| UW Gazette, September 18, 1996 Conducted by Jan Narveson September 10: The WLU noon-hour series opened with a concert devoted entirely to works of Shostakovich, featuring violinist Youri Zaidenberg, bass singer Sterling Beckwith, and pianist Sofia Moshevich. First off was about half of Shostakovich's sonata for violin, Op. 134 , allegretto and largo. The first or these is frantic and angular, and hard to make attractive; this violinist was not up to the job. By the end of this long movement, we were rather uncomfortable. The largo calls for beautiful tone, and here Zaidenberg was better; still, they did not plumb its depths. At the end of the program the two returned with about five of the 24 Preludes for piano, Op. 34, arranged for violin and piano. Some of these worked well in this form, but again we found Zaidenberg unconvincing - sound not attractive, and intonation not entirely accurate. We'd rather have heard the pianist alone in these fine pieces. However, the contributions of the singer with pianist were the main meat of this concert. Beckwith has a lovely big, deep bass, just right for the Russian literature. The selections ranged from very deeply felt to very quirky. One was to poetry of Robert Burns, sung in English, though the note credited a Russian translation. Did Shostakovich, like Beethoven, write this Scottish song to English metre without knowing what it meant? Whatever, the result was pretty interesting, as were the others. This is mostly not great Shostakovich, but it was intriguing, arresting, and singular, wholly typical of this composer and a welcome rounding-out of this listener's acquaintance with him. Beckwith was a pleasure to hear, and his pianist sympa thetic. September 14: The K-W Symphony Orchestra at its opener lacked its former concertmaster, associate concertmaster, principal violist, and associate principal cellist; despite that, though, it sounded generally fine, and in fact we seemed to discern a bit more strength as well as the customary sheen in the strings. The program was an odd one, and several hundred conspicuously empty seats suggested that the World Cup hockey game won out over it in too many cases. Milhaud's Le boeuf sur le toit (The Bull on the Roof) was the opener. Its Brazilian rhythms and clever use of polytonality make it a catchy and interesting piece. Somehow, though, despite excellent playing by our band, the piece didn't quite make it on this occasion - its samba rhythms, etc., require hair let down a bit farther than Chosei Komatsu is inclined to go. Next up was the Strauss Horn Concerto No. 2, with James Somerville in the soloist's position. Unenviable position, one might add, for the solo part in this concert is the very devil. Thus it was all the more impressive that Mr. Somerville encompassed its fiendish leaps, chromaticisms, and so on with such aplomb and smoothness. There are nice touches for cello and for oboe too, beautifully handled by John Helmers and James Mason. The amazing solo part excepted, though, this concerto is a puzzler and difficult to make really persuasive; we have to say that it was not so on this occasion, anyway. Its general lines sounded rather fussy - so very opposite to the gestalt of the Mozart concerti that Strauss is supposed to have had as his models. The remaining work was Dvorak's great "New World" Symphony, which has beauties aplenty: ravishing melodies, nice orchestration, spirit, refinement, expert organization - a real winner of a symphony. And in the big climaxes and the exciting bits, Komatsu was just fine. However, there's a lot more to do to sustain interest in this long piece, and we were not very impressed with his management here. There's something very special about Czech rhythms, which need to sound always a little relaxed and yet spirited; the art of rubato needs to be in an advanced state to get everything working to the point of magic that is possible here. And again, this performance didn't have that. One sensed a lack of real heart and conviction here. No amount of lovely playing can make up for that, alas. But the lovely playing was there, in abundance: Faith Levene's account of that glorious English Horn solo in the slow movement was something to treasure, the horns and brass throughout were simply inspired, strings played with beauty and discipline. Visiting concertmaster Martin Foster - familiar to Chamber Music Society audiences - had only a couple of real solo bits, but those were very beautiful indeed. He will have played in yesterday's CCE concert too, so we'll have more to report on that promising front. Altogether, then, a somewhat mixed rating on this one. Sunday: Alexander Tselyakov had established himself with KWCMS audiences last year, and so we were expecting good things. We weren't disappointed. The opening Bach Prelude and Fugue No. 8 (Bk. I, WTK) is slow and gentle; Tselyakov took it at a very, very slow and extremely steady pace, reminiscent of Glenn Gould; his touch control is so advanced that the prelude underwent a steady crescendo from about as quiet as one can readily imagine a playing up to a solid forte over the space of a couple of