's Dream), S541
CHOPIN: Scherzo No.3 in C-sharp minor, Op. 39

This recital by organist David York was given in honor and remembrance of the late organist Namhee Han.
J. S. BACH: In dir ist Freude (In Thee Is Gladness) from Orgelbüchlein, BWV615
VIVALDI (arr J. S. BACH): Largo e spiccato from Concerto in D Minor, BWV596
HOWELLS: Psalm Prelude, Set 1, No. 3, Op. 32—Psalm 23
BUXTEHUDE: Chaconne in E minor
BURKHARDT: Andante Tranquillo from The Balboa Park Suite
FRANCK: Pièce Héroïque in B minor FWV37

(Kevin Kwan Loucks, piano; Iryna Krechkovsky, violin; Ross Gasworth, cello)
BEETHOVEN: Piano Trio in B-flat Major, Op. 97 “Archduke”

This recital by the Israeli pianist Einav Yarden was streamed from her home in Berlin.
BEETHOVEN: Eleven Bagatelles, Op. 119
BRAHMS: Fantasies Op. 116, Nos. 1-3
SCHUMANN: Three Fantasiestücke, Op. 111

(Connie Kim-Sheng, piano; Kyle Gilner, violin, Sarah Kim, cello: from USC Thornton School of Music)
HAYDN: Piano Trio No. 43 in C Major, Hob.XV:27
MENDELSSOHN: Piano Trio No.1 in D Minor, Op.49

(Eric Byers, cello; Lucia Micarelli, violin; Fabio Bidini, piano)
BRAHMS: Piano Trio No. 2 in C Major, Op. 87
RAVEL: Sonata in A minor for violin and cello M73

(Violinist Elizabeth Hedman and pianist Robert Thies)
BEETHOVEN: Violin Sonata No.9 in A major, Op. 47, “Kreutzer”
PÄRT: Spiegel im Spiegel (Mirror in Mirror)

Cellists Emilio and Cara Elise Colón joined pianist Steven Vanhauwaert in a two-part streamed recital. See Part II at SS@Two: April 11 below.
HANDEL: Trio Sonata, Op. 2 No. 8, HWV393
SCHUMANN: Fantasiestücke for Cello and Piano, Op. 73
CASSADO: Toccata, “After Frescobaldi,” 1925
CASSADO: Requiebros, 1934

BARRIÈRE: Sonata No. 10 in G Major for two cellos
BEETHOVEN: Cello Sonata No. 1 in F major, Op. 5, No. 1


Still to come in Classical Crossroads' 2020-2021 season are, firstly, another two-part recital, this time by the Portugal-based DSCH—Shostakovich Ensemble, who will play Schubert's Piano Trio No. 1 in B-flat major D898 in the First Friday at First!~fff slot on May 7 at 12:15 p.m., and then Schubert's Piano Trio No. 2 in E-flat major D929 in Second Sunday at Two on May 9, 2021 at 2:00 p.m.

And then both seasons end with a solo piano recital. On Friday, June 4, 2021 at 12:15 p.m. the performance by Korean-born Jeeyoon Kim centers on a set of Brahms Variations accompanied by original illustrations from the artist Moonsub Shin, while Sunday, June 13, 2021 at 2:00 p.m. will see the very familiar figure of Steven Vanhauwaert once more at the keyboard of RHUMC's Steinway.

South Bay chamber music—A Covid season retrospective 1


Robert Thies, Artistic Director of the South Bay Chamber Music Society.

The South Bay Chamber Music Society
DAVID J. BROWN

The final concert of the South Bay Chamber Music Society's 2020-2021 season—under the Artistic Directorship of Robert Thies and pre-recorded and livestreamed at the usual 3:00 p.m. start time on mid-month Sunday afternoons—marks a useful point at which to take a look back at how our local chamber music organizations in LA's South Bay area have handled their live audience-less seasons—and in the context of the various approaches of a wider spectrum of concert-giving bodies to the challenges of maintaining a presence during the long Covid-19 cultural drought.

The range of streamed content, usually via YouTube or Facebook, has generally fallen into three categories— video recordings from archives, truly live performances, and newly recorded material. Coping with Covid has perhaps been most difficult for bodies whose MO involves large performing forces—pre-eminently opera companies and full-size symphony orchestras—and many perforce have fallen back entirely upon their recorded legacy of past achievement.

