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Art’s Corner

Every yearly scheduled event presented at the Lowman Concert Hall on the Idyllwild Arts Academy (IAA) campus promises treasures of sound production from a wide-ranging talented student body to the most distinguished guest artists.

This is particularly true of the programs regularly slated for the end of the fall and the beginning of the winter season, when audiences seem to be most receptive to the program’s musical selections.

And so, when prior to the second Fall Concert of this year, the return of the Los Angeles-based string ensemble Delirium Musicum proved as well-timed as well-effected, this listener received an unexpected further delight. Starting straight off, and accompanied by a small student contingent (ably led by violinist Abigail Regua), the joint forces essayed a string arrangement of the song “The Earl-King” of Franz Schubert. The resulting augmentation only served to heighten the work’s various nuances throughout, and the ensemble’s Artistic Director Etienne Gara passed forth congratulatory remarks to his Idyllwild cohorts.

The remainder of that Friday evening’s program (minus the students), subtitled “Cabinet of Curiosities,” featured a mixture of contemporary popular and classically-based mood and/or movie music, more or less exactly as written — from crowd-pleasers such as the “Danse Macabre” by Camille Saint-Saens and the overly-cliched “Adagio for Strings” of Samuel Barber, to the string workout of Dick Dale’s Middle Eastern-flavored “Misirlou” and the excerpts from Bernard Herrmann’s score from “Psycho.”

Included also was a genial nod to nature, in the playing of Gabriella Smith’s “Cactus Yucca Scrub” from her “Desert Ecology” suite.

Not to be put off lightly, the full string orchestral arrangement of Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Chaconne” from the solo violin “Partita #2” was an effective final piece; however, with Mr. Gara’s forces always ready to give extras, they responded with an encore of the energetic first movement of the “Winter” concerto from Antonio Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons,” thus satisfying all auditors in a spectacularly designed presentation.

On the following Saturday evening, when the IAA Orchestra presented its second fall program (subtitled “Isn’t It Romantic,” as before), a differing set of principles ensued, though with similar anticipatory fervor. An engagingly large contingent of guest artists (again in the brass and wind sections) led the concert off with a late work of the American composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, the funeral march from his incidental music for “Othello”; characteristically stately and tragic by turns, under the exacting baton of Music Director Daniel Bassin.

There followed an exposition of a fairly challenging item in the late Romantic repertory — Jean Sibelius’ one-movement “Symphony #7 in C Major” — a work generally interpreted as either a concatenation of somewhat-related thematic structures, or as a quasi-Wagnerian (or Richard Straussian) rejoinder to what used to be labelled as “modernism” (i.e. Schoenberg, Stravinsky). Dr. Bassin opted for the latter approach, and though some of the cadential sections seemed to be out of place, the piece effectively ended in a proper C natural mode, and led to the audience’s gratification.

The highlight of the evening followed the intermission with a complete performance of Sir William Walton’s “Concerto for Viola and Orchestra” in its revised setting for expanded orchestral forces. This featured the 2023 IAA Concerto Competition’s Grand Prize winner, Seoyeon Bay, as soloist, displaying her prodigious talent in keeping the balance of sound production throughout, while being accompanied by an obviously well-rehearsed large orchestra — particularly in the work’s third and final movement, where changes of mode and rhythm effect the “romantic” aspect of the composer’s intentions. Ms. Bay was amply rewarded by her colleagues, as well as from an appreciative audience that included a goodly number of her fellow students.

Then on the Monday evening following these weekend events, the IAA Department of Music presented its late fall Chamber Music Recital in Lowman Concert Hall to a relatively small group of listeners (in contrast to the previous two evenings). The opening movement of Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Ghost Trio” (Opus 70 #1) was infused with a respectful “spirit” (no pun intended); pianist Katerina Sommers gave out both impetuosity and temerity for her violin and cello participants to model upon.

There followed a few more or less trivial selections; a movement from Giuseppe Maria Cambini’s “Six Trios for Flute, Oboe and Bassoon” (Opus 45), plus two movements from Francis Poulenc’s “Sonata for Horn, Trumpet and Trombone” (with Dr. Bassin’s appearance as trumpeter adding to the composer’s typical whimsical piquancy), and the St. Pierre “Variations on ‘La Folia’ “ (for flute, clarinet and oboe) — all of which displayed the extent of the virtuosity for all involved.

More serious matters were dealt with in the final programmed selections, in particular the two string quartet ensembles, playing respectively the Adagio movement from Beethoven’s “String Quartet #1” (Opus 18 #1 in F Major) and the “Notturno” third movement of Alexander Borodin’s “String Quartet #2 in D Major”). This listener/spectator was most impressed by the professionalism evidenced in the makeup of both grouping involved (notably that led by violinist Rentso Stavrev).

Professional quality was also the case in the work which separated those two ensembles; Jean Francaix’s “Quatuor” (for flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon), with its first two movements played in reverse order, gave forth the further talents of the orchestra’s principal players. So indeed, a pre-holiday surfeit of live music seemed most welcome in a world so troubled and tensed as at present; for our part here on the Hill, one can only anticipate the further generation of soundings to come, which are in many cases, already evident.

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