MUSIC REVIEW
Arensky Trio: Pianist, Inna Faliks, violinist, Roberto Cani and cellist, John Walz (Photo – pittancechambermusic.org).
Out from the pit and onto the stage, Pittance Chamber Music thrilled a full to capacity audience with their Showcase Concert 2018, From Schubert to Schoenfield, at the lovely Pasadena Conservatory of Music last Saturday night.
By CP Wren
GRAMMY awarded musicians of the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra join as Pittance Chamber Music, along with special guest artists, and voices from the Los Angeles Opera Chorus and the Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artists Program. Together, they bring extraordinary artistry on stage through small ensemble performances at a handful of intimate venues in Los Angeles and Pasadena.
Kurt Weill’s Frauentanz-Seven Poems from the Middle Ages, Op. 10 and Paul Shoenfield’s Café Music comprised the first half of the 2018 Showcase Concert. The untypical, not over worn music selections provided a great start for attendees. Listeners radiated with buoyancy at intermission in the tree filled courtyard of the Conservatory. Then Barrett Hall filled again for the second half with an alert air of anticipation.
A nice touch Pittance adds in prelude to each musical work is a brief reading, giving a bit of background, building up to what follows. After intermission, audience members were invited to picture the environment and story imagined by Franz Schubert whilst composing The Shepherd on the Rock. Performed by a trio comprised of special guest on piano, Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist, Milena Gligic, Principal Clarinetist of the Los Angeles Opera, Stuart Clark, and soprano vocalist of the LA Opera Chorus, Rebecca Tomlinson, Schubert’s musical narrative captivated a rapt audience. As the applause softened, in overheard gasps, said one woman of Tomlinson’s delivery, “She is superb!” The friend’s reply, “Yes, she had me riveted!” No doubt, a sentiment felt by many.
All leading to the final trio in the Showcase program, performing Anton Arensky’s Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 32. The opening story apprised the audience of Arensky’s short 46 years, due to excesses in gambling and alcohol, and how at his death his work was denounced as derivative of Tchaikovsky, who Arensky considered a friend and mentor. Not a glamourous introduction, but the reading was not without irony. If Arensky could have slipped the otherworld to attend this interpretation of Piano Trio, the pleasure of divine irony would certainly be his.
A night
where the
stars
were only
visible
indoors
Guest pianist, Inna Faliks, and members of the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra, violinist Roberto Cani and cellist John Walz took the stage and deftly swooped Barrett Hall into an intensely animated and tension filled performance. Inna Faliks plays with a kind of expression one could imagine of a highly accomplished jazz artist. But this was chamber music. She entertained with humor, delivering a rollicking performance using her expressive facial gestures and playful spacial flourishes above the keys. With her tautly moving, driving force, she balanced the hall on tiptoe, her antics often directed at violinist Cani, who played the “straight man” throughout the spiraling progression of Piano Trio No. 1. The work played like a mad chase, where John Walz delivered precise and breathless scurries to the fingerboard of his cello. His facial expressiveness and extraordinary performance kicked up the pursuit at every turn. The final note might very well have arrived on a huge inhale. Upon which the whole upper section emitted a low roar and stood to give enthusiastic applause.
Well deserved for an impressive and uniquely conceived evening of chamber music. The constellation of star musicians in Pittance Chamber Music radiate a light made palpable from the stage. One could see that light also shining in the faces of listeners, even as they made their way out into the cloud covered night. It was a night where the stars were only visible indoors.
Keep an eye open for the next Pittance appearance in October. It will be a bit of a wait until Fall. But one well worth waiting for.
> Pittance Chamber Music includes Lisa Sutton, founder and artistic director who resides in nearby Altadena. She is also a busy freelancer with extensive recording credits in motion picture and television soundtracks. Residing locally in Pasadena are cellist Dane Little, who is both a member of the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra and who also plays with the Pasadena Symphony, and Stuart Clark, an active chamber musician who has played widely throughout Los Angeles in orchestral and chamber music concerts. Both Pasadena musicians also record for motion picture and television.
CP Wren tends two or thirty irons in the literary fire—in speculative fiction, non-fiction and narratives housed in graphical book art. When not in studio, Wren can be spotted pedaling the surrounds of South Pasadena on a grungy trail bike—often times headed towards Kaldi’s excellent caffeine, before catapulting into the beyond.
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