Live streams

 KRANNERT CENTER AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS, US, 5, 12, 19, 26 FEBRUARY 2021

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Four short programmes streamed live on the four Fridays in February 2021 featured movements from quartets of Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert and Mendelssohn, as well as three works commissioned by the Jupiter Quartet and two other works of American composers. The performances originated from the Krannert Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, which has been the Jupiters’ home base since 2015, where the musicians direct the chamber music programme, teach and perform.

Tonal refinement and precision of ensemble were hallmarks of everything played in the series, entitled Reflection and Renewal. Leader Nelson Lee’s suave sound was always comfortable in high tessitura. His colleagues, siblings violin Meg Freivogel and viola Liz Freivogel, and cellist Daniel McDonough (Meg’s husband), impressed equally in unisons and octaves, suggesting careful preparation and a unity of ensemble that flows from long acquaintance and shared musical purpose. Not surprising as the Jupiters are nearing their 20th anniversary.

Classical and contemporary from the Jupiter Quartet

JUPITER QUARTET PHOTO KATE DREYFUSS.ISSERLIS PHOTO COURTESY WIGMORE HALL

Five movements from quartets of Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn and George Walker (1922–2018) were the highlights of the series. The Larghetto espressivo – Allegretto agitato – Allegro finale of Beethoven’s ‘Serioso’, op.95 led off. Taut rhythms and expressive intensity made me want to hear these players in more Beethoven. The Andante con moto from Schubert’s ‘Death and the Maiden’D810, on the second programme, was succeeded on the third by the finale from Mendelssohn’s last quartet, op.80, and the Largo (Cantabile e mesto) from Haydn’s op.76 no.5.

The final programme contrasted the Molto allegro e vivace from Mendelssohn’s Quartet op.12 with the second movement (‘Lyric’) from Walker’s Quartet no.1 (1946). Of them all, only the Schubert was a slight disappointment, sounding overinflected and slightly sentimentalised. The three new works had all been previously performed by the Jupiters: Imprimatur (2018), the Quartet no.2 in five linked movements by Kati Agócs (b.1975), and the final two movements of Michi Wiancko’s To Unpathed Waters, Undreamed Shores (2020) were pleasing to hear. Excerpts from Ramshackle Songs by Dan Visconti (b.1982) made little impression.‘Incineratorag’, the third of Three Classic Rags (1967) by William Bolcom (b.1938), was heard in the composer’s own arrangement for strings. It was a pleasant makeweight but lacked the percussive accents of the keyboard original.

DENNIS ROONEY

STEVEN ISSERLIS (CELLO) MISHKA RUSHDIE MOMEN (PIANO)

 WIGMORE HALL, UK, 2 FEBRUARY 2021

Russian lyricism from Steven Isserlis

This was an almost all-Russian programme, with Janáček’s Pohádka, based on a Russian poem, framed by 20th-century sonatas.

Isserlis unfolded Kabalevsky’s B flat major Sonata like a good storyteller, building its opening paragraph from gloom to feverish keening before its anguish subsided into resignation and beauty, then striking forth once more.

He flew through the light, scampering second movement with an overarching lyricism framed by pensive musings, and dashed off the virtuoso high-jinks of the finale with great flair before sinking once more into melancholy. Isserlis fluttered in the nervy first movement of Pohádka, rose into gloriously rich melody in the second (where he turns, possibly, into a bird), and showed folk-like charm in the third.

An essential simplicity underlay much of the first movement of Shostakovich’s Sonata, most obviously in the gentle second subject. There was lightness and finesse, after which the barnstorming theatricals of the second-movement Allegro came as a rude shock, surging ahead irresistibly. The Largo flowed with expressive elasticity, and the bow bit into the staccato quavers of the finale, the tone dry and unsettling.

