Dolce Suono: Lessons from two old masters

Dolce Suono's final concert of the season opened with a masterpiece, closed with a surprise and sparked some reflections on aesthetic theories that over-emphasize one aspect of an art.

The masterpiece was one of my personal weaknesses: Debussy's Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp. Debussy's sonata was the first work ever written for this attractive combination of instruments, and it's still the reigning champion in the category it created, after 95 years in which composers have come up with some 150 challengers. Dolce Suono performed the Debussy Sonata with the same musicians who played it at their Art Museum concert last November, and they turned in the same high-level performance they gave it on that occasion.

As with all masterpieces, you notice different things every time you hear it. This time I was struck by the way the musicians move between passages in which they play the leading role and passages in which they assume subordinate roles that are just as difficult. Debussy creates backdrops that call for effects such as a sustained drone from the viola, a fluttery effect from the harp, or a subdued, tightly controlled accompaniment by the flute.

I bought a recording of the Debussy trio many years ago, when I first started listening to music, mostly because I liked the sound of the three instruments. But Debussy didn't rely on instrumental color alone. The three instruments don't create their effects merely by producing beautiful sounds. They play snatches of melody, and sometimes extended melodies. Debussy also played with rhythm and tempo.

From piano piece to trio

The surprise on the program was the Sonatine for Flute, Viola, and Harp listed as a piece by Ravel, with a parenthesis noting it was arranged by Carlos Salzedo, who founded the harp program at Curtis. Harpists and many chamber musicians seem familiar with Salzedo's arrangement, but this was the first time I'd encountered it, and most of the people in the audience seemed to share my sense of discovery.

The Sonatine is actually a piano piece that Salzedo transformed into a trio. When Salzedo and his friends played the transcription for Ravel, according to one story, Ravel said, "I wish I had thought of that."

If you didn't know this trio started life as a piano sonata, you would never have guessed it. The Sonatine sounds, from beginning to end, like it was written for the special qualities of the flute, viola and harp. It contains soaring passages for all three instruments and, like the Debussy, makes good use of their ability to play enriching accompaniments when they slip into the background.

The Ravel is just as complex as the Debussy work. Because it was originally written for the piano, Ravel had to work with all the elements of music, including harmony. Salzedo added the tone colors of the flute, viola and harp to a structure that could stand by itself.

Dull by comparison

The three pieces on the rest of the program mostly created their effects with the tone colors of the instruments. Takemitsu's And Then I Knew the Wind and Fang Min's Larkspur employed the same threesome as the Debussy, and Rochberg's Slow Fires of Autumn worked with flute and harp.

All had their virtues, and I've heard the Takemitsu in the past and liked it. The Rochberg, the strongest of the three, placed less reliance on tone color. But after the Ravel and the Debussy, they seemed noticeably less interesting than the two pieces by the French masters.

Younger rivals outclassed

Many theorists like to reduce an art to a single element and say that one element is "what it's all about." Painting, according to one school of art critics, is about paint, not images. Music is just isolated sounds.

Lately I've run into aesthetes who tell me I'm supposed to admire novelists for their sentences and ignore irrelevancies like characters, settings and drama. Ask somebody of this persuasion what a novel is about, and you'll frequently get a pained expression in response. True connoisseurs are only interested in language.

But the artists who produce the strongest aesthetic and emotional experiences are those who exploit all the elements of their art. The Debussy and the Ravel/Salzedo outclassed their younger rivals on this program because their composers applied their creative imaginations to every aspect of every passage. They maximized the interest and impact of every bar and created music you can look forward to hearing every time it shows up on a chamber group's season schedule.