August 2

Chamber Music

Olivier Messiaen

Couleurs de la Cité céleste

Born in Avignon in 1908, Olivier Messiaen went to Paris after World War I and began his studies at the Conservatoire as a child. The organ became an important part of his artistic identity, and it connected closely to his deeply held Catholicism; in 1928, he composed the stunning Le banquet céleste (The Celestial Banquet), a work whose epigraph quotes from the New Testament. In 1931 he become organist at the Église de la Sainte-Trinité in Paris, a role he held until his death in 1992. During World War II Messiaen was captured and held at a prisoner-of-war camp in Silesia, where he composed and oversaw the premiere of his celebrated Quatour pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time), a work that contends with metaphysical questions and incorporates birdsong, a frequent source of inspiration for Messiaen. He went on to teach at the Conservatoire, and among his students were future avant-garde heavyweights like Pierre Boulez, Iannis Xenakis, and Karlheinz Stockhausen.

Messiaen’s style emphasizes spaciousness, surprise, and a sense of sonic freedom, all features of Couleurs de la Cité celeste (Colors of the Celestial City), which he composed in 1963. Speaking about this work with the music critic Claude Samuel, Messiaen said that the piece “was born of a strange commission” for a composition for three trombones and three xylophones, a combination that initially confounded Messiaen. “Finally, after long reflection, it occurred to me that trombones had an apocalyptic sound, so I reread the Apocalypse [of John] looking for quotations from it. Then I was struck by the percussive sonority of the three xylophones, which allowed me to use bird songs provided I add a piano.” Yet more instruments were later added to the group. In the resulting work, Messiaen explained, “the colors in Couleurs de la Cité céleste are the colors of celestial Jerusalem, which is to say paradise.” Because “paradise is represented in the Apocalypse as a shimmering of colors,” Messiaen “tried to translate into [his] work the colors mentioned in the Apocalypse.” Messiaen’s score indicates passages that correspond to specific jewels, which are important in New Testament imagery of Jerusalem. The score also names specific birds as well as quotations Messiaen employs from the repertoire of Gregorian chant. Mysterious harmonies, radiant outbursts, weighty silences, suggestions of bells, and hymnlike passages shape this heavenly tapestry. — © Matthew Mugmon

Jeremiah Siochi

Pelagic Poem

The “pelagic zone” is the open ocean, away from the shore, where life is found at all depths in innumerable forms. But life is also found at its surface, and this provided the first inspiration for Jeremiah Siochi’s Pelagic Poem, on an oceanic birdwatching expedition. “There were so many new species I hadn’t seen, but there’s also all the motion—of the water, of the boat, and of the birds as they dive or glide above the waves.”

Pelagic Poem was commissioned by harpist Katherine Siochi (the composer’s sister) and percussionist Jacob Nissly (her fiancé) for an appearance on the San Francisco Symphony’s chamber concert series and to enrich the limited repertoire for harp and percussion duo. The composer opted to limit the percussion setup to a single vibraphone, an instrument whose capacity for long, sustained notes make it a natural complement for the harp.

The ocean’s constantly shifting depths are reflected in the different kinds of motion found at all levels of the piece. At the surface level, Siochi pays great attention to the sonorities of the instruments: the vibraphone features a motor that can continually transform its tone, which sounds at high speeds a little like vibrato, but at low speeds almost like a singer slowly changing vowels. A simple piece of tinfoil also changes the sound, adding a gentle buzz “like playing a really old vinyl record.” Similarly, the harp shifts between normal and extended techniques—harmonics, xylophonics, strumming the instrument, and playing near the soundboard—that change the color of the instrument like light refracting on the surface of the waves.

The piece is divided roughly into two halves. The first half is more animated, with one instrument setting up rhythmic grooves that the other interacts with before switching back. When the piece drifts seamlessly into a more rhapsodic and expansive zone, slower but denser, it feels like the rich depths of the ocean. — © Joel Rust

Maurice Ravel

Sonata for Violin and Cello

The composition of the Sonata for violin and cello was sparked by a request from a French publisher in 1920 for several leading French composers to write short pieces to be published for a memorial tribute to Claude Debussy, who had died in 1918. Ravel responded with a single-movement work for violin and cello. The following year he decided to expand this duo into a substantial four-movement composition that he worked on extensively during a summer visit to his native Basque country.

