Santa Cruz Chamber Players Presents A Thread Of Time
Christ Lutheran Church in Aptos is a most delightful venue for chamber concerts. On Sunday, February 16, The Santa Cruz Chamber players presented just such a concert. One aspect of the setting is immediately noticeable and that is the audience appears to be of one large supportive family. They mingle, chat and interact in a most positive way.
Five works filled the afternoon with music: Shaker Spiritual Set by Barry Phillips (1955-); Variations on a Slovak Folksong by Bohuslav Martinu (1890-1959), Bearbeitung ueber das Glogauer Liederbuch by Charles Wuorinen (1938-); two selections from Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano by Claude Bolling (1930-) and the Premier of Threads of Time by Barry Phillips. The very capable musicians were Lars Johannesson, flute/piccolo and Director of the ensemble; Jeff Gallagher Bb clarinet/bass clarinet, Natalie Carducci violin, Amy Brodo cello, Susan Bruckner piano and Barry Phillips drums.
The Shaker Spiritual Set consisted of six rearranged melodies for flute, clarinet, violin and cello. The original melodies were sung by the Shakers. The first of six opened with a drone on the cello, followed by the clarinet, then flute and violin that developed into a delightful four-part harmonization ending with the cello drone once again. Arguably all six works were composed with a “spiritual, hymn-like” setting in mind.
Phillips explored several musically rich sound textures in both this work and his Threads of Time. Moments in which instrumental pairings such as flute and clarinet, violin and cello and flute and cello comprised the overall musical texture.
The Martinu work with Susan Bruckner on piano and Amy Brodo on cello was very well realized. (Czecho) Slovakia was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (1867-1918) and the Slovak language was not to be spoken in public, only Hungarian.
Slovak and Hungarian music are quite closely related and both Bruckner and Brodo rendered a wonderful musical interpretation of these five variations and their dynamic balance was especially noteworthy.
Bolling’s two selection Suite for flute, (jazz) piano, cello and drums was very well performed and received by the audience. Under the musical umbrella of a Minuet that nicely flowed into a jazz texture with the cello providing the bass line in pizzicato; a well performed and enjoyed piece.
The Premiere work by Phillips was again based on antiquity in four parts. The Robertsbridge was from a work composed around 1350; the Bell at St. Reinoldi source was the impressive bells of a church in Dortmund, Germany; the Preambulum’s origin was an organ work from Germany in 1450. The final selection, Anglesey, was based on a harp composition in the 1100s.
The four compositions used the normal range of the flute, clarinet, cello and piano and left the exploration of harmonics and special effects to the imagination of the listener. A Sunday afternoon could not be better spent than listening to these talented musicians perform such music.