By Richard Lynde
Local lovers of classical music were treated on Sunday April 12 to a marvelous concert at Peace Church when the Del Sol String Quartet performed a program of works that were so modern the earliest one was from the 1970s and the others all from the 21st century. Two Aptos composers were featured: the late, great Lou Harrison (1917-2003) and current Cabrillo music faculty Josef Sekon (1937). The San Francisco based quartet, founded in 1992 features Benjamin Kreith and Rick Shinozaki violins, Charlton Lee viola and Kathryn Bates cello. This ensemble has twice been top winner of the ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, and has performed all over the world… they did not disappoint.
The program opened with a brief “Fast Blue Village 2” (2007) by Elena Kats-Chernin (b. 1957, Uzbekistan). The moto perpetuo number, originally to be played by robots, and premiered by Del Sol with the composer at the piano, was not only tricky, but funny and sad at the same time, with quick bowing up and down, as if by automata as in a movie score.
Aptos icon and Cabrillo Music Festival hero Harrison’s String Quartet Set (1978-79) is a striking departure from his signature Indonesian work with gamelan and gongs. Instead, we were transported back over a thousand years to Minnesingers in his String Quartet Set “Variations on Walter von der Vogelweide’s Song of Palestine” as its first movement. Who would have guessed that Harrison could sound Medieval.
Many in the audience, like this reviewer, are very familiar with Joe Sekon, faculty member at Cabrillo College and master wine maker. Now, we have just heard his interesting and mysterious Adendo, a 12 plus minute work in its World Premiere with alternating strident, tranquil sections, with whimsically plucked and scurrying strings. As the piece ended, quietly, a nearby motorcycle accelerated added an amusing exhaust note, amazingly on pitch! A standing ovation greeted Sekon, who was besieged by audience members during intermission.
“These Memories May Be True” (2012) by Lembit Beecher (1980) as a tribute to his Estonian grandmother. Although Beecher grew up in Santa Cruz, this very emotional work is all about childhood stories absorbed years ago through four stringed instruments. “Old Folk” is plaintive and “The Legend of the Last Ship” depicts grandma’s escape to the USA before the final Soviet takeover of Estonia. Her strength blazes forth in “Estonian Grandmother Superhero” celebrating her battles against Hitler and then Stalin. The concluding Variations on the opening old folk song builds up into a powerful statement by the joyous Del Sol Quartet.
Next Calligraffiti (2009) by Huang Ruo (1976, China), has three movements opening with a quiet cello then joined by the other strings into a big drama with fragments bowed back and forth intensely, with lots of dissonance like a hornet’s nest, then moments of unison bowings sounding like the Chinese one-string Urdzu. A very interesting piece indeed.
This special concert, courtesy of the Santa Cruz Chamber Players, was of the highest order and welcome to the large number of locals that appreciate classical music. As for our two local Aptos composers, the late Lou Harrison becomes more important and performed as time goes by and as for Joe Sekon’s sparse output, to this composer we say: “Don’t hide your light under a bushel, we can hardly wait to hear more.”