Reviews

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New York

Gauier Capuçon and Paavo Järvi: athleic vigour and clarity

CHRIS LEE

GAUTIER CAPUÇON (CELLO) NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC/PAAVO JÄRVI

DAVID GEFFEN HALL 3 JANUARY 2019

After the orchestra’s beautiful opening to Dvořak’s Cello Concerto – with some excellent playing from the winds and brass in particular – Gautier Capucon’s entrance was a little shocking. His abundant and very fast vibrato was a bit much for my taste and his approach to the piece at times seemed almost pretentious. The Adagio opened with gorgeous playing by principal clarinettist Anthony McGill and a more beautiful sound from Capucon, whose vibrato was substantially calmer in this movement. he cellist’s impressive bow control allowed him to create long, spinning lines which seemed almost inhumanly sustained as they floated through the air. His cadenza showcased his impeccable intonation (especially on the double-stops), and also demonstrated his more tender playing. Especially impressive was the clear, delicate sound he achieved even when in the stratospheric upper octaves of the instrument. The finale was played with athletic vigour and clarity, and was signiicantly more compelling in both style and sound than the first.

The second half of the programme – Sibelius’s Lemminkäinen and the Maidens of the Island and Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé Suite no.2 – felt a bit unsettled in the ensemble across the orchestra (perhaps due to a last-minute conductor change – Jarvi replaced Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla).

LEAH HOLLINGSWORTH

DECODA

WEILL RECITAL HALL 23 JANUARY 2019

‘Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to the circus!’ barked violinist Owen Dalby, introducing Prokoiev’s Quintet in G minor op.39, prior to its striking reading by Decoda, the chamber ensemble founded in 2012. Dalby also contributed the refreshingly unpedantic notes in the printed programme, citing the work’s origin as a ballet called Trapèze, as ‘a veritable chamber music clown car.’

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But the results were nothing to laugh about, with immaculate timing from colleagues Meena Bhasin (viola) and Evan Premo (double bass), along with James Austin Smith (oboe) and Alicia Lee (clarinet). All ive caught the composer’s insouciant sparkle, especially in the motoric ifth movement. Bhasin and Dalby returned for Britten’s Phantasy Quartet op.2, with cellist Caitlin Sullivan and the return of Smith’s piquant oboe. Bookended by Sullivan’s hushed utterances, the quartet found shadowy undertones in between, as if channelling Birtwistle.

From the audience reaction, the apex came in selections from Wynton Marsalis’s A Fiddler’s Tale (1998), which uses the same strings/brass/percussion scoring as Stravinsky’s A Soldier’s Tale. In the titular role, violinist Anna Elashvili made a winsome soloist (and also showed her mettle, writing the programme notes), jousting with drummer Jared Soldiviero in Marsalis’s constantly shifting metres.

To end the evening came Steampunk (2010) by David Bruce, a izzy exploration of (in his words) ‘a technologically advanced Victorian England.’ From a cartoonish waddle, to a sly Tim Burton-esque waltz, the group caught Bruce’s mischief, which almost careens out of control, all the way through the final madcap minutes.

BRUCE HODGES

STEFAN JACKIW (VIOLIN) CONRAD TAO (PIANO)

92Y 25 JANUARY 2019

On what would have been Witold Lutosławski’s 106th birthday, violinist Stefan Jackiw and pianist Conrad Tao gave the composer the best kind of tribute: a stunning reading of his Partita (1984). In front of a packed Buttenweiser Hall (the smaller space at 92Y), it felt like the irst movement was hurtling of a clif. In movements two and four, the players are given John Cage-ian instructions not to coordinate, but in the latter, Jackiw’s melodic line meshed enticingly with Tao’s hammered pulses. And if the central Largo burned like a meteor, the inal Presto showed both artists taming a beast. Jackiw returned for Saariaho’s Nocturne in memory of Lutosławski for solo violin, and its delicate, alluring fragility was even more poignant.

In Stravinsky’s Suite italienne the violinist showed an immaculate bow arm, with economical wrist motion, with Tao in keen rapport. Of the]] six sprightly movements, most notable were the violent central Tarantella and the ferocious Minuetto e inale.

All of this prefaced Brahms’s Sonata no.1 in G major op.78 – as plummy as the Saariaho was austere. Finely calibrated dynamics and oh-so-satisfying intonation were the highlights, along with the duo’s modest and self-effacing, but always touching, approach. And although no encore appeared, the evening’s elegant, well-conceived profile was reward enough.

