The next two offerings were more personal. Puccini’s super-lovely Crisantemi, a brief work dedicated to a deceased friend of his, which the ensemble dedicated to a recently deceased friend of theirs. It begins with a mournful cello and the ensemble in unison sighing over it, and ends with an alive and breathing gypsy air.
The last work, written last year by friend and colleague at Stanford School of Music, Jonathan Berger, entitled Doubles, is in three movements scored “Ethereal-Sinister”, “Furioso-Brutale-Tenderly-Brutale”, and “Jubilant”.
It begins with a sustained drone by the whole ensemble repeated 4 times while the viola plays what sounds like a highland lament with Appalachian overtones. The first and second violins then initiate the ethereal sinister dialogue while the cello and viola erupt a percussive chaos and the movement ends as if it hit a brick wall.
