{"id":30347,"date":"2015-10-31T16:14:17","date_gmt":"2015-10-31T22:14:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=30347"},"modified":"2020-07-27T10:48:46","modified_gmt":"2020-07-27T16:48:46","slug":"brevity-begets-beauty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/brevity-begets-beauty\/","title":{"rendered":"Brevity Begets Beauty"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Westminster\"

Image courtesy of Westminster Concert Series<\/p><\/div>\n

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Gabriel Faur\u00e9 (1845-1924) was a masterful French composer, and is best known for his languidly vigorous and\u00a0consoling choral\u00a0Requiem<\/em>\u00a0— likely his most performed composition.\u00a0 His chamber music is exquisitely crafted, but this craft can at times conceal some of the intense emotional arcs that it harbors.\u00a0 It is surely not for all tastes, and more than most chamber music, is far more compelling in its entirety than as separate movements — the instrumental textures need time to weave and evolve to a suitably elusive harmonic conclusion.\u00a0 Faur\u00e9’s chamber music and songs (m\u00e9lodies<\/em>\u00a0in French) are viewed as the epitome of his craft, and his key gift to the history of art music.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For the second concert of the 2015-2016 Westminster Concert Series, six superb local musicians performed an all-Faur\u00e9 concert on Monday October 26.\u00a0 This little vortex of a concert included his song cycle\u00a0La bonne chanson<\/em>,\u00a0Op. 61\u00a0and\u00a0his Piano Quintet No. 1 in D minor, Op. 89.\u00a0 The venue was the Vieve Gore Concert Hall at Westminster College in Salt Lake City.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The musicians for the piano quintets were violinist Yuki MacQueen, violinist Alex Martin, violist Joel Gibbs, cellist John Eckstein, and pianist Karlyn Bond.\u00a0 Bond is a member of the Department of Music faculty at Westminster College.\u00a0 The string players are all members of the Utah Symphony.\u00a0 Michael Chipman, also on the faculty of the\u00a0Music Department, was the baritone soloist in the piano quintet version of Faure’s song cycle\u00a0La bonne chanson<\/em>,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

La bonne chanson<\/em>\u00a0is a collection of twenty-one poems from the pen of the French Symbolist poet Paul Verlaine (1844-1896).\u00a0 They were written to Mathilde Maut\u00e9 de Fleurville, who at age sixteen in 1870 married Verlaine. Love and nature intertwine and mingle in these poems, and Faur\u00e9 chose to fashion nine of them into a song cycle that uses the same name.\u00a0 The piano quintet version with voice\u00a0of La bonne chanson <\/em>was\u00a0arranged by Faur\u00e9 in 1898; much of the cycle was originally composed for voice and piano in the summers of 1892 and 1893, with the completion following in February 1894.\u00a0 Faur\u00e9 was residing in Bougival, France, where he was in love with Emma Bardac, the wife of the banker Sigismond Bardac.\u00a0 The songs are\u00a0dedicated to Emma, and last about twenty-five minutes.<\/p>\n

For the first song of La bonne chanson<\/em>, which is Une Sainte en son\u00a0<\/em>aur\u00e9ole<\/em> (A Saint In Her Halo), Chipman’s smooth, slightly rounded tone caught the pensive ecstasy almost slyly.\u00a0 InPuisque l’aube grandit<\/em> (Since Dawn Is Growing), the second song, the overall balance and blend between instruments and Chipman was calculated naturally.\u00a0 The undulating piano line, played by Bond with ease, contributed to the impression of a continuing limpid dream.\u00a0 For the third song, La lune blanche luit dans les bois<\/em> (The White Moon), the soft playing of the two violinists molded the dappled balances, with all instruments achieving unity of line and sauntering to the fore and receding intuitively.<\/p>\n

In J’allais par des chemins perfides<\/em> (I Was Going Along Treacherous Roads) the suave poise of all four strings augmented Chipman’s expansive coloring of the vocal line on swelling dynamics.\u00a0 For the fifth song, J’ai presque peur, en v\u00e9rit\u00e9<\/em> (In Truth I Am Almost Afraid) the elusive harmonies were aptly conveyed by all.\u00a0 In Avant que tu ne t’en ailles<\/em> (Before You Go Away) the effusive and supply modulated lyricism was ridden most ardently when needed, especially at the energetically hushed ending.<\/p>\n