TIM HOMFRAY

ILZE KLAVA (VIOLA) 

BERGEN PHILHARMONIC/EDWARD GARDNER GRIEGHALLEN BERGEN, NORWAY, 3 FEBRUARY 2021

Edward Gardner has spoken about the special qualities of the Bergen Philharmonic strings, their woody sound and ability to play a proper pianissimo. The performance of Sibelius’s Valse Triste in this ‘Wintermezzo’ series concert suggests he is not just talking his orchestra up.

Strings were the focus of the programme, centred on the Viola Concerto by Pēteris Vasks written for Maxim Rysanov last decade, which came after a swift rendition of Sibelius’s Andante Festivo. The idea of light in the darkness that characterises all the Latvian composer’s music resonates strongly right now but the viola’s journey to major-key safety in the concerto is a long and fraught one. Sometimes this doesn’t seem like Vasks’ most effectively formed piece and likewise, soloist Ilze Klava (viola section leader) struggled to sustain that journey and clarify its cadenzas, while the orchestra seemed to assemble the second-movement dances by parts. Klava couldn’t quite bring Rysanov’s conviction or prayerful intensity to the piece, but her sound has a beautiful naturalness to it which came to the fore when the performance settled and glowed in its Adagio finale.

Sibelius’s Symphony no.3 is the first in which the composer’s distinctive architectural features come to the fore – micro and macro speeds locking into one another, figuration becoming theme and so on.

The Bergen Phil’s Ilze Klava takes centre stage

BERGEN PHILHARMONIC/HENNING MÅLSNES

This was a fine performance as much for concertmaster Melina Mandozzi’s intelligence in those matters as Gardner’s. The second movement was particularly delicious, its hemiolas swung effortlessly and its front-desk chorale sections sounding like viol consorts. In this piece, as in the Vasks, the violas are the heroes but the quality of the Bergen strings, across the board, is worth extolling.

ANDREW MELLOR

MAIRÉAD HICKEY (VIOLIN) STEPHEN WAARTS (VIOLIN) SANTIAGO CAÑÓN VALENCIA (CELLO) IVAN KARIZNA (CELLO) FRANKFURT RADIO SO/ CHRISTOPH ESCHENBACH HR-SENDESAAL FRANKFURT, GERMANY, 4 FEBRUARY 2021

This showcase for current stars of the Kronberg Academy was recorded live and unedited – there is a distracting trail for another TV programme – and sometimes rougher than ready. Both Mairéad Hickey and Santiago Cañón Valencia seemed to struggle against Christoph Eschenbach’s inclination towards expansive tempos, which produced a slightly lumpen accompaniment to the first movements of the Bruch G minor and Haydn C major concertos respectively and allowed their slow movements to drift.

There was certainly no excess sugar or fat in Hickey’s articulation of a solo part which responded well to her vibrant, slimline tone and as much improvisatory phrasing as she could muster under the circumstances. Cañón Valencia took the corners of his own first-movement cadenza on two wheels, but some mellow pure tone and imaginative ornamentation confirmed the positive impressions left by his albums on the Atoll label.

Eschenbach and the orchestra moulded themselves more sensitively to the second half ’s soloists. Ivan Karizna caressed Bruch’s Kol nidrei into shape with burnished tone and vocal phrasing all the more affecting for its restraint. Stephen Waarts’s debut album on Rubicon has already disclosed a Bartók interpreter of terrific flair; here he tore into the gypsy roots of the underrated Second Rhapsody as if letting go after several rounds with Ravel’s Tzigane: you could almost smell the cheap wine on the bar and the farmyard round the corner.

PETER QUANTRILL

ACADEMY OF ANCIENT MUSIC/ LAURENCE CUMMINGS

 WEST ROAD CONCERT HALL, CAMBRIDGE, UK, 12 FEBRUARY

This concert, directed from the harpsichord by Laurence Cummings, director designate of the AAM, was titled Suonare è danzare – to play is to dance. There was certainly plenty of dance. Georg Muffat’s Sonata no.5 in G major ‘Armonico Tributo’ used the full complement of players – two each of violins and violas, cello, bass, theorbo and of course Cummings, with Bojan Čičić as first violin. They produced a rich, noble sound in the opening Allemande and the two Adagio movements, and sprightly dotted rhythms in the fugue, with some splendid fruity contributions from cello and bass.

