Original image of Joan Tower, Soovin Kim and Sandbox Percussion by There Stands the Glass.
I worked up a lather in a hurried thirty-minute walk to Lincoln Performance Hall in ninety-degree heat on Sunday, July 14. Not having time to rinse myself off in a bathroom, I left a trail of perspiration as I made my way to my $30 seat at the back of the venue on the campus of Portland State University.
Given the fiery theme of the concert presented in Chamber Music Northwest’s 2024 Summer Festival series, my prodigious sweating was apropos. Performances of three works were accurately billed as blazing.
Joan Tower introduced the world premiere of her “Sing or Dance” with a few humble words. Much of the challenging piece rendered by violinist Soovin Kim and Sandbox Percussion resembled free improvisation. I liked it, but many in the audience of approximately 400 squirmed.
The duo of Kim and his wife, pianist Gloria Chien, dueted on the program’s two additional pieces, Béla Bartók’s “Violin Sonata No. 2” and Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Kreutzer” sonata. Kim Chien- the festival’s artistic directors- tore through the famously difficult pieces. Kim’s astounding feat of endurance kept me sweating in sympathetic allegiance.