Live Classical Music: The Camerata Pacifica at Zipper Concert Hall

By Don Heckman

Camerata Pacifica, the Santa Barbara-based chamber ensemble that has been presenting high quality chamber music to Southland listeners for two decades, did it again Thursday night at Zipper Concert Hall in the Colburn School.  Evolving well beyond their original Baroque focus as the Bach Camerata, they devoted a complete performance to the music of Mozart and Brahms.

In the opening half of the program, the trio of violinist Catharine Leonard, violist Richard Yongjae O’Neill and cellist Ani Aznafoorian performed Mozart’s Divertimento in E-flat Major, K. 563, his only completed work for string trio.  To simply call it a divertimento, however, almost seemed absurd from the first moments of the opening allegro.  Written in 1778, the same year Mozart composed his Piano Concerto No. 26 (“Coronation”) and his last three symphonies, it overflowed with the same rich blend of emotional intensity and complex musical development present in those larger works.

Camerata Pacifica

The performance by Leonard, O’Neill and Aznafoorian was extraordinary.  The six movements – typical of the divertimenti structure – made rigorous technical demands of the players: fleet, 32^nd note passages contrasting with soaring lyricism; stunningly close-woven interaction, often at blindingly fleet speeds; and dark-timbred, moving harmonies calling for precise pitch placement.

The trio did all that and more.  And what may have been most engaging about the performance was the sense of sheer life they brought to their interpretation – delivering the fast passages with a buoyant, almost – dare I say it – foot-tapping sense of rhythmic propulsion.  At its best this was a presentation that allowed the listeners to see into the deep, inner heart of Mozart’s extraordinary musical mind.

Warren Jones

The Camerata Pacifica’s pianist, Warren Jones, opened the second half of the program with Brahms’ Three Intermezzi, Op. 117.  Described by the composer as “lullabies to my sorrow,” they were inspired by a Scottish poem in German philosopher/poet Johann Gottfried Herder’s Volkslieder.  Introspective and spare, for the most part, they call for a touch that finds the sensitivity in the deceptively simple harmonies, as well as the inner turbulence in the rare forte moments.  Jones was well-fit for the task, his interpretive stoicism matching the work’s tendency toward emotional detachment.

Jose Franch-Ballester

Jones was joined by clarinetist Jose Franch-Ballester for the final piece on the program, Brahms’ Sonata in F Minor for Clarinet and Piano, Op. 120, No. 1.  Performed with easy compatibility between the two players, it was an accurate, if not especially invigorating rendering of a work in which Brahms seemed to be searching for melodies that never quite reached fruition.  In the Andante 2^nd Movement, the place where a Mozart – or even a Brahms, in his other clarinet works – found melodic gold, this sonata offered little more than a few appealing long tones.  But it’s worth noting that Franch-Ballester, a young Spaniard, played with exquisite sound and fluent articulation.  One looks forward to hearing him perform some of the larger, more musically expressive works of the clarinet literature.

Live: Opera Night at Vibrato Grill Jazz…etc.

By Don Heckman

An evening of opera at a jazz club?  An unusual combination, it would seem.  Yet, there it was Monday night: “Gala Opera Night” at Vibrato Grill Jazz…etc., featuring soprano Demetra George, baritone Ralph Cato and pianist/music director Frank Fetta.  And why not?  As the restaurant’s General Manager, Hoss Zargaran pointed out, Vibrato also includes the word “etc. – et cetera” in its title.

Demetra George

“Not that I would ever think of opera as et cetera,” he said, “but it does open the possibility for scheduling musical events that reach beyond jazz.”

As it did this entertaining evening.  Although, as Fetta pointed out in his opening remarks, one could make a case for the fact that opera and jazz share common interests in dramatic pacing, rich harmonies and unique approaches to story telling.

The production, as such, was minimal.  Fetta playing the piano, and George and Cato singing arias from Puccini, Verdi, Bizet and others, acting their roles by the sheer use of body language alone.  But it was enough.  Both singers are experienced musical artists – George a 2-time Grammy nominee, Cato the veteran of world tours with the show “Riverdance.”  In addition to their impressive singing qualities, they brought atmospheric believability to each of the arias.

Ralph Cato

Understandably, most of the selections were classics, with the possible exception of the Vision fugitive from Massenet’s Herodiade, passionately rendered by Cato.  Both singers made the most of their showcase pieces.  George wove her way through the soaring demands of Sempre libera from La Traviata, the drama of Vissi d’arte from Tosca and the buoyant Czardas from Die Fledermaus.  Blessed with a remarkable vocal instrument, singing with appropriate drama for each of her characters, George’s only problem was her employment of a vibrato so wide that it often ranged into the area of tremolo.  And she’s too gifted a talent for her singing to be defined by a single, distracting characteristic.

In addition to Vision fugitive, Cato used his rich, strong sound and flowing phrasing to make most of the Toreador Song from Carmen and Alla vita che t’arride from Un Ballo in Maschera.  But the highlight segments of the program were the singers’ impressively theatrical renderings of a pair of duets: La Traviata’s Act II duet between Giorgio and Violetta, and the Nedda and Silvio duet from Pagliacci.

Fetta’s accompaniment was both supportive and energetic, and his witty, often humorous introductions provided perspective and background for an intriguing presentation of classic operatic music.

After the program, Zargaran said that there would be more events at Vibrato displaying different genres of music.  That would make a worthy addition to Music Director Pat Senatore’s already first rate jazz scheduling, and further establish the venue as a significant destination for fine music.

Live Classical Music: The Rose Ensemble at The Getty

By Don Heckman

The early music of Eastern Europe, of roughly the 12th through the 16th centuries, has rarely received the attention it deserves. But the thought that its obscurity is justified as the issuance of a culture of invaders on horseback dwelling in wooden Baba Yaga huts — while the West was building magnificent cathedrals and carving timeless marble statuary — is simply off base.

So give credit to the Rose Ensemble from St. Paul, Minnesota for having had the curiosity, the time, and the talent, to explore music from the archives of Moscow, Warsaw, Cracow and other areas east of the Danube. The Ensemble’s “Slavic Wonders” program at The Getty’s Williams Auditorium was as enlightening as it was entertaining, a stunning display of music that can comfortably stand alongside the works of Machaut, Dufay, Gabrieli, etc.

The Rose Ensemble

The six men and six women of the Ensemble performed a cappella for the most part, occasionally with the aid of Ginna Watson playing the
vielle, a Medieval string instrument similar to the violin, and — on several works — with members of the Ensemble playing hand drum and recorder. The program was remarkably far-ranging: a pair of anonymous Czech hymns from the 11th and 12th centuries; the 13th century Polish hymn, battle song and traditional national anthem, “Bogurodzica”; a pair of motets by the 17th century Polish composer Mikolaj Zielenski (who studied with Giovann Gabrieli); and a contemporary “Ave Maria” setting by the Belorussian composer Sergey Khvoshchinskiy.

The performances were mesmerizing, presented in varying combinations — some with the full ensemble, occasionally in antiphonal style, some by men alone or women alone, others by smaller, mixed ensembles. Throughout, one could only marvel at the Ensemble’s extraordinary combination of tonal precision, dynamic variation, the excellence of the individual singers, and their capacity to capture the authentic period styles for each of the works.

The Rose Ensemble has eight CDs available, with programming embracing Hawaiian vocal music, traditional American song, Mediterranean music and Mexican Christmas songs, as well as their fascinating excursions into Gregorian chant, Medieval and Renaissance music.

Photo by Michael Haug