Others, however, have managed to produce new recorded content, as in the case of the Pacific Symphony, whose spacious platform in the Segerstrom Hall has enabled performances of works that require less than the orchestra's full complement played by members comfortably socially distanced. While these short concerts have free viewer access on YouTube, the PSO in common with some other companies is also experimenting with more ambitious productions "reimagined for the virtual space" with purchased ticket access.

The Long Beach Symphony, by contrast, has kept its flag flying with "Musically Speaking", an innovative series of online conversations between LBSO Music Director Eckart Preu and a wide range of guest interviewees, ranging from instrumental soloists and singers to conductors, arrangers, and entrepreneurs. 

Due to the perils of technical mishap during transmission, performances streamed live as they are being given are pretty infrequent, and where they do exist they're usually by single instrumentalists in special circumstances, as with organist Christoph Bull's short recitals preceding Sunday services at the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles.

Coming at length to the streaming of pre-recorded material by smaller organizations like the SBCMS and Classical Crossroads Inc., while some others have opted for lightweight programs of popular extracts—perhaps with the notion that loss of freedom of movement also impacts audience powers of concentration—this emphatically has not been the case with the South Bay's enterprising promoters of high-quality chamber music recitals. Both bodies fielded 2020-2021 programs that displayed no artistic compromise compared to their previous seasons before live audiences, except perhaps in that the South Bay Chamber Music Society went for overall playing times of around the one-hour mark, as opposed to the previous full-length duration of 90 minutes or so, plus interval.

The uncompromising seriousness of repertoire and the high performance standards familiar from the past, with the provision maintained of authoritative downloadable program notes, can be seen and heard at the following links, with fully professional, multi-camera, video presentation and high audio quality captured at Pacific Unitarian Universalist Church, Rancho Palos Verdes, the SBCMS's usual venue for its Sunday concerts:


(Tereza Stanislav, violin; Rafael Rishik, violin; Robert Brophy, viola; Andrew Shulman, cello)
SCHUBERT; Quartettsatz D. 703
MOZART; String Quartet in D Major, K. 575
RAVEL: String Quartet in F Major.

(Robert Thies, piano; Lucia Micarelli, violin; Eric Byers, cello)
The Schumann-Mendelssohn Connection
SCHUMANN: Piano Trio in D Minor, Op. 63
MENDELSSOHN: Piano Trio No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 66

(Edith Orloff, piano; Roger Wilkie, violin; John Walz cello) 
MARTINU: Bergerettes
BRAHMS: Piano Trio No. 1 in B Major, Op. 8

(Sergio Coelho, clarinet; Max Opferkuch, clarinet; Amy Jo Rhine, horn; Gregory Roosa, horn; Judith Farmer, bassoon; Elliott Moreau, bassoon)
MOZART: Serenade in E Flat, K. 375
GERNOT WOLFGANG: Three Short Stories for clarinet and & bassoon
BEETHOVEN: Sextet in E Flat, Op. 71

(Steven Vanhauwaert, piano; Movses Pogossian, violin; Brian (Che-Yen) Chen, viola; Clive Greensmith, cello)
MOZART: Piano Quartet No. 1 in G Minor, K. 478
DVOŘÁK: Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat Major, Op. 87

(Alyssa Park, violin; Shalini Vijayan, violin; Luke Maurer, viola; Timothy Loo, cello)
BRITTEN: String Quartet No. 2 in C Major, Op. 36
MORRICONE: Ricordare (from Pure Formality, arr Maurer)
SHOSTAKOVICH: String Quartet No. 8 in C Minor, Op. 110

(Robert Thies, piano; Phillip Levy, violin)
BEETHOVEN Violin Sonata No. 7 in C minor, Op. 30 No. 2
BRAHMS: Violin Sonata No. 1 in G major, Op. 78.


Like all other performing organizations, the SBCMS will be looking forward—with both hope and anxiety—to the resumption of live concerts with audience present. Whether or not this will be possible by the 2021-2022 season opening in the fall, only time will tell. 

But either way, live or streamed, the Society's decades-long record of professional chamber concerts free to the public still requires generous sponsorship in order to continue. If you have enjoyed any or all of the streamed recitals listed above, or indeed have attended the SBCMS's previous seasons, please consider making a donation here!