At 3 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 9, the Santa Barbara Music Club will present another free concert of delightful classical music in the Faulkner Gallery of the Santa Barbara Public Library, 40 E Anapamu St.
Pianists Allen Bishop and Paula Hatley, bassoonists Simon Knight and Paul Mori, flutist Sherylle Englander, clarinetist Per Elmfors, oboist Adelle Rodkey, and violinist Claude-Lise Lafranque will play a program of works that “play with conventions of formal organization,” which they have dubbed Formal Musings.
The concert will include Wolfgang Mozart’s “Violin and Piano Sonata in G-Major, K. 379” (1781); Jean Françaix‘s “Quatuor à vents/Quartet for Winds” (1933); Charles Koechlin‘s “Sonate for Piano and Bassoon, Opus 71” (1918); and Gordon Jacob’s “Four Old Tunes” (arranged GJ, 1975).
The works of Jean Françaix (1912-97) will always find a place on concert programs, because audiences will always feel a need to hear at least one piece, of an evening, that makes no demands on them whatsoever.
His music is pleasant, occasionally quite pretty, but, afterward, it is as if his scores were written with invisible ink.
Charles Koechlin (1867-1950) is a much different chap; more serious, more obviously modern, yet retaining a touch of romance as well. He is, in fact, a considerable composer, oddly neglected.
Gordon Jacob (1895-1984), at least in the “Four Old Tunes,” seems somewhat closer to Françaix, but, if he is whimsical, he is more definitely so, more clearly and unambiguously whimsical.
This concert is co-sponsored by the Santa Barbara Public Library.
— 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.