BRUCE HODGES

A technically superb recital from Nicola Benedei:

RICHARD TERMINE

NICOLA BENEDETTI (VIOLIN) ALEXEI GRYNYUK (PIANO)

92Y 30 JANUARY 2019

In a sophisticated programme, Nicola Benedetti showed herself to be an utterly controlled and technically superb violinist. Her attention to rhythmic integrity shone through in Bach’s D minor Chaconne, as did her strong sense of architecture and line. Prokoiev’s Violin Sonata no.2 in D major followed, and her dynamic intensity and rocksolid technique created a compelling performance. However, her bowing seemed a bit peculiar at times throughout the programme – the start of each stroke was often quite fast, moving in a way that created strong accents at the beginning of each bow and a slightly seasick feel. Despite this, she also used her vibrato to shape and direct her phrases in a beautiful way, which was particularly lovely in the melodic sections of Prokoiev’s inal movement.

The US premiere of Wynton Marsalis’s Fiddle Dance Suite for solo violin was certainly a crowd pleaser, and for good reason – the piece itself is intelligently written, but not for the average Joe. Every movement showed of Benedetti’s incredible technique and in particular her precise rhythm. The inal movement (‘Bye Bye Breakdown’) was especially impressive: her approach was jubilant and illed with athletic energy, but always controlled and never skipping ahead. Richard Strauss’s fabulous Violin Sonata in E lat major concluded the programme with the best playing of the evening from both Benedetti and her recital partner, Alexei Grynyuk. The work was stunningly artistic, with passionate playing, tasteful vibrato, more sustained bow use, dramatic character and gorgeous long phrases.

LEAH HOLLINGSWORTH

London

JUILLIARD QUARTET

WIGMORE HALL 15 JANUARY 2019

This was the irst evening concert in the UK of the Juilliard Quartet with its new irst violinist, Areta Zhulla (it had given a lunchtime concert at Wigmore the previous day). Zhulla has clearly settled in nicely, and played in absolute musical empathy with her colleagues.

This was all standard Juilliard repertoire, with Beethoven, Bartók and Dvořák, opening with Beethoven’s op.18 no.3. In the opening Allegro the players were robust and vigorous, with some sinuous legato, and the Andante con moto had many colours and moods, sometimes jaunty, sometimes rich, with some good spiky staccato. After the momentum of the third-movement Allegro, there was Beethovenian fun in the inale, playing catch at the start of the development, and with delicacy interrupted by fortissimo stabs.

Bartók’s hird Quartet had drive and sparkle. A irm sense of line lowed through the music’s constant variety, and the quartet’s sound was beautifully focused, even when the music was at its most violent and discordant. Dvořák’s C major Quartet op.61 also had a great sense of forward pace, whether in full joyful light or in delicate conversations between players. here was brilliant interplay of voices in the Scherzo, and exuberance in the finale.

TIM HOMFRAY

LEONIDAS KAVAKOS (VIOLIN) YUJA WANG (PIANO)

ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL 18 JANUARY 2019

Leonidas Kavakos and Yuja Wang have been playing together for a while now, and they make a good double act. In Prokoiev’s Violin Sonata no.1 in F minor they were certainly co-equal, their playing Olympian both technically and in persuasive artistic eloquence. Wang was as powerful as one suspects Prokoiev would have been, and often dominant, as the music allows. Kavakos was gritty, almost ponticello at the opening of the irst movement, determined and muscular in the second. He could be bleak, and the wind in the graveyard passages (as Prokoiev described them) was certainly eerie, but there was much beauty as well. It was a performance that illed this large hall. he opening work on the programme, Mozart’s B lat major Sonata K454, might have suited a smaller space, with its sensitive, immaculate playing.

In Bartók’s First Rhapsody there was compulsive earthy energy. Richard Strauss’s Sonata in E lat major had almost orchestral heft, particularly in the outer movements. he central Improvisation was full of exquisite moments. Kavakos’s playing was velvety, particularly in the quieter passages, although Wang occasionally had a steely edge. he third movement was big and impressive, punctuated with passages of light, scherzo-like banter.