minutes; the whole was shaped beautifully, and this worked very well. The fugue was played in such a way as to leave one simply with an impression of what a wonderful composer Bach was, and how does one do better than that? Chopin's Barcarolle is one of his finest pieces, and depends on establishing the rocking rhythmic pattern so well that it becomes integral with the rest as it gets more ornate and involved. That came off well too, along with the finely adjusted volleys and the suggestion of serenade that makes this such a winning piece. Prokofiev's 5th Sonata is rather different from the rest; it isn't quite so insistently propulsive, and runs to a subtle kind of reflection. The second movement requires tour-de-force level rhythmic and dynamic control, and as in the Bach, this was managed beautifully. The finale isn't tub-thumping but becomes extremely busy and suddenly one realizes that it's a hugely demanding movement, though Tselyakov takes such things in stride to a degree that makes one forget how treacherous it all is. Very impressive! After intermission, a pair of sets of variations on the famous theme of Paganini, starting with Book II of the Brahms set, and then proceeding to an utterly remarkable new set by the Russian Alexander Rosenblatt - a new name to us all. The Brahms set is a batch of leftovers, really, including several that Brahms must have decided were essentially impossible to play. That's the kind of thing that this pianist eats right up, and even though this was the first time he'd played it in public it went like gangbusters. One notable variation is in 2nds throughout, and comes as quite a shock; others seem to require a mini mum of three hands, crossing each other in quite wild fashion. And so onÉ suffice to say that here indeed was a virtuoso display of a rare order. However, Mr. Rosenblatt apparently decided he wasn't about to be one-upped in that department, as his set alternates shotgun-level clusters of notes at dizzying velocities with ingenious settings in real American bluenote jazz styles. It's a subtle crossover piece, and Tselyakov takes to the jazz idiom remarkably well. In fact, we were completely taken with this work. This was its very first performance in North America, we understand, and we think it could take concert stages by storm, and hope it will get lots of exposure on them in the masterly hands of this pianist. The full house on hand earned two beautiful encores: Tchaikovsky's "October", from The Seasons, and Liszt's furious Transcendental Etude in f, performed with consummate ease and fine style. He doesn't do anything by halves! The rest of the world needs to find out about this artist, and hopefully will ere long; but meanwhile we can be very grateful for these opportunities to take in his astonishing abilities close-up. Forthcoming: Thursday, Friday, Saturday: The KWS "Pops" concert features Quartetto Gelato, which has deservedly rocketed to world prominence in recent years. How their special brand of brilliant musical high-jinks will go over with an orchestra in tow remains to be seen, but Peter de Sotto singing "Danny Boy" is something to which no heart in working order can fail to respond. 578 1570 for tickets. Sunday: Catherine Manoukian is another of the brilliant young violinists that the contemporary age seems to be so replete with; she played very well with the K-W Symphony last year, at 14, and now comes to the K-W Chamber Music Society's Music Room with serious stuff on the bill: Mozart's Sonata in G, K. 301, and the magnificent Franck Sonata in A, arguably the finest of all sonatas for that combination. There are also short pieces of the Encore variety": Meditation from Thais by Massenet, Brahms, Hungarian Dance No. 1; Tchaikovsky, Serenade Melancolique; Sarasate, Caprice Basque; Chopin, Nocturne #20 in c# (arr. Milstein); and Baghdassarian, Rhapsody. Tuesday, September 24, noon (12:00, Maureen Forrester Hall, WLU): Those who can spare the noon-hour period this year are in for a treat as the Penderecki Quartet begins its six-concert traversal of the Bartok Quartets with #1, plus analysis by Professor Charles Morrison. For those who can't, not to worry: KWCMS is presenting evening concerts of this same series, two quartets at a time, also with the same commentator, on three Thursdays: November 7, January 23, April 3. The Bartok Quartets are among the major achievements of 20th C. music, and previous performances of the occasional one by this quartet shows that they are equal to the task, and then some. Wednesday: First it was Baroque and Beyond, then Focus, and now it's Great Composers: The K-W Symphony's series in the Theatre of the Arts opens with Music of the Italian Baroque, including trumpet concerto by Torelli, with Dan Warren, trumpet, and the Marcello Oboe Concerto, and various other things from that musically delightful period. Tickets at the door. Potential series purchasers should note that concert 2 on November 20 will be at the Benton street Baptist Church in Kitchener instead of the Theatre; the winter and spring concerts will return to UW. | |
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