Classical Review: Divergent offerings from the Ariel Concert Series at the 560

The Ariel Concert Series gave the third concert of its current season at Wash. U.’s 560 Music Center this past Friday night (October 4), a roughly one-hour concert with a program of works for quite different ensembles.  Two contemporary works with notable percussion components featured, along with a 19th-century “old school” offering from a well-known name.  One noteworthy feature of the Ariel concerts that I have attended has been a willingness to feature works by modern composers.  Perhaps the financial cushion from the series’ underwriter, Ariel Premium Supply, which allows the series to be offered free to the community (with the odd exception), also gives the Ariel series some confidence to program works and composers beyond the usual suspects. 

 In a change to the original program order, the concert began with Oort Cloud, an astronomy-inspired 2011 work for percussion “and Others” (the composer’s words, not mine) by Shannon Wood, principal timpanist of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) since 2013.  Oort Cloud featured in a September 2015 SLSO Community Partnership Program concert at the 560, in the same space, the main E. Desmond Lee Concert Hall.  This writer missed that concert (somehow), so this was a first-time listening experience for me.  From this one hearing, Oort Cloud was a fun, good-natured ear-tickler.  Moreover, Oort Cloud is not a percussion concerto at all, or a work where the two percussionists get all the good stuff and the “Others” get musical table-scraps.  Far from it:  the musicians in the sextet alongside the percussionists have plenty to do, enough to need a conductor (here Roger Kaza, SLSO principal horn).  Along with Kevin Ritenauer as the second percussionist, the “Others” consisted of violinist Siyu Zhang, violist Chris Tantillo, cellist Bjorn Ranheim, flutist Ann Choomack, clarinetist Tzuying Huang, and a visiting guest, harpist Grace Roepke, currently principal harp of The Louisville Orchestra and this weekend’s guest principal harp with the SLSO.  (One wonders how much advance notice she got that she was playing not just the SLSO concert this weekend, but this Ariel concert.  She probably knew well in advance, but it’s a droll subject to ponder, at least to this writer.) 

The second (formerly first) work was Komorebi by the New Zealand composer Salina Fisher (born 1993), a work from 2014 for violin and vibraphone.  “Komorebi” translates from Japanese as ‘sunlight that filters through the leaves of trees’.  Fisher herself said that she based this work “on the Ryukyu mode of Okinawa, Japan”.  This was also a personal first listen, and the work seems to divide into two sections, fast then slow, in a very audience-friendly idiom also.  Hannah Ji took the violin part, while Ritenauer returned for vibraphone duties. 

 The concert’s final work was the evening’s clearly “old school” selection, the Trio for Clarinet, Cello, and Piano in A minor, op. 114, of Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), composed in the summer of 1891.  Just before that time, Brahms thought of retiring from composing.  However, Brahms visited the German city of Meiningen in January 1891 for an arts festival, where he heard performances of works by Carl Maria von Weber and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart by the principal clarinetist of the Meiningen Hofkapelle (court orchestra), Richard Mühlfeld (1856-1907).  Mühlfeld’s musicianship so impressed Brahms that he ditched retirement and wrote four clarinet-inspired chamber works, this op. 114 Trio, the op. 115 Clarinet Quintet, and two Clarinet Sonatas under op. 120.  All classical music clarinetists thus owe Mühlfeld tremendous gratitude for inspiring Brahms to write these compositions. 

 The word “autumnal” often appears in discussion of these late Brahms clarinet chamber works.  This is very understandable with the op. 114 Trio, especially its first movement.  Interestingly, Brahms did not always make the clarinetist the “star” here, as the cellist often gets the spotlight.  Robert Walker, principal clarinet of the Pacific Symphony and on the SLSO’s roster as a replacement this season, took the clarinet part here, with Ranheim back as cellist and pianist Brian Woods completing the ensemble.

With the caliber of the musicians involved, it’s a given that the musicianship was very strong throughout the evening.  In fact, for the SLSO-affiliated players, this was their second concert of the day, after the SLSO morning subscription concert at UMSL.  This Ariel concert audience numbered about 80, admittedly not large for the 1100-seat Des Lee Concert Hall, but in keeping with attendance observed at other Ariel concerts.  Besides, the big hall was necessary to accommodate all the instruments and players needed for Shannon Wood’s composition.  Like with this recent St. Louis Chamber Soloists concert, it’s good to see a classical music series that takes some programming chances and doesn’t always do the obvious.  One hopes that this spirit continues.