Fans of chamber music were treated to a first-class example of this genre on Sunday, Sept. 16, when Clear Lake Performing Arts kicked off its Fall concert season with an appearance by Sonoma County”s Sequoia Trio.
In actuality, as confessed by cellist Laura McClellan in her opening remarks, the group could have been called the Sequoia Duo during the first half of the program, since they were playing music for just two instruments. The first piece was the “Sonata No. 2 in G Minor for Piano and Cello,” written by Ludwig Van Beethoven when he was a youthful 25. It was first presented in 1796, with the maestro himself at the keyboard.
Beethoven would probably have felt right at home in the comfortable confines of Kelseyville”s Galilee Lutheran Church, where Sunday”s concert took place. His part was amply filled by pianist Florence Aquilina, playing CLPA”s Yamaha grand piano.
Cellist Mclellan and pianist Aquilina teamed up for a perfect presentation of the Sonata, sometimes blending their instruments seamlessly, other times with one instrument. answering the other.
The second selection was Brahms” “Sonata No. 2 in A Major for Piano and Violin, Op 100,” and this time the group”s leader violinist Gary McLaughlin took center stage. The pony-tailed musician, who is well-known to Lake County audiences, proved to be a warm and engaging individual, especially after he cradled his impressive instrument, a violin crafted in the late 18th century in Leon, France by master violin maker Sylvester. The classical composers often wrote for specific instruments to meet the wishes of their sponsors, or sometimes as show pieces for fellow musicians. Brahms might well have had in mind musicians on the order of McLaughlin and Aquilina, who handled his music with fiery determination tempered with tender care.
Following intermission the trio returned to deliver a composition in three parts by contemporary American composer Paul Shoenfield which proved to be a complete departure from what is ordinarily thought of as Chamber Music. Shoenfield, a baby boomer born in Detroit in 1947, said that he was sitting in Murray”s Restaurant (no relation to the writer) in Minneapolis, when the idea for this music came to him. He called it simply “Cafe Music” since it represents a compilation of music one might find in clubs and cafes around the nation.
Murray”s must have indeed been a fun place, because his music is a rollicking fusion of jazz, ragtime, swing and even Zydeco, with an underlying country music theme, based on the familiar “Ain”t She Sweet” and “You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby” all supported by complex rhythmic structures. The three musicians handed off the leads to one another at a dizzy pace and with great skill.
The second movement was blues-based, with the mournful notes of the violin and cello countered by the steady beat of the piano, but in the third movement the trio really hit their stride with music ranging from classical to barrelhouse, with heavy emphasis on atonality, and finally wrapped it up with a return to the “Ain”t She Sweet” theme. The audience, who had earlier admitted in answering a question from McLaughlin that they were unfamiliar with Shoenfield”s work, responded with an extended ovation.
The next concert in the CLPA series will take place on Sunday, Oct. 14, when Celtic harper and storyteller Patrick Ball will appear at the Kelseyville High School Student Center.
Editor”s Note: Conn Murray is past president of CLPA.
