St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church launched its spring “Shout for Joy” concert series on Sunday, March 9, with a viola recital of 20th- and 21st-century works by Flagstaff Symphony principal viola Jacquelyn Schwandt, accompanied by her Northern Arizona University colleague Aimee Fincher on piano.
Schwandt and Fincher chose to challenge their audience with a selection of contemporary and practically-contemporary pieces that also challenged them as performers, opening with Dmitri Shostakovich’s Viola Sonata, the composer’s ultimate work, completed in 1975. In the first movement, marked moderato, the viola entered with an uncertain pizzicato that was then dissonantly joined by the piano in one of Shostakovich’s flirtations with 12-tone technique — the equal use of all 12 notes of the chromatic scale without a key signature. First embraced by modernist composers as a purely performative departure from traditional methods, 12-tone technique later became a useful musical device for film and television composers seeking to convey the unease and imminent threat of the 20th century.
In the case of the Shostakovich sonata, the outcome was a musical portrait that depicted the viola wandering on an empty steppe beneath gray skies while the piano provided a sense of the distances involved. The sensation produced was highly reminiscent of the effect of Shostakovich’s previous score for Grigori Kozintsev’s production of “King Lear” as the initial pizzicato opened up into emphatic, strident chords and solo passages full of tricks for the viola, mood music in which effects replaced structure and harmony.
The second movement proved to be more lively and colloquial, perhaps even folksy, with the viola developing a voice instead of just tricks, albeit a harsh and frenetic voice, and Fincher providing vigorous support for Schwandt’s clean, expressive playing. It included a smoky, roaming, Turkish-style passage that was mildly interesting on its own account. The third movement was perhaps the most approachable portion of the sonata, a condition forced on the composer by his choice to quote — or misquote — Ludwig van Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. While deeply sad, with copious weeping from the viola, it was less dissonant and strange, less uncomfortable, than the preceding segments. It had little to say beyond “pity me, I’m sad and lonely.” The listener was strongly tempted to dismiss the complete achievement as the inevitable product of the Soviet realist approach to art.
What a goulash Shostakovich created in this sonata! Though obviously full of doubt, he could never resolve those doubts because he was never even able to form the questions completely, or, rather, couldn’t be bothered to form them — how very Gen Z of him. Nevertheless, it was the issues raised by the piece that created an opportunity for Schwandt and Fincher to demonstrate that they were much better musicians than the music warranted. Presented with the sort of work taxing to performers because it simply sounds wrong and unnatural, they did an admirable job keeping up with Shostakovich’s end-of-life demands. Schwandt was especially strong in the solo passages, steadily moving without being overwrought, and she and Fincher displayed impressive teamwork throughout, particularly in the drifting finish of the first movement.
“The second half of the concert will be much more upbeat,” Schwandt promised the crowd after intermission, and delivered on that promise with a performance of Nadia Boulanger’s “Trois Pieces,” a short work in three parts originally written for cello and piano. The first, designated “Moderato,” featured a lovely clear song from the viola over delicate piano fretwork, a simple but profound melody that turned wistful at the close. The second movement, “Sans vitesse et a l’aise,” was very approachable and old-fashioned, a reassuring return to sobriety — in Paris, of all places — after the abandonment of the Russian invasion. In contrast, the closing movement, marked “Vite et nerveusement rythme,” was a leaping dance full of high kicks that temporarily slowed down like a danseuse slinking around a cabaret between numbers before getting back on stage for a vigorous reprise, with Schwandt adding a flashy finish to her careful dynamic control.
The duo closed the after noon with living composer — shocking, isn’t it? — Amanda Harberg’s “Philadelphia Suite,” completed in 2007 and reflecting Harberg’s childhood in three movements. The viola doubled as ukelele for the initial segment, the energetic “Close Call,” while the piano took the more prominent role, singing of daybreak optimism with accents from the viola. Once Schwandt did finally start bowing, the music devel oped a very country-western feel.
The second of the three pieces, “Kingfisher,” was far more timid at first before a certain stability emerged, along with bits of familiar-sounding melody. Schwandt brought dash to the third movement, “Urban Hootenanny,” with fast bluegrass-style chords atop the merrily-tinkling piano that balanced the viola’s more brusque role. The two instruments seemed to keep bumping into each other on purpose in an amusing romp, with the occasional screeches and slides as someone dragged a chair across the barroom floor. If the composer was intending to give the impression of good-natured tipplers careening around a dance hall, she hit the spot.
The next installment in the “Shout for Joy” concert series will take place at St. Andrew’s on Sunday, March 16, with an art song recital by Christine Graham, Andrew Stuckey and Robert Mills.
