Astral Artists: Old World/New World

On the other hand, what could be more American than a smorgasbord of American, Central European, and Asian influences? We are, after all, a society in which a tomato and cheese pie invented in Italy can become a mainstay of our national cuisine — and the cook who slides it in the oven at your local pizzeria may wear a turban and hail from Bangladesh.

An international smorgasbord

The young Astral Artists who played the quartet at Holy Trinity presented its hummable melodies and overall sweetness with sensitivity and understanding, even though only one of them was born in the United States (and she comes from Texas, which may raise doubts in the minds of some BSR readers). The church’s size created the only weakness — the quartet lacked some of the immediacy I’ve heard in performances contained in smaller spaces.

The other two items on the program were founded on Jewish themes but they were shaped, like the Dvořák, by a mix of Old and New World influences. The addition of a clarinet to the instrumental mix added all the extra volume and resonance they needed.

David Schiff’s Divertimento from Gimpel the Fool is a suite from a 1980 opera about a baker who believes everything people tell him. The music incorporates elements from genres as varied as klezmer and rock, and it’s so operatic you can visualize the scenes and even hear the dialogue. In the scene in which Gimpel receives the rabbi’s advice, for example, the deep, ponderous cello is obviously playing the rabbi.

Astral Artists is a nonprofit organization that provides performance opportunities and other forms of career-boosting aid for the promising young musicians who survive its audition system. The musicians on parade at this event all proved they deserve the honor, but the star of the evening was the clarinetist, Romie de Guise-Langlois. The grand finale was a tour de force for clarinet: Osvaldo Golijov’s long, three-movement workout for clarinet and string quartet, The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind.

A worthy addition to the clarinet repertoire?

Golijov’s musical and cultural roots include his Romanian and Russian Jewish family; an Argentine childhood; musical training in Israel; and studies with that great American individualist, George Crumb. Isaac the Blind takes its title from a medieval French rabbi who asserted that everything in the universe is produced by a combination of the letters in the Hebrew alphabet.

The three movements are bookended by a prelude and postlude that create a cosmic frame. Each movement takes its musical characteristics from one of the three languages of the Jewish tradition: Aramaic, Yiddish, and Hebrew. The Aramaic movement has a ceremonial quality, with a long cello song and passages in which the bass clarinet suggests the sound of a ram’s horn. The Yiddish section, on the other hand, tends to sound like a conversation.

The score includes melodies and special effects for all the strings, but the clarinet plays a central role for most of its length. Golijov exploits every aspect of the clarinet’s personality, from the raucous to the elegiac. His demands on the clarinetist include mood changes that leap, instantaneously, from sensuous middle-range melodies to piercing high-pitched assertions.

The repertoire for the clarinet and string quartet combination is dominated by a pair of masterpieces by Mozart and Brahms. Isaac the Blind is a compelling, highly varied work that could become just as popular with clarinetists who can meet its challenges.

This is the second time I’ve heard an Astral concert in which de Guise-Langlois played a major part. Her Philadelphia recital debut in 2013 was a well-planned event that explored the history and range of the clarinet literature and left me with some exceptionally pleasing memories. Her performances in this concert indicate she possesses a technical proficiency and artistic acumen that could add another star to the roster of distinguished young musicians who have benefited from Astral’s efforts.