Special Event: Tessa Lark, violin

Joshua Roman, cello,

and

Edgar Meyer, bass

A Recital by Tessa Lark, violin, Joshua Roman, cello, and Edgar Meyer, bass

By David Hoyt

Tonight’s program spans nearly three centuries of musical history. Although the Baroque music of J. S. Bach might seem to be a strange companion for string trios by the contemporary genre-bending bass virtuoso Edgar Meyer, the two composers find themselves in a time-traveling dialogue: if Bach represents the moment when early music crystalized into the common practice period of Western music, Meyer represents that same canon speeding into the future, having picked up influences from Bluegrass, Jazz, and other popular and classical styles of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Bach’s Sonata for Viola da Gamba in G Major, BWV 1027, dates from around 1740, when Bach was living in Leipzig and directing the Collegium Musicum, which produced weekly chamber music concerts at the Café Zimmermann coffeehouse. The arrangement for viola da gamba and harpsichord is not the only version of the work, which also exists as a sonata for two flutes and continuo (BWV 1039) and as a trio sonata for organ. Edgar Meyer’s rendition for string trio gives the viola da gamba part to the cello, with the violin and bass taking the keyboard lines. Meyer notes that the piece is “not very sonority-based; it’s about the ideas”—meaning that the sonata can work equally well on many different combinations of instruments with various timbres.

The sonata’s four movements are in a pattern of slow, fast, slow, fast, beginning with the opening Adagio in 12/8 time. This elegant movement features long, gently descending lines that alternate between the violin and cello. Next a sprightly energy animates the melody of the Allegro ma non tanto in 3/4.

Bach moves to E minor for a brief, pensive Andante in common time in which the violin and cello’s flowing sixteenth notes are accompanied by pizzicato bass. G major returns in the Allegro moderato, an upbeat bourrée-style fugue in cut time. Throughout the sonata all three players frequently interplay and trade off parts, but Bach’s careful architecture results in one smooth and unbroken line.

Opening the program with Bach is, in Meyer’s words, “a little bit like asking for a blessing” from his favorite composer before presenting his own trios. In addition to calling back to Bach and 300 years of music history, Meyer’s three compositions on the program also harken back to the early days of his career while demonstrating how he has evolved and matured as a composer over the past four decades. String Trio No. 1, performed before intermission, and String Trio No. 3, performed at the end of the program, frame Meyer’s newly-composed String Trio No. 4, an AMFS co-commission. The first and third trios were written in 1986 and 1988 for the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, where Meyer performed them with violinist Daniel Phillips and cellist Carter Brey.

“The trios from 1986 and 1988 were really kind of the beginning of my professional life and adult life,” Meyer said. As neither trio was professionally recorded in full at the time of composition, Meyer decided to revisit the pieces in order to “get more complete documentation of both of those trios, and write a new one” with the idea of “completing the thought” begun by the earlier works.

“All three of these trios have at least some virtuoso dimension,” Meyer said. “They also all have fairly obvious strong influences from music that’s not generally thought of as classical music. Nothing that unpredictable for people who are used to what I do.

“When I was writing the first trio in 1986, I was still trying to integrate a lot of things from fiddle music,” Meyer said. He was influenced by his early experiences performing with the bluegrass group Strength in Numbers, whose members included stars like fiddler Mark O’Connor and banjo player Béla Fleck. “The way that the music worked and the way that it interacted, both between the players and with the audience, just gave me another take on what made things go in terms of driving rhythm, in terms of inevitable melodies. And so I was really just trying to incorporate some of the things I was learning, just trying to find my voice.”

Meyer found himself drawn to the trio instrumentation of violin, cello, and bass because it provides an opportunity to highlight the deeper voices of the low strings, especially the double bass. “It leaves a lot of room for the cello and bass to play . . . it just lets the bass or the cello speak more freely,” Meyer said. “The bass is much more of a blank canvas. I’ve never thought of it as a hindrance—it’s a hard instrument to play and that’s a handicap, but it’s an asset to have a unique and not-fully-explored sonority.” Meyer’s playing posture, intimately leaning into the instrument as he explores the upper reaches of the fingerboard, demonstrates how he turns the double bass into a surprisingly delicate voice with an expansive range.

Over the course of his wide-ranging career Meyer has worked with a nearly-endless roster of well-known musicians, but he knew quickly that violinist Tessa Lark and cellist Joshua Roman would be the right collaborators for this retrospective on and expansion of his string trio works. “I’ve played with each of them and it was very clear they were the right people for this music,” he said. “It’s a perfect combination of, they’re extremely good at what they do, and they are very committed and interested in things like these trios.” Similarly to Meyer, who grew up in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and is equally at home performing classical repertoire and improvising with a jazz band, Lark hails from Kentucky and got her start on the violin performing bluegrass. Joshua Roman, for his part, is also a genre-bending performer who has collaborated with musicians in a variety of styles.