The Sonata, as this final version was called, is a surprisingly austere work for a composer usually connected with the most sensuous sonorities, whether conceived for piano, chamber ensemble, or full orchestra. Evidently the piece marked a conscious departure for the composer, who had recently been made aware of new trends coming from Vienna: he heard Schoenberg’s Pierrot lunaire, and although he never adhered to Schoenberg’s style, he nonetheless drew from it precisely what suited him.

The first performance was given by violinist Hélène Jourdan-Morhange and cellist Maurice Maréchal at the Salle Pleyel in Paris on April 6, 1922. They found the piece a major challenge, and Jourdan-Morhange recalled later that they had to practice it over and over until both were giddy and exhausted.

The first movement follows a reasonably normal sonata form based on an alternation of major and minor triads. The second movement, Très vif, exploits special effects and includes an homage to Stravinskyan rhythmic ostinatos played pizzicato in one part against a sustained line in the other. A brief lyric passage of melody sometimes imitated between the two instruments offers a respite from the energy of the main section.

The slow movement comes next, a wonderful lyric outpouring that, more than anywhere else in the sonata, offers sheer melody over an accompaniment. Its middle section, by contrast to that of the second movement, is dramatic and tense, but the close, with the instruments muted, is pure and serene.

The finale is the longest and tightest movement in the sonata, built on a rondo structure whose refrain contrasts with three other melodies. The refrain figure is stated at once in the cello, expanded by imitations in the violin’s pizzicato accompaniments. On the last return, Ravel tightens up the texture still further by juxtaposing the refrain with the third counter-theme to engineer a dramatic close.

— © Steven Ledbetter

Dmitri Shostakovich

Viola Sonata, op. 147

A few days before his death in 1975, Dmitri Shostakovich remarked in a letter to a friend, “I manage to write with my right hand only with the greatest difficulty. . . . Although it was very hard for me, I have written a Sonata for viola and piano.” This was Shostakovich’s final composition, and it has subsequently been regarded as his last will and testament in music. Scholar Elizabeth Wilson writes that in this final work the composer “overcomes wordly trivialities and suffering in a mood of exalted philosophical resignation. The Viola Sonata can be regarded as a fitting requiem for a man who had lived through and chronicled the scourges of a cruel age.”

The Viola Sonata was written for and dedicated to Fyodor Druzhinin, the violist in the Beethoven Quartet and a longtime friend and collaborator of Shostakovich. In his conversations with Druzhinin during the work’s composition, Shostakovich mentioned the difficulty he had in writing the piece, but as if anticipating the tone of lamentation that would later attach itself to the work, the composer noted: “The first movement is a novella, the second a scherzo, and the finale is an adagio in memory of Beethoven; but don’t let that inhibit you. The music is bright; bright and clear.”

Whether the sparse textures and open harmonies in the Viola Sonata are a result of the physical difficulties of writing or a philosophical purity of thought, they certainly engender much of the work’s emotional strength. The first movement begins as if from nothing, with the solo viola playing pizzicato on open strings. The piano accompaniment in this movement is predominantly linear; only a few chords punctuate its contrapuntal texture.

The second movement has more dance to it. It calls on the same jaunty folkishness that had also stirred many other Slavic composers in the early twentieth century, including Stravinsky and Bartók. The virtuoso writing for the viola in this movement consists of an assemblage of double-stops on perfect intervals that move restlessly through a wide tonal spectrum with cautious light-heartedness.

It is in the final movement that the sonata plumbs its most profound depths. The texture of the opening gradually expands until it miraculously transforms into an allusion to a famous Beethoven piece—you’ll know it when it arrives, though the reference is oblique and never stated in full. But even more striking is the gradual motion towards the complete repose offered by the final C-major triad, as pure and unaffected in its own way as the open strings that began the first movement. — © Luke Howard

Harpist Katherine Siochi is an internationally award-winning soloist and one of the leading orchestral harpists of her generation. Appointed by Esa-Pekka Salonen, she joined the San Francisco Symphony as principal harp in the 2023–24 season. Siochi previously held positions as principal harp of the Minnesota Orchestra, Kansas City Symphony, and Sarasota Orchestra. She has performed as a guest with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic. Equally accomplished as a soloist, Siochi is the gold medalist of the tenth USA International Harp Competition, one of the world’s most prestigious harp contests. In 2024 she made her solo debut with the San Francisco Symphony, and has performed solo recitals in Hong Kong, China, Israel, and at Lyon & Healy Hall in Chicago. After winning the highest prize at the American Harp Society’s National Competition, Siochi toured for two years as their Concert Artist. In 2021 she released her solo album Nocturne on Lyon & Healy Records. Siochi is on the harp faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and coaches harp for the SFS Youth Orchestra. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in harp performance from The Juilliard School as a student of Nancy Allen.

