Hearing David Froom’s Breath: A Jewish New Year Tribute

 On September 16, 2023, the 21^st Century Consort of Washington, DC welcomed the Jewish New Year 5783 with the outstanding program “David Froom: echoes, resonance, and remembrance.” The Dresser suggests it was a subtle connection that nonetheless added a layer of spirituality to how this concert was constructed.

 

Certainly, Christopher Kendall, Artistic Director of the Consort, and celebrated pianist Eliza Garth, who performed two of the program’s DC premieres and was the wife of the late Froom, focused their attention on the careful selection and performances of their much admired and beloved composer’s compositions. The concert began brilliantly with Froom’s “Quintet in Three Movements” (1999). This composition has an ethereal sonority produced by the surprising showcasing of an oboe interacting with strings and piano. Nicholas Stovall, principal oboe of the National Symphony, elevated the magical qualities of this composition.

 

Staying with wind instruments, Froom’s Ribbons (2017), a solo flute piece, followed. Flautist Sarah Frisof ably threaded the work with her seductive trills.

 

Breath again was featured in Froom’s Saxophone Quartet (1999), a composition organized in three movements and played by soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone saxophones. Whereas the first two compositions reached back to classical music influences, Saxophone Quartet opened with a soundscape that presented like a traffic jam with auto horns clamorously honking. The second movement quieted soberly but percolated to excitement in closing this work.

 

Next Ms. Garth premiered the “in memoriam” piano compositions—the slow minimalist Prayer (2023) by Robert Gibson and the intricate Resonant Echoes (2023) by Jeffrey Mumford.

 

By concluding the concert with Froom’s Amichai Songs (2006) based on the poetry of the Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai and as sung by American baritone Thomas Meglioranza, the audience heard these words:

 

In a man’s life

the first temple is destroyed and the second temple is destroyed

and he must stay in his life,

not like the people that went into exile far away,

and not like God,

who simply rose to higher regions.

In a man’s life

he resurrects the dead in a dream

and in a second dream he buries them.

 

“In a man’s life” by Yehuda Amichai as translated by Leon Wieseltier

 

The concert ran just over one hour and was a living, breathing tribute to a composer who added immeasurably to the new classical music scene. In the program notes, Christopher Kendall referred to David Froom as a Mensch (a Yiddish word now included in English language dictionaries meaning a person of integrity and honor) and Eliza Garth wrote, “Creating music was his spiritual practice, the concert hall his temple” and his last name “Froom” in Yiddish means “devout.”

 

 

 

 

The Excellence of the 21st Century Consort

 

21^st Century Consort on April 29, 2023, presented “Echoes of Earth Day,” the last program of this season to a full house at Washington, DC’s St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in its glorious sanctuary with many colorfully grand stain glass windows. The Dresser goes on the record to assert this was an outstanding concert with excellent performances by accomplished musicians and a superb program selected by Artistic Director Christopher Kendall. Central to all the works is an expanded timbral palette.

 

A last-minute change of composition order featured first  Wang Jie’s “Sonata for the Other Shore” as played passionately by pianist Lisa Emenheiser. This was the American premiere. No doubt that composer Wang Jie who was present found Emenheiser’s performance of this difficult and theatrical composition meeting her expectations.

 

No less challenging was Juri Seo’s (also present for this concert) “Suite” played masterfully on the cello by Rachel Young. “Suite” in five movements was inspired by and subtly reminiscent of the unaccompanied cello suites of J. S. Bach. The work featured a scordatura tuning of the lowest string and extensive use of harmonics on all the strings.

 

Absolutely the Dresser’s favorite selection justly positioned to close the first half of the concert was “Whispers” by Sebastian Currier. In this work, percussion executed with dazzling precision by Lee Hinkle accented the equally precise performances of Lisa Emenheiser on piano (using the keys and internal strings of her instrument), Rachel Young on cello, and Sarah Frisof on flute. Not a minute went by without Hinkle’s subtle touch on snare drums, vibraphone, tambourine, and woodblocks.

 

“Danza de la Mariposa” by Valerie Coleman opened the second half of the program. This delicate and energic tone poem featured flautist Sarah Frisof.

 

George Crumb’s classic ecologically-themed work “Voix Balaenae” (Voice of the Whale) opens with a recording of whale calls and then moves into response first from flautist Sarah Frisof and then more formally in the segment known as “Sea-theme” by cellist Rachel Young and pianist Lisa Emenheiser. One unusual feature of this work is that the flautist and cellist alternately play antique cymbals. It was certainly this edgy piece by Crumb that motivated the Dresser to go out for this concert and it did not disappoint.

 

21^st Century Consort is an exceptionally notable group of musicians giving voice to contemporary classical music and deserves every bit of publicity it can garner. Washington DC is blessed to have such talent.