CONCERTS

Your monthly critical round-up of performances, recordings and publications

THIS MONTH’S RECOMMENDED RECORDINGS

Our pick of the new releases

Sheer class from the Danish Quartet PAGE 84

Raphael Wallfisch excels in a new concerto written for him PAGE 85

Stravinsky revealed anew by Isabelle Faust PAGE 90

New York

Risa Hokamura: impressive virtuosity on display at her New York debut

KENDALL REDMON

RISA HOKAMURA (VIOLIN) ALBERT CANO SMIT (PIANO) MERKIN CONCERT HALL 8 FEBRUARY 2023

Risa Hokamura made her New York City debut at Merkin Hall, playing with power and poise in the opening work, Ysaÿe’s Sonata in D minor op.27 no.3. Although her vibrato was a bit fast (perhaps down to nerves) for my taste, I was especially taken with the strength of her playing in the higher registers and her impeccable intonation in the many double-stopped passages, while her coda was exquisite. She was then joined by Albert Cano Smit for Prokofiev’s First Violin Sonata and their deep understanding of the work demonstrated a musical maturity. Again, Hokamura’s powerful playing was awesome to witness and the combination of accuracy and intensity truly impressive. The richness of the lyrical second theme in the Allegro brusco matched the power and depth of the chords at the opening of the movement while portraying a completely different character. The sonata’s emotional heart, the Andante, was duly touching and I enjoyed her varied vibrato speeds and the way she used them to colour the sound.

After the interval, Hokamura presented a newly composed Japanese work by Toshio Hosokawa, played with fine commitment, focus and passion. Chausson’s Poème formed a lovely contrast to the previous works and was played with a lush tone, although I would have liked longer lines in general and a bit less focus on every note. Hokamura finished the evening with Saint-Saëns’s Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso and, while the opening could have been a bit lighter and more playful, she offered much beauty of sound. The Capriccioso was performed with virtuosity, impressive accuracy and technical mastery.

LEAH HOLLINGSWORTH

ALISA WEILERSTEIN (CELLO) NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC/NATHALIE STUTZMANN DAVID GEFFEN HALL 24 FEBRUARY 2023

Opening this concert, conducted by Nathalie Stutzmann, was Wagner’s Tannhäuser Overture, which began in an understated manner but grew in depth with the entry of each section and gave way to sensuous playing from the lower strings and a splendid first desk duet.

Alisa Weilerstein’s authoritative, powerful playing was captivating in Prokofiev’s challