Kohs Honored by Retrospective Concert at USC

In belated observance of composer Ellis B. Kohs’ 80th birthday, which occurred in May 1996, the USC School of Music sponsored a retrospective concert in Hancock Auditorium on Sunday afternoon.

The event was sparsely attended, but for the few who did pass up the Super Bowl, the rewards were gratifying.

Kohs--who taught at USC from 1950 to 1985 and is now professor emeritus--chose the roster based on personal and artistic significance: an excerpt from his only opera, “Amerika”; a suite from incidental music for “Macbeth” that reportedly accompanied the first performance of Shakespeare ever broadcast on television; his first (1946) exploration of serial techniques, the Passacaglia for Organ and Strings, K. 11; his autobiographical String Quartet, No. 2; and his much-played Sonatina for Violin and Piano, which premiered at Carnegie Hall in 1948, performed by Samuel Dushkin.

Piano transcriptions of “Stars and Stripes Forever,” a 12-tone parody on the Sousa march, taken from “Amerika,” and of the “Macbeth” Suite were given eloquent premieres at USC by Stewart Gordon, who chairs the piano department. Both works betray wit, power, grace and a comfortable originality that maintains affectionate ties to the past.

Violinist and alumna Amy Sims joined Kevin Fitz-Gerald, associate professor of piano, for a lively reading of the Sonatina, which took its animation from the rhythmic play of its outer movements and found an anchor in the central set of bluesy variations.

Kohs, who attended the concert and was acknowledged after each piece, elected to play recordings of the remaining selections. The Passacaglia was heard on a Finnish CD in a dramatic performance conducted by Manfred Grasbeck and featuring his wife, organist Maija Lehtonen.

An obviously cherished but worn and static-ridden tape of the Second String Quartet--in a 1950s performance by the Paganini String Quartet--made the printed program’s announcement of a forthcoming CD, on the CRI label, all the more welcome.