MYRIAD TRIO PREMIERES A NEW WORK BY TIMO ANDRES
Any group comprised of flute, viola and harp has to champion new music. There’s not a substantial number of works written for that configuration.
The Myriad Trio has commissioned at least one excellent piece — David Bruce’s “The Eye of Night” — but that was over a decade ago. On Thursday evening, the Myriad Trio gave the San Diego premiere of its latest commission at the Mingei International Museum.
Timo Andres’ “Precise Sentiments” was to be premiered last year, but COVID happened. On Thursday, at Art of Elan’s first official concert in the museum’s La Atalaya Foundation Theater, patrons could finally hear the commission. It was a handsome, finely wrought work that should receive plenty of performances in years to come.
Many of Andres’ pieces are inspired by earlier composers, usually by a specific work. “Precise Sentiments” took Igor Stravinsky’s “Symphonies of Wind Instruments” as a model. If there were connections to specific melodies or harmonies in Stravinsky’s piece, I could not hear them.
However, the form of Andres’ work was very Stravinskian — static harmonies that often underlay rhythmic vitality. These sections with no or little musical evolution were abruptly contrasted with new textures and melodic materials. Form and growth was created by varying the lengths of these sections — huge musical blocks that were switched back and forth, with new blocks added, older blocks removed to be recalled later.
Stravinsky’s work ends with a slow chorale. “Precise Sentiments” concluded with slow-moving, rhythmically homogeneous music. If it wasn’t exactly a chorale, it certainly hinted at one. Andres’ astringent textures and polytonal harmonies also suggested Stravinsky.
Flutist Demarre McGill, violist Che-Yen Chen and harpist Julie Smith Phillips seemed to easily navigate the score’s rhythmic and ensemble demands.
The Myriad Trio premiered David Bruce’s “The Eye of Night” about 11 years ago. At that time, I was impressed by Bruce’s strong melodies and gorgeous harmonies, both subtly inflected by Celtic music. Hearing it live once more confirmed the profundity and beauty of this work.
If Debussy had never composed a sonata in 1915 for the novel combination of flute, viola and harp, the Myriad Trio (and other such trios) might not exist. Debussy
wasn’t the first to combine those instruments, but his sonata was the first memorable work for that ensemble.
Over a century later, it towers over works by other composers writing for that instrumentation. It still mystifies and delights with formal ambiguities that lie beneath the attractive harmonies and exquisite timbres.
McGill, Chen and Phillips imbued it with sensuality and playfulness.
They ended the program with an arrangement of Gershwin’s Preludes for Piano. I’m not sure if it’s possible to capture his brash gestures and rhythmic snap for such an ensemble. As usual when classical musicians play Gershwin, the second prelude was played far too slowly and with too much rubato. The audience chuckled at some of the jazz inflections, a tip-off that the music wasn’t interpreted correctly.
Instead of trying to translate Gershwin’s pianism for f lute, viola and harp, why not commission one or more folks with a feel for that ensemble and popular music to arrange some of his songs without religiously respecting the sheet music? By George, that would be something!