Donc, ce sera par un clair jour\u00a0d’\u00e9t\u00e9<\/em>‘s\u00a0<\/em>(It Will Be On\u00a0A Clear Summer Day) rhythmic control was carefully, convincingly, and naturally managed.\u00a0 In\u00a0N’est – ce pas?<\/em>\u00a0(Is It Not So?)\u00a0the carefree precision of the pianist and cellist at the beginning\u00a0was\u00a0notable,\u00a0and Chipman and the violist shaded their tones generously.\u00a0 The ninth and last song,\u00a0L’hiver a cess\u00e9\u00a0<\/em>(Winter Has Ended)\u00a0propelled the quintet and soloist to the ardent summation eagerly sought out and transmitted with the balances of dynamics unified so cleanly.<\/p>\n

This was an excellent performance, but I personally\u00a0prefer\u00a0a mezzo-soprano rather than a baritone in this\u00a0arrangement of La bonne chanson.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Piano Quintet No. 1 followed after the briefest of intermissions (five minutes).\u00a0 This piano quintet\u2019s composition began as early as 1887, but it was premiered in Brussels in 1906; a second piano quintet was premiered in 1921.\u00a0 There are also two piano quartets and a piano trio, and a significant quantity of additional chamber and piano music.\u00a0 Piano Quintet No. 1 has three movements, and lasts approximately thirty to thirty-five\u00a0minutes in performance.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The first movement is marked\u00a0Molto moderato<\/em>.\u00a0 The clarity and buoyancy to the piano line were readily apparent, and the\u00a0ebb and flow of harmonies journeyed sincerely and most aromatically.\u00a0 Brief solo turns by all string players were uniformly excellent, with rustic grace and elegance.\u00a0 The effusive climaxes maneuvered with gusto, and the\u00a0Molto moderato<\/em>\u00a0marking was adhered to keenly but flexibly.\u00a0 The horizon evoked by the little hesitations in the instrumental lines near the end\u00a0met the surreptitious onrush of harmonies\u00a0with something close to perfection.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The second movement is an\u00a0Adagio<\/em>, and MacQueen and Eckstein’s\u00a0duo at the start seethed with longing.\u00a0 Again, there was a sense — surely convincing — of yielding affection to the\u00a0Adagio<\/em>\u00a0marking, with form and expression moderated in abundance.\u00a0 The unity of ensemble in climaxes was again superb in its suavity.\u00a0 Bond’s pianism was discrete yet visceral, especially in the briefest of interludes with violist Joel Gibbs.\u00a0 The deeply felt leadership of MacQueen traced the bell-like purity of Bond’s tone and Alex Martin’s rippling and ascetic one.\u00a0 Most striking of all in this movement was the ever expanding unity of ensemble colors.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Allegretto moderato<\/em> is the marking for the last movement, with its entrancing, almost trance-like melodic and rhythmic flow.\u00a0 The ensemble\u2019s control of instrumental color at loud and soft dynamics, and volumes in between, shifted the elusive quest of the lyricism to something palpable and fixed with the utmost conviction in its agitated bounty.<\/p>\n

This was a magnificent performance, with compelling touches too numerous to note.<\/p>\n

Concerts of music by a single composer are often difficult to find entirely agreeable, as one composer’s style can at times be perceived as relentless despite its mark of genius.\u00a0 Faur\u00e9’s chamber music and songs can pass this test, but they still require a degree of sympathy that is seldom felt.\u00a0 All six of this evening’s musicians met\u00a0his musical world with a potion of\u00a0his spirit\u00a0as well as\u00a0their own.\u00a0 May we have an all-Ernest Chausson chamber music and song concert in the 2016-2017 season?\u00a0 But we need not fear for the moment, for the maverick American composer Charles Ive’s epic\u00a0“Concord” piano sonata is set to take the stage on\u00a0November\u00a016<\/span> in the next installment of this season’s Westminster Concert Series.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Westminster Concert Series
\nAn Evening of Gabriel Faur\u00e9
\nVieve Gore Concert Hall
\nMonday, October 26, 2015<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Gabriel Faur\u00e9 (1845-1924) was a masterful French composer, and is best known for his languidly vigorous and\u00a0consoling choral\u00a0Requiem\u00a0— likely his most performed composition.\u00a0 His chamber music is exquisitely crafted, but this craft can at times conceal some of the intense emotional arcs that it harbors.\u00a0 It is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1519,"featured_media":30348,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-bytes","category-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Westminster.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-06 17:23:30","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1519"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30347"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54307,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30347\/revisions\/54307"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}