String Trio No. 1 opens on dramatic dissonance, with the bass playing a rhythmic drone as the violin introduces an innocent melody joined by the cello. The mystery and complexity deepen as the cello begins a faster-paced theme that accelerates into something strident and driven before playfulness and the innocent melody return. The second movement features a chorale between cello and bass in between flights of fancy from the violin. Eschewing his bow in the third movement, Meyer provides a walking bass as the cello plays a folkish melody later taken up by the violin. The higher strings then provide a sustained background for a bass solo. Bow back in hand, Meyer launches the frenetic final movement and provides a sustained drone for triumphant expressions from the violin and cello, although the mystery and dissonance of earlier movements creep back in before all three players rush to a thrilling conclusion.

The first movement of Meyer’s new String Trio No. 4 begins with dizzying chromatic runs and a wide-ranging hypnotic groove in the cello and bass. A mysterious, fugal middle section brings a period of unsettled calm amidst the storm before the opening energy returns via a long accelerando that rushes to a unison finale. A meditative middle movement begins with pizzicato scales in the violin and a flowing cello line followed by playful leapfrogging triplets shared among the instruments. The opening material returns at the end, this time with the bass bowing the sustained line. The final movement follows without pause, as the bass introduces a driving rhythm while the violin and cello shimmer above. A brief, syncopated chorale gives the trio a moment to come together before the violin takes over rough, percussive rhythms as the cello and bass jam below. Cello and violin exchange spiky, lightning-fast runs until the trio comes to a sudden, syncopated end.

String Trio No. 3 opens with a prelude that is alternatively sweet and dissonant, interspersed with moments of greater motion. Laying down his bow, Meyer provides a groovy pizzicato accompaniment for flowing violin and cello lines in the second movement. Violin and cello play an enchanting fiddle tune in the third movement with wolf whistles in the plucked bass. Again picking up his bow, Meyer introduces a driving fourth movement featuring long cello glissandos down to a droning open C, whispering harmonics, and ponticello slides toward the bridge to introduce crunchy tones. The players spiral upwards into the fireworks of the conclusion. — © David Hoyt

Edgar Meyer is the only bassist to be awarded both the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize and a MacArthur Fellowship, solidifying his unparalleled talent in his field. In 2024 he was honored with his sixth and seventh Grammy Awards for As We Speak, the second acclaimed studio album released with long-time friends and collaborators Béla Fleck, Zakir Hussain, and Rakesh Chaurasia. 2024 also saw the release of a duo album featuring fellow bassist Christian McBride entitled But Who’s Gonna Play the Melody? and a complete recording of Meyer’s three concertos for bass and orchestra with The Knights conducted by Eric Jacobsen and produced by Chris Thile. The concerto project includes his Concertino for Bass and Fourteen Strings, recorded in 2023 with the Scottish Ensemble led by Jonathan Morton, who commissioned and toured the piece with Meyer in 2022. In addition to his performing and recording career, Meyer is a celebrated composer. Most recently he was one of five composers commissioned by American violinist Joshua Bell and the New York Philharmonic for their project The Elements, which had its world premiere in 2023. This season Meyer is touring the U.S. with violinist Tessa Lark and cellist Joshua Roman. The newly-formed trio performs newly-commissioned work alongside Meyer’s string trios composed in the 1980s. Mr. Meyer is the subject of an ongoing documentary filmed and produced by Tessa Lark, Andrew Adair, and Michael Thurber.

Joshua Roman is a cello soloist and composer known for his genre-bending programs and wide-ranging collaborations. Committed to bringing classical music to new audiences, Roman has collaborated with world-class artists across genres and disciplines, including Edgar Meyer, DJ Spooky, Tony-winner/MacArthur genius Bill T. Jones, Grammy Award-winning East African vocalist Somi, and Tony Award-nominated actor Anna Deavere Smith. His concert of the complete Bach cello suites after the 2016 U.S. Presidential election had nearly a million live viewers, and his solo performance with the YouTube Symphony at Carnegie Hall was viewed by 33 million people across nearly 200 countries; Yo-Yo Ma introduced him as “one of the great exemplars of the ideal twenty-first century musician.” Roman has appeared with leading orchestras including the ​​Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Toronto Symphony, and Mariinsky Symphony Orchestra. As a composer he has been commissioned by Music Academy of the West, Illinois Philharmonic, and ProMusica Chamber Orchestra. Roman has also premiered new works composed for him by Mason Bates, Reena Esmail, Timo Andres, Gabriela Lena Frank, Aaron Jay Kernis, Lisa Bielawa, and others.