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Maurice Ravel - Sonata for Violin and Cello Claude Debussy - Images pour Piano, Book II Maurice Ravel - Piano Trio in A Minor for Violin, Piano, and Cello

The Synesthesiologist

I’ve been attending and reviewing Camerata Pacifica concerts off and on since its first iteration as a chamber orchestra in 1990. Artistic Director Adrian Spence’s career project has morphed considerably over the past 34 years, especially after he moved the ensemble to its present Music Academy venue in Santa Barbara and added three more southern California cities to Camerata Pacifica’s sphere of musical influence - Thousand Oaks, San Mateo, and Los Angeles.

Spence re-branded the ensemble’s purpose and personnel early on and has nurtured lifelong artistic friendships with a broad roster of chamber music colleagues over the years. The result, chamber music of unquestioned artistic merit, emotional worth, and world class technical prowess.

Camerata Pacifica’s opening recital of the 2024-2025 season in Santa Barbara at the Music Academy on September 20th featured principal artists violinist Paul Huang and pianist Gilles Vonsattel, with guest artist cellist Santiago Cañón-Valencia. Music of Ravel and Debussy.

It was during this magnificently fragile and exquisitely realized French program I experienced a major Adrian Spence epiphany. I should have known Spence never fools around; nothing gets past his finely tuned brain. My revelation? He’s been pulling a Scriabin on his audiences for decades!

Synesthesia is a neurological condition and perceptual phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. For Russian composer Alexander Scriabin, sounds were colors and colors were sounds. The two were experienced as one.

Camerata Pacifica’s artistic director has been gifting his audiences with a synesthetic experience at his concerts. Call me callow for not seeing/hearing Spence’s serious messaging and thoughtful intent over the years.

Using a portable theatrical stage lighting rig at all four venues upon which to hang color-capable lighting systems as needed, Spence has created an AI event if you will, conflating sound and color for his audiences. Synesthesia indeed. Marvelous!

Beyond jumping out of planes for the rush of it Spence is not, I suspect, particularly into cheap entertainments. Choices about lighting each work in Camerata Pacifica’s musical portfolio over hundreds of programs, have been made with careful, intelligent purpose. Complimenti!

Case in point, Maurice Ravel’s Sonata for Violin and Cello composed during 1920-22 and dedicated to Claude Debussy (1862-1918). Bathed in subtly changing Monet blues throughout the performance, the sound/color effect was fabulously evocative. Violinist Paul Huang and cellist Santiago Cañón-Valencia communed together with stunning ensemble passage precision, gratifying sensitivity to musical coloration, and sweet, fragile harmonics; a superb performance of the first movement, Allegro.

The second movement, Très vif, with its fascinating pizzicato opening and pitch-perfect bowed ensemble playing between the two artists, was realized with Bartók-like intensity - very exciting.

The third movement Lent, which is the very soul of the sonata with its heartbreaking cello solo opening passage joined in mourning by the fiddle, was performed by the two at a shattering level of deep sensitivity - a duet of exquisite pain and sadness. A fabulous performance. The last movement of the sonata, Vif, avec entrain, brought the work to a balanced, dancerly finish - simultaneously ironic and fateful, with a little coda of pure exhilaration as the thrilling cherry on top.

Color hues in Emerald City greens lent pianist Gilles Vonsattel ample ambiance for his wizardly performance of Claude Debussy’s piano suite Images pour Piano, Book II (1907). Cloches à travers les feuilles (Bells through the leaves) with its pentatonic tonality and flowing, watery imagery, was executed by the artist in one delicious breath of fluidity.

Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fut (And the moon descends on the temple that was) found Vonsattel in a state of superbly delicate and thoughtful meditation - a wildly intelligent interpretation, the lighting canvas easing into blues and mahoganies. Poissons d’or(Golden Fish), with its restless dashes of brilliant color and movement - the faster section of the piece a thrill of virtuoso technique - brought pianist Vonsattel’s segment of the program to an exhilarating close.

Ravel’s masterpiece from 1914 the Piano Trio in A Minor for Violin, Piano, and Cello brought this robust program of French masterpieces to a satisfying close. Bathed in soft woody lighting hues, Huang, Cañón-Valencia, and Vonsattel traversed Ravel’s 28-minute journey through four distinctly moody movements with a rich panoply of marvelous musical colors, delicate as confectioners icing.

The first movement Modéré was balance and intonation perfection, Huang’s tone color and technical control functioning splendidly in collaboration with his colleagues. No room for unconscious or frivolous playing from this crew.

 Another pizzicato opening for the second movement Pantoum - Assez vif - Spence’s programmatic sensibility sparkling with intelligence - illustrated the joy and ease of Huang’s gorgeous playing in particular, while the third movement Passacaille: Très Large was just that - capacious and entirely bracing, with nearly painfully intense ensemble playing from the artists, an altogether engaging and moving experience.

The Finale: Animé featured Ravel’s innovative sense of orchestration, even for only three players. Begging the question, how can three people make so much sound, the performance was deliciously overwhelming. 

Daniel Kepl| Performing Arts Review