By this time, most of the region’s music lovers who have anything on the ball will have bookmarked Camerata Pacifica’s Concerts-at-Home page. If not, here it is again: https://cameratapacifica.org/see-hear/concerts-at-home/.
(As long as I’m at it, it would be rank favoritism on my part not to mention that, in case you have accidentally deleted it, the Santa Barbara Symphony’s virtual performances can be accessed at https://thesymphony.org/watch-listen/; Westmont College’s Friday Concerts are at https://vimeo.com/showcase/westmontmusic; and the Community Arts-Music Association’s CAMA at Home series can be found at https://camasb.org/resources/.)
Now, then, slowpoke that I am, I continue to digest the Camerata’s spectacular virtual concert that first live-streamed on Nov. 22.
The program was built around the uncanny musicianship of pianist Warren Jones, but if I had tuned in expecting virtuoso solo pyrotechnics, I would not only be disappointed, I would have to admit I knew nothing about Warren.
No doubt he could dazzle us with Beethoven or Liszt, if he had to, but why would he, since he is the collaborative pianist par excellence, the very model of the craft.
One of Warren’s greatest gifts — he is multiply blessed — is his ability to hold all the elements of a piece in equilibrium, like a nuclear bond, without retarding its forward momentum.
It would be a rare Camerata program that didn’t send us to Google at least once, and on this one you are likely to earn frequent flyer miles.
None of the composers represented is a household word (unless you live in an unusual and highly specialized household), but their music will strike most of us as very high class stuff we ought to have been told about long ago.
With baritone Andrew Garland and cellist Ani Aznavoorian, Warren will perform the “Four Songs, Opus 5,” published in 1897, by the Viennese composer, conductor and pianist, Walter Rabl (1873-1940).
Then he will join with oboist Nicholas Daniel and violist Richard O’Neill to play the “Two Rhapsodies for oboe, viola and piano”(1901), by the German-American Charles Martin Loeffler (1861-1935).
The concert concludes with Warren, Adrian Spence (flute), Jose Franch-Ballester (clarinet), Paul Huang (violin), and Ani Aznavoorian (cello) who will play the “Songs America Loves to Sing, for flute, clarinet, piano, violin & cello” (2004) by a great favorite of Adrian’s, the American John Harbison (born Dec. 20, 1938).
Adrian describes the Rable songs as “passionate,” and they certainly are that, as well as haunting, but they are also well-constructed pieces deserving a place of honor on any list of great German lieder from the late 19th century.
One of the main reasons we don’t hear much Rabl is there isn’t very much to hear. He composed few works and stopped writing music altogether after he turned 30. Except for his final work, his opera “Liane” (1903), he wrote in the conservative tradition of Brahms and Schumann (the opera ventures into Wagnerian territory).
The Wikipedia article about Rabl contains this sentence, which powerfully suggests why Warren sensed in the composer a kindred spirit: “After his retirement from conducting in 1924, he continued to use his impressive piano skills in accompanying and coaching many notable singers.”
Those of us who recall Warren’s masterclasses at the Music Academy might fancy that he is Rabl reborn.
Turning from the Rabl to the Loeffler is like stepping out of a somberly furnished Viennese drawing room into the gondola of a hot air balloon. We are lifted aloft on this charming, weightless music and are pleased to drift wherever its airy currents might carry us.
The Harbison “Songs — “Amazing Grace,” “Careless Love,” “Will the Circle be Unbroken?” “Aura Lee,” “What a Friend We Have in Jesus,” “St. Louis Blues,” “Poor Butterfly,” “We Shall Overcome,” “Ain’t Goin’ to Study War No More,” and “The Anniversary Song” — are not mere transcriptions or arrangements in the manner of Copland’s “Old American Songs,” but miniature re-compositions, divided equally between “solo” and “canon.”
The originals are always recognizable, peeking through the ironic marginalia Harbison has woven around and through them. It is an altogether lighthearted enterprise.
This was Episode 35 of Camerata Pacifica’s Concerts at Home series. If you are not already exploring the virtual concerts, this one is is as good an entré as one could hope for.
— Gerald Carpenter covers the arts as a Noozhawk contributing writer. He can be reached at gerald.carpenter@gmail.com. The opinions expressed are his own.