Jacob Nissly is the principal percussionist of the San Francisco Symphony under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas. Prior to his appointment in San Francisco, Nissly was the principal percussionist of the Cleveland Orchestra for two seasons and the principal percussionist of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for one season. Previously he was a member of the New World Symphony in Miami Beach for two seasons. Nissly is the co-chair of the percussion department at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Nissly is also a regular coach at the New World Symphony. He has served as a summer percussion coach for NYO-USA and NYO-2 from 2017 to 2019. Nissly holds a Bachelor of Music with a focus in Jazz studies from Northwestern University, where he studied with Michael Burritt, James Ross, and Paul Wertico. He received his Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School, where he studied with Greg Zuber and Dan Druckman.

Since her triumph at Denmark’s 1996 Carl Nielsen International Violin Competition, Adele Anthony has enjoyed an acclaimed and expanding international career. Performing as a soloist with orchestra and in recital as well as being active in chamber music, Ms. Anthony’s career spans the continents of North America, Europe, Australia, and both south and east Asia. In addition to appearances with all six symphonies of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Ms. Anthony’s highlights from recent seasons have included performances with the symphony orchestras of Houston, San Diego, Seattle, Ft. Worth, and Indianapolis, as well as the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. Being an avid chamber music player, Ms. Anthony appears regularly at La Jolla SummerFest and Aspen Music Festival. Her wide-ranging repertoire extends from the Baroque of Bach and Vivaldi to contemporary works of Ross Edwards, Arvo Pärt, and Philip Glass. An active recording artist, Ms. Anthony’s work includes releases with Sejong Soloists; Vivaldi: The Four Seasons (Naxos); a recording of the Philip Glass Violin Concerto with Takuo Yuasa and the Ulster Orchestra (Naxos); Arvo Pärt’s Tabula rasa with Gil Shaham, Neeme Järvi, and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra (Deutsche Grammophon); and her latest recording of the Sibelius Violin Concerto and Ross Edward’s Maninyas with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra (Canary Classics/ABC Classics). Adele Anthony performs on an Antonio Stradivarius violin crafted in 1728.

James Dunham’s rich background includes having been violist of the Grammy-winning Cleveland Quartet and founding violist of the Naumburg award-winning Sequoia Quartet. He frequently collaborates with the American, Jupiter, Pacifica, and Takács quartets, and is violist of the Axelrod String Quartet, in residence at the Smithsonian Institution. Dunham is a frequent presence in master classes and competition juries throughout the U.S. and abroad, including the Fischoff and Osaka chamber music competitions. During the 2016–17 season he joined the New Zealand String Quartet for a three-week tour, appeared nationally with the Jupiter String Quartet, and performed and gave master classes at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Leipzig. Dunham is an impassioned advocate of new music; he has premiered and recorded many works written for him, most notably a premiere of Libby Larsen’s work and his recent recording of Judith Shatin’s Glyph for solo viola and piano quintet. The Cleveland Quartet’s recording of John Corigliano’s String Quartet, written for their final tour, won the 1996 Grammy for Best Chamber Music Performance. Dunham is professor of viola at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, where he co-directs the Master of Music in String Quartet program.

Winner of the 1987 Naumburg International Piano Competition at Carnegie Hall, Anton Nel continues to tour internationally as recitalist, concerto soloist, chamber musician, and teacher. Highlights in the U.S. include performances with the Cleveland Orchestra and the Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas, Seattle, and Detroit symphonies as well as coast-to-coast recitals. Overseas he has appeared at Wigmore Hall in London, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, and major concert halls in China, Korea, and South Africa. He holds the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Endowed Chair at the University of Texas at Austin, where he heads the division of keyboard studies. He also teaches annual masterclasses at the Glenn Gould School in Toronto and the Manhattan School of Music. During the summers he is on the artist-faculties of the Steans Institute at the Ravinia Festival and the Orford Music Academy in Quebec. Nel also frequently performs as a harpsichordist and forte-pianist. His teachers have included Adolph Hallis at the University of the Witwatersrand and, at the University of Cincinnati, Bela Siki and Frank Weinstock. He first appeared at the Aspen Music Festival and School in 1988 and joined the faculty in 1997. More information at www.antonnel.com.