The dancing started in the final Passacaglia, as its 25 variations became ever more animated, pulsing with energy and full of little dialogues, with some silky legato playing. There was more extended lyrical beauty in the Adagio of Bach’s E minor Violin Sonata BWV1023, with Čičić neatly shaping its Reg_BoxWhiteCaptions winding chromatic course, and he sprang off the syncopations in the final Gigue.

Polish folk music imbues Telemann’s Concerto polonois in B flat major, and here was a stomping Polonois and a final romping Allegro. There was energy to spare in Handel’s G major Sonata op.5 no.4, with sparkling playing in the second movement, and style and flair in the happy inventions of the Passacaglia.

TIM HOMFRAY

LEILA JOSEFOWICZ (VIOLIN) 

NY METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, US, 16 FEBRUARY 2021

A fine combination: Leila Josefowicz, Jackson Pollock and Bach

STEPHANIE BERGER

Amid works by Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko at the Metropolitan Museum of Art – and with no audience – Bach’s Partita no.2 took on an even more introspective context than usual. In the hands of Leila Josefowicz, the result was aching and virtuosic, and reaffirmed Bach’s role as the voice many artists turn to in times of distress.

Her fleet Gigue was a delight all on its own, but the Chaconne, as is often the case, elbowed its way into the spotlight by sheer structural virtue alone.It didn’t hurt that Josefowicz played in tune with luscious ease, her phrases lightly echoing as she gently turned back and forth in the gallery. Muted lighting and slowly circling camerawork added to the impact – not to mention superb sound engineering from veteran Adam Abeshouse. The barrelling central section brought out feverish abandon and enviable focus. Double-stops near the end radiated joy. Exhausting arpeggios, ticklish fingerwork and eye-opening drama made it a version to recall among a lifetime of memorable readings.

Josefowicz adjourned to the museum’s Spanish Courtyard for La Linea Evocativa: A Drawing for Violin Solo (2020) by Matthias Pintscher, who wrote it for her, commissioned by artist George Condo.A mournful melodic line is punctuated by zigzags of hyper-fast glissandos, pizzicatos and wriggling trills which collapse into broad, rough bow strokes. Amid the Renaissance decoration, the contrasts seemed to engage with the sculptures in dance-like rapport, alternating between fury and subtle questioning. At the end, as the violinist walked off in silence – to no applause – it seemed all too appropriate for our time.

BRUCE HODGES

AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA/ RICHARD TOGNETTI (VIOLIN/DIRECTOR) 

SYDNEY TOWN HALL, AUSTRALIA, 17 FEBRUARY 2021

‘Rapture and Revolution’ was the first in the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s series of eight StudioCasts scheduled for 2021. A seven-day ticket for each event costs AU$35 (around £19.50 or US$27; a series subscription is available) but these are clearly conceived as premium productions.

Sydney’s Victorian Town Hall practically became a studio. The galleries and the grand organ were highlighted as architectural features. Beyond this, the camera shots were sensitive to the musical action, creating a distinctive style with lots of immersive, close-arc shots. The audio is impressive too, perhaps slightly favouring the cellos and bass – but why wouldn’t you, when you can achieve a mahogany sound as deep and yet as clearly spoken as this?

Awkward silences are avoided by running the programme without breaks. Tognetti’s direction is understated –a nod here, a glance there – and yet structure and expression are unanimous. Take Beethoven’s Grosse Fuge, striking for its evolving dramatic tension. Schubert’s Quartettsatz has both bite and bloom, and the Cavatina from Beethoven’s op.130 oozes warmth and humanity. The only caveat is The Lark Ascending, in which Tognetti doesn’t capture the weightless magic of free flight as well as some. Regardless, this is a welcome chance to experience one of Australia’s leading cultural exports.

EDWARD BHESANIA