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Rarely Heard Light French Music Is Presented In an Engaging, Entertaining, and Skillful Manner

by Nancy Plum

Halloween is coming soon, and the Richardson Chamber Players have wasted no time getting into the mood by exploiting early 20th century French musical humor. Apparently, Erik Satie had very strong opinions about audience behavior during performances, and at one time issued explicit instructions on audience decorum during the performance of his music. As part of their Sunday afternoon concert in Richardson Auditorium, the Chamber Players took these instructions one step further by printing in the program a roadmap of clapping behavior, further emphasizing the humor which underscored the music performed. Demi-Sec, itself a play-on-words reference to champagne, was dedicated to the music of Satie and his devoted follower, Francis Poulenc. Like an a la carte menu at a fine French restaurant, this concert offered a variety of excellence, some small and light and some substantial.

For this performance, the Richardson Chamber Players pulled from its pool of fine musicians nine fine instrumentalists and one singer, conducted in the ensemble pieces by Richard Tang Yuk. The Chamber Players pulled its first "fast one" of the afternoon in the opening piece by having two instrumentalists walk on to one side of the stage, when the opening work was actually to be played by a pianist on the other side of the stage at another piano. The first half of the concert was constructed with two major Poulenc chamber works, interspersed with short piano pieces by Satie, as if to clear the musical palette. Satie was once characterized by Debussy as a "fine medieval musician who wandered into the 20th century," and the clarity with which pianist Margaret Kampmeier played the three short Satie works in the first half clearly elucidated the simplicity of Satie's music. Ms. Kampmeier's keyboard style was precise, with the music punctuated well when necessary.

Francis Poulenc was part of a group of six French composers in the early 20th century who were devoted to keeping the musical philosophies of Satie alive. Sonate pour Hautbois et Piano, performed by pianist Elizabeth Di Felice and oboist Matthew Sullivan, paid homage to Satie's lyricism and clarity, yet was permeated with the French cabaret and nightclub character so prevalent at the time Poulenc was writing. Mr. Sullivan's program biography includes references to playing in Broadway pit orchestras, and this experienced served him well as his playing transported the audience back to the Paris of the early 20th century, with its smoky club atmosphere. As usual, Ms. Di Felice's playing was exact and precise, timed perfectly with the oboe's nuances.

Baritone Thomas Meglioranza joined Ms. Di Felice and Mr. Sullivan, as well as cornetist Brian McWhorter, bassoonist Brian Kershner, clarinetist Evan Spritzer, cellist Sophie Shao, violinist Sunghae Anna Lim and percussionist Tom Kolor for Poulenc's secular Cantata La Ball Masqué. The poetry set in this cantata is farcical and it was stylishly presented by Mr. Meglioranza, although the audience's full appreciation of the text was hampered by not having a translation. The humorous and light orchestration, incorporating saucy jazz elements and unusual percussion instruments, was also reminiscent of a Parisian setting, and Mr. Tang Yuk cleanly kept the instrumentalists together and on track in a good flow, as the work ended in a French carnival style. The oboe and clarinet played extremely well together, and effective contrast was found between the lowest notes of the piano and the upper register of the violin. Overshadowed at times by the ensemble, Mr. Meglioranza was a bit easier to hear in the later movements, with lighter and less forceful orchestration.

Ms. Di Felice again showed the exquisiteness of her playing in Poulenc's Novelette #1 in C Major, which opened the second half of the concert much as Masterpiece Theater's fireside opening set the stage. Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Kershner contrasted this work with the jarring but precisely played Sonate Pour Clarinette et Basson. Most impressive between these two players was the coordination of their phrase and movement cadences. The other most impressive pairing of players was the two-piano rendition of Satie's La Belle Excentrique, in which part of the humor of the piece was in watching Ms. Di Felice and Ms. Kampmeier successfully tangle logistically in the crossed hands between players.

Like a fine French meal, Sunday afternoon's concert was concise: just the right amount was served with time to linger in between. This music is rarely heard, and the refined playing of the Richardson Chamber Players created an entertaining and engaging afternoon.