Review | Life as a Cadenza, Gilles Apap in His Elements at the Lobero

Longtime music aficionados in Santa Barbara, on different sides of the genre aisle, have known and loved violinist Gilles Apap for decades and caught him gently breaking rules of classical virtuoso conduct on many local stages. The French-born, stylistically elasticized musician, who landed on the Central Coast more than three decades ago and who regularly alights stages in Europe and beyond, was concertmaster for the Santa Barbara Symphony for decades. He has appeared as soloist with that orchestra and at the Lobero (where he implanted a lingering memory of his moving performance of Bach’s “Chaconne in D minor,” and joined in a double-violinist evening with Caroline Campbell), was showcased in Los Olivos’ “Schoolhouse Concerts” series and elsewhere, 805-wise.

We’ve grown accustomed to his unique ability to dig deep into classical values, while freely roaming into areas of his musical interest, in bluegrass, Romani jazz, blues and more — sometimes in the course of a single cadenza.

But Apap’s latest concertizing spotlight in the hometown (or home region, as a one-time Santa Barbaran based in Arroyo Grande for years now) was something special. A sold-out house packed into the Lobero to catch his debut for the respected CAMA presenting organization, in a concert aptly (Apaptly?) titled “Gilles Apap — and friends! For Old Times’ Sake.” Considering the broad playlist on tap this night, the crowd extended beyond the usual classical-seeking audience, with listeners tuned into the sounds beyond Faure, Kreisler, and Paganini.

In that way, Apap’s CAMA occasion resembled the appearance of mandolinist wizard Chris Thile, who appeared in CAMA’s chamber music-geared Masterseries as a progressive bluegrass musician venturing deeply into the world of Bach. Apap took the opposite, classical-outward route. The rich first half focused on classical repertoire in conjunction with the stunning Ukrainian-born pianist Inna Faliks, who capped the first half with a pyrotechnical Paganini maze for piano, not violin. The high point of this section came with an entrancing and too little-known “Impressions d’Enfance (Memories of Childhood)” by Romanian composer Georges Enescu.

Here and elsewhere in classical mode, Apap displayed his deep, lucid musicality, pouring forth in whatever terrain he chooses to take on. But the X factor and extra spice in Apap’s musical personality is his puckish humor and avid curiosity about music beyond the classics, a tendency gleefully embraced in the concert’s second half, as he took a trip or three into other musical time and place zones.

There was no South Indian Carnatic music — another of Apap’s worldly musical intrigues — this time around, but he did coral many local “friends” to be part of this festive pageantry. Returning to the stage after intermission, Apap slyly commented, “Let’s proceed into something very different.” Truer words have rarely been uttered. We heard old-timey music from the Gap Tooth Mountain Ramblers (featuring Peter Feldmann and Jim Wimmer), segueing into another concert highlight, a truly bedazzling and texturally sympathetic duet with Xiaoli Cioffi on the Chinese two-string erhu. Somehow, the pair made their stringed instrument sing in expressive tandem on Irish and Chinese tunes.

Apap eased into more improvisational showcasing of his violin expression with the Eastern European “Hot Club” style swinging Transylvanian Mountain Boys, a trio with guitarist Chris Judge and bassist Brendan Statom. The Boys’ set featured a brief, oblique blues tune by the late, great Santa Barbaran guitar teacher Bill Thrasher. The night closed out in earthy party style, in a micro-set of Bill Monroe–leaning bluegrass by the Phil Salazar Band, with Apap serving as fellow fiddler passing the soloing spotlight to the other stage mates. He’s humble, that way.

All in all, the Lobero outing was a dizzying and uncharted course of a concert, and yet perfectly in tune and in the expected alternative attitudinal groove for the violinist we’ve come to appreciate as a friendly virtuoso next door.