LEAVING A MARK ON MUSIC HISTORY
BURLINGAME, CA—It took a senior musician confined to the back rows to come up with something new and novel in his premiere.
Meet composer Shinji Eshima, a bass player relegated to the back of orchestras, rarely getting solos or, even rarer, contrabass concertos. His notable first was the lineup for a quintet even rarer than Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet (which, yes, also has a string bass): Clarinet, piano, marimba, cello and bass. The night’s versatile cellist Emil Miland, who has been playing all manner of musical genres for more than a half century on stage, had never encountered such an unorthodox ensemble. Nor have I, though I have only reviewed area concerts since 1962.
To fit them all together seamlessly is akin to climbing Everest with a newly formed team of soccer player, bridge expert, tennis champ and Nobel winner, none of whom have climbed anything higher than Boston’s Heartbreak Hill together.
Eshima’s amiable commissioned “Hymn for Her (Conversations I Wish I Had)” opens with a contrabass solo—clearly, Eshima speaking—leading to the cello’s focal hymn in a sad and lonely melody, entering a world where the lower registers predominate in a pensive, reflective way. Natural pairings evolve: cello-bass and piano-marimba, with the clarinet high overhead like a soaring falcon. Isolated exclamation points from marimba blend in smoothly with the fluid piano. The 13-minute, thoroughly consonant piece exits with an exultant climax, and what the 67-year-old composer calls an “Amen.” Eshima had mastered the untried combo quandary successfully and in effect left his immutable mark on music history.
The world premiere merited the standing ovation, with the composer almost ascending to the stage for the plaudits greeting his world premiere to mark the 40th anniversary of chamber concerts at the venerable Kohl Mansion. Eshima’s dedicatee remains as anonymous as Beethoven’s unmailed “Immortal Beloved” inspiration. And his Hymn clearly moved the full house of (mostly) senior citizens, each with immutable memories of their own.
This was the 40th annivesary celebration concert for the Music at Kohl Mansion chamber series, the first sellout since the pandemic’s start. The closely attuned players were Jeannie Psomas, clarinet, Karen Hutchinson piano, Emil Miland, cello, Haruka Fujii marimba and Charles Chandler, contrabass.
Less closely attuned were the personnel of the Mendelssohn Piano Trio No. 1 closing out the evening Nov. 13, marring the intensive work of pianist Hutchinson in a highly demanding assignment. Hutchinson was also kept jumping in the fast-scurrying piano part of David Carlson’s Sonata for Cello and Piano, opposite Miland.
The man who convinced Ansel Adams not to become a pianist was featured in parts of his Piano Trio (No. 2). That was the late local pianist-composer Ernst Bacon, who got that compliment from Adams after a Bacon piano recital a century ago, as he once explained in an interview.
The eight-concert series continues Dec. 4 with the Miró String Quartet.
Music at Kohl Mansion, a chamber-music series, with Shinji Eshima’s world premiere Nov. 13. Kohl Mansion, 2750 Adeline Dr., Burlingame. For info: (650) 762-1130, or go online: www.musicatkohl.org.
