Classical at the Freight kicks off its season

photo from the F&S website

On Tuesday evening, Classical at the Freight opened its season at Berkeley's Freight and Salvage. This collaboration between the Berkeley music venue and the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra offers monthly chamber music concerts featuring members of the orchestra and guests. Concerts are presented in a laid back manner, with the performers dressed down, and conductor Ben Simon introducing the pieces and players casually from the stage. 

Tuesday's concert featured SFCO composer-in-residence, Gabriela Lena Frank, in a place of prominence, performing two movements of a her solo piano sonata "Sonata Andina," followed by the Shostakovich Piano Quintet, played with members of the orchestra. Frank is a remarkable advocate for her music, bringing the audience into her compositional process and creative mind as she talks briefly about her works from the stage. This was particularly true during the question and answer session at the end of the evening, where she demonstrated, step-by-step, how she had composed a song; the audience was transfixed by her discussion. Prior to playing "Sonata Andina," Frank offered a brief presentation of the two movements, giving her audience just enough information to know what to listen for as she played. The two movements, particularly the Adagio slow movement, were striking: tonally-based fusions of Western musical genres with Andean folk idioms. Her music is accessible, especially when accompanied by her verbal introduction, but very sophisticated.

Following her solo performance, Frank was joined by four members of the orchestra, including conductor Ben Simon on viola, to play Shostakovich's stirring Piano Quintet. Simon talked through each movement briefly, calling on the ensemble to demonstrate as he did; his introduction, like Frank's, guided the audience in its listening effectively. The piano was open with the short stick, only, which relegated it to too much of an accompaniment role, letting it be overpowered by the strings. But it was a skillful performance and the audience loved it. After the Shostakovich concluded, Simon conducted a lengthy question and answer session, followed by music trivia.

What makes Classical at the Freight such an East Bay treasure is the atmosphere in which it presents chamber music. Audience members sip tea and nibble on cookies while enjoying, first, a guided tour of a musical work, and then, the piece performed in its entirety. As I discussed in my article on Classical Rev, the history of chamber music is the tale of a social activity among friends. Simon, Frank, and the other members of the SFCO's ensemble on Tuesday night, as well as the staff at Freight and Salvage, treated their audience like old friends, and that atmosphere of familiarity and unpretentious musical enjoyment enriched the listening experience for everyone in the hall.

The next performance of Classical at the Freight is on October 26.  For more information, click here.