TIM HOMFRAY

Wang and Kavakos: an Olympian double act

DECCA/BENJAMIN EALOVEGA

LEILA JOSEFOWICZ (VIOLIN) JOHN NOVACEK (PIANO)

WIGMORE HALL 21 JANUARY 2019

Leila Josefowicz presented a disparate but satisfying programme here: a collection of mainly 20thcentury pieces, with three items drawn from larger works. Sibelius’s Valse triste seemed unsettled in mood, but Josefowicz poured mechanistic energy into the Allegro brusco from Prokoiev’s Violin Sonata no.1 in F minor, displaying a sound that was brutal without becoming hard-edged. Oliver Knussen’s Relection served as a memorial to the composer, who died last year, and was a close collaborator of the violinist. he title describes various types of relection in the fabric and form of the music. But there’s a watery undercurrent too, ‘an echo’, Knussen said ‘of the lonely underwater world of an ondine’. Despite the clarity of the work’s texture, Josefowicz found a vein of narrative mystery.

Her take on the Adagietto from Mahler’s Fifth Symphony favoured the intimate and relective, eschewing the full-fat, proto-expressionistic overemoting often heard in the work’s orchestral guise; the accompaniment was deftly expressed by pianist John Novacek. Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s Sonata for violin and piano made an ear-catching close, Josefowicz creating great intensity in the trill-laden middle movement and heroically navigating the gnarly inale, which combines serialist tendencies with a rumba inflection.

Elegant Mozarians: Renaud Capuçon and Adrien La Marca

Timothy Ridout: streets ahead of the competition

PHOTOS MIGUEL BUENO

The encore, a jazzy arrangement by Claus Ogerman of Charlie Chaplin’s Smile – melting and nostalgic – may or not have been planned to coincide with the date of the concert – January’s infamous ‘Blue Monday’.

EDWARD BHESANIA

Gstaad

Charlote Gardner reports on the irst ever viola compeiion at Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad

It was good news for the viola at Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad this January, because for the irst time the instrument was the focus of the festival’s invitation-only recital-series-cum-competition for young artists, the Prix hierry Scherz, which ofers an orchestral recording on the Claves label.

My visit coincided with the first three of this series’ eight daily recitals, and first up (26 January) was French violist Manuel Vioque-Judde. His programme comprised Schumann’s Märchenbilder, Bax’s Viola Sonata, two pieces from Shostakovich’s he Gadly (arranged by Vadim Borisovsky), two of Borisovsky’s Prokoiev Romeo and Juliet suite arrangements, and Vioque-Judde’s own arrangement of Ginastera’s Pampeana no.2. While the Bax didn’t entirely satisfy, Vioque-Judde was particularly strong in the Russian repertoire; he grabbed the ducking, diving, constantlyin- lux Ginastera with both hands to show his power, rich tone and virtuosic capabilities.

The following day brought the UK’s Timothy Ridout with a meaty all-British programme: Frank Bridge’s Two Pieces, Britten’s Lachrymae and York Bowen’s Viola Sonata no.1. Ridout ended up winning, and this felt set in stone right from the irst, meltingly tender notes of his Bridge (the ‘Pensiero’), thanks to a tone so ravishingly clear and full of complex colour that the irst three words in my notebook read simply, ‘Oh. My. Gosh’. Further highlights included a Lachrymae whose inal ‘Flow My Tears’ was of a strikingly moving, stoic dignity and beauty, with Ridout’s pianist Jâms Coleman very much part of that package.

Things often felt less secure with French violist Jean Sautereau (28 January) – who brought us Ysaÿe’s Violin Sonata no.3, Prokoiev’s Dance of the Knights, Weber’s Andante e Rondo Ungarese op.35 and Rebecca Clarke’s Viola Sonata – although his Clarke ended things on a more assured and satisfying high.

The compulsory work on the programme was the festival commission: Soliloque by Yan Maresz. his quickly revealed itself to be of a technical level that meant that the distinctions between the performances weren’t soft ones over interpretation. Instead there was a binary split: those who could genuinely hit all its notes, realising the piece’s precise rhythmic and metric requirements and its implied polyphony and honouring its distinct sections, while delivering an overall cohesiveness that brought to life its riveting, constantly developing, increasingly lowing argument. Of the three, only Ridout’s performance ended with a thrilled Maresz joining him at the front to thank him.

Further strings highlights came via the evening concerts in Saanen’s church: an elegant Mozart Sinfonia concertante from the festival’s artistic director Renaud Capuçon and Adrien La Marca, with François-Xavier Roth and Les Siècles; a fullblooded reading of Mendelssohn’s mighty Piano Trio no.2, again from Capuçon, alongside his cellist brother Gautier and Jean-Yves hibaudet; and some beautifully subtle and delicate concertino playing from the Kammerorchester Basel in Torelli’s op.8 Concerti grossi nos.5 and 11. So it was another great year at Gstaad, and indeed one that will result in a recording from Ridout that can’t come soon enough.