Sonata Andina (2000)

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.

The afternoon's most impressive offering was the premiere of Gabriela Lena Frank's Sonata Andina for piano, with the composer at the keyboard. Certainly it helped to have this music played with the incisive and resounding assurance that a composer can lend to a piece, but the music itself, based on Peruvian folk idioms with sonorities tuned to the pipes and drums of that culture, was crafted with unselfconscious mastery.