Amidst the curated collections of rare books and fine art in the Redwood Library and Athenæum, Sunday afternoon patrons of Newport Classical assembled to hear a rarefied mélange of sounds emanating from oboe, bassoon, piano, and accordion provided the Poulenc Trio and accordionist and composer Hanzhi Wang. The Poulenc Trio ― Aleh Remezau, oboe, Bryan Young bassoon, and Irina Kaplan Lande, piano ― opened with Rossini’s delightful Fantaisie Concertante on themes from L’Italiana in Algeri from a 19th–century collection of arrangements made to show off students and faculty at the Paris Conservatoire.
Virtuosic prize-winning accordionist Hanzhi Wang joined the group for the final two movements of Vivaldi’s Concerto Grosso in D Minor, Op. 3, No. 11, which she arranged especially for this combination of instruments. For the expressive Largo e spiccato the accordion toggled between solo and continuo mode, often adding a composed alto (as in viola) arpeggio line as undergirding, leaving the string parts to the piano, the added winds providing line, color and texture to the ensemble. In the contrapuntal Allegro which follows, accordion and oboe equally share in the violin lines, while the bassoon aptly covers both the virtuosic solo cello and continuo lines, with the piano filling out the remaining ensemble textures.
The subsequent grouping of solo pieces for the accordion consisted of two Scarlatti sonatas, the world premiere of Hanzhi’s Mountain Song, and closing with Moszkowski’s Étincelles. Wang’s Scarlatti displayed speed and virtuosity, but also subtle nuance with dynamics and accents in the music that do not show themselves so readily when played on piano or harpsichord. She enhanced her interpretation of the nature-inspired C Major K. 159, with especially graceful trills, while the G Major K. 146 came across free and playful.
Piazolla being unknown there, Wang explained that while she was growing up in China, the bandoneon, then considered little more than a street instrument, had no worth role in classical music studies. She took it as her challenge to master it as a serious instrument of virtuosity, but also opened it to new vistas of expression as a vehicle of musical poetry. This was especially showcased in her moving new composition inspired by a Kawagarbo, a sacred mountain that no one has ever climbed in the Yunnan Province of China, near Tibet. The Buddhist community at its base provides a connection between humanity and nature. For Wang, who undertook the journey to this mountain as a spiritual pilgrimage during a time of personal distress, the mountain and the community that surrounded it provided renewal and awakening. This profound connection expressed itself in her composition, which was filled with the sound of birdsong and the swirling and rushing of waters, in an intimate interplay of sonic expression, sometimes solitary, sometimes in polyphony suggesting connections with others and with nature itself. Her palette a wide array of nuance and color, she has elevated the accordion to new and profound levels of artistry. Not surprising, two concerti are being written for her.
The Poulenc Trio returned with a recent composition they commissioned Explain Yourself! from clarinetist and composer Viet Cuong. Paying tribute to Poulenc, this humorous piece which premiered in 2019., quotes from and is based on Poulenc’s Aubade and complements Poulenc’s own 1926 Trio for Oboe, Bassoon and Piano. Much of the writing reflects the sparse and often droll style of Poulenc, but introduces some wild innovations and the composer’s own mischievous pranks as well, including a “tango-like romp with a Baroque flair” and a slapstick-style dialogue between piano and oboe playing multi-phonics (similar to the ‘throat singing’ or overtone singing of some Central Asian and Inuit cultures, a tone is literally split so one or more of its overtones sounds along with it, on a double reed instrument such as the oboe the sound is somewhat mocking, comical, and deliberately unflattering). Despite this, much of the intricate and weavings conveyed nostalgia and “French” charm, as the piece idyllically recalled the earlier composer in a warm and imaginative tribute.
Hanzhi Wang returned to join the ensemble for Breathing Light, yet another premiere written for this grouping of instruments. Korean pianist and composer Juri Seo. Seo writes of her conception of this work as
…inspired by the cyclic nature of time, the perpetual rising and setting of the sun, and the endless cycles of life and death. Through the sonic depictions of dawn and dusk and the evocations of bird songs, I sought the connection between nature and the human mind, with all its fallibility and emotions.
The movements Morning Dove, American Goldfinch, and Serenade combined innovative approaches to sound, such as a microtonal dropping off of the line in the winds to emulate the call of the dove, with traditional compositional techniques such as contrapuntal canons to depict a chattering chorus of birds, culminating in a serene and ethereal ending where bird and human soul unite, with a “new bird” – created by the whistling of the bassoonist in a serene line against the gentle cooing of yet another bird in the piano, with other birds (oboe and piano) over a gentle, undulating string sound emanating from the accordion, not unlike the peaceful soundings of a quiet pipe organ as it sounds its “strings”.
A thoughtful selection of songs from Poulenc’s large output of that genre, arranged for the trio. closed the concert. Though warm and nostalgic, undercurrents of foreboding and sadness pervaded, as Seo wrote the songs during the time of the Nazi occupation of Paris. The set closed with the amorous gallantry of the Toréador, an early work created with the help of playwright Jean Cocteau.