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theloniousbach · 5 days

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MUSIC FOR WINDS BY BRAHMS, SMIT, and FARKAS, FRIENDS OF MUSIC, ELIOT UNITARIAN CHAPEL, 21 APRIL 2024

I am becoming a regular at this series now curated by my friends Bob and Jan Chamberlin. Monthly chamber music on a Sunday afternoon. I attended last month later in the week by Zoom to see a former student, but I was back in the room for woodwind music.

I thought I was there for Brahms’ Clarinet Sonata #2 in E Flat Major as that was the one I prepped for by watching a glorious performance by Martin Frost and Yuja Wang on YouTube. I was expecting the wonderful sound of the clarinet and the intertwining support of the piano and I got it as expected. Jake Philipak is an UMSL student planning to be a school teacher and Clarissa Parker gives piano lessons and they made the requisite magic and I got to see it in the room. I have no complaints whatsoever.

I’m fond of and reliant on my streams, but live music is special. Better than YouTube. My jazz has a bit of that lightning in a bottle, each time is different ethos but that’s true of all performance. Improvisation does make a difference, but in this case Philipak and Parker shared Brahms with me and I thank them. And the series.

I had no idea what to expect of the 20th Century works from the Xylem Collective, so named both because of the importance of wood for reeds but also the role of the xylem in bringing forth nutrients through the tree. Leo Smit’s Sextour and Ferenc Farkas’ Serenade were perfectly charming, accessible and intelligent, with plenty to chew over. A wind quintet is a glorious thing for the array of instruments and tonal colors. In the second movement of the Farkas the clarinet and oboe started the conversation but there was a point where the clarinet, oboe, and horn were fully engaged. It was still a conversation with no one talking over one another and I thought I could keep all five voices straight for a moment. The third movement was kicked off by the bassoon and flute, then the clarinet. Undoubtedly all five voices were similarly in play but I could focus on only two or three at a time on this one. Jocelyn Rugaber’s piano was the spine for the Smit and perhaps that deprived the ensemble but even more so Smit the opportunity to build the structure itself. But both pieces were refreshing, forward looking while still being comprehensible.

And I was in the room with this music too.

#concert review #friends of music #chamber music #2024 #European tradition art music

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