World premiere of Seyfried piece tops Chamber Music Northwest concert

by James Bash on July 1, 2010

Photo credit: Jim Leisy

The world premiere of Sheridan Seyfried’s Sextet for Clarinet, Two violins, Viola, Cello and Piano received an exciting performance at the Chamber Music Northwest Festival on Monday (June 28) at Kaul Auditorium. Clarinetist David Shifrin, violinists Ida and Ani Kavafian, violist Steven Tennenbom, cellist Peter Wiley, and pianist Anne-Marie McDermott dug into the three-movement work with intensity. They reveled in dynamic contrast, accenting the driving, pulsating rhythms, and relaxing into the slow, soothing passages with a terrific sense of teamwork. The second movement with its lyrical, melodic themes , underlying pizzicato in the cello part, and rising and descending lines from the piano faintly evoked Italian film music of an earlier era.

Seyfried, who is in his mid 20s, was in attendance and came up on stage to join the players and take a couple of well-deserved bows. The audience rewarded them with thunderous applause and a standing ovation.

The second half of the program was dedicated to Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the end of Time for Violin, Clarinet, Cello and Piano. Messiaen wrote the work while in a Nazi concentration camp in 1941 (almost 70 years ago), but the music still sounds unusual and new. Divided into eight sections that were inspired by Messiaen’s Christian mysticism, the piece featured a variety of ensemble playing and solos. Shifrin’s solo in the third movement (entitled Abyss of the Birds) was outstanding, in particular, when he created super-quiet tones (subito-pianissimos) that gradually got louder and louder and louder and louder. I also loved the way that Wiley created slippery, sliding sounds, and the splashing of unusual chords that McDermott played. She seemed to get too much forte in the last two movements, because the sound didn’t drift into the heavens and create a sense of great tranquility.

Ida Kavafian and Tenenbom opened the concert with Mozart’s Duo in B-flat Major for Violin and Viola. Tenenbom delved into the music with panache, but Kavafian seemed to be fighting the piece the entire way. Her playing wasn’t sleek and expressive like it usually is. I’m guessing that most of the rehearsal time leading up to this concert was spent on the Seyfried premiere. Hopefully, we’ll hear more of his music in the near future.

—

Here’s another photo of McDermott and Wiley in action.

Photo credit: Jim Leisy

James Bash

James Bash writes articles for a variety of publications, including magazines such as Opera America, Open Spaces, Opera, MUSO, International Arts Manager, American Record Guide, Symphony, Opera Canada, and PSU Magazine. The newspapers include Crosscut, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, The Oregonian, The Columbian, The Portland Tribune, The Register-Guard, and Willamette Week. James has also written a number of articles for the Oregon Arts Commission. James was a fellow to the 2008 NEA Journalism Institute for Classical Music and Opera. He is a member of the Music Critics Association of North America (mcana.org) and lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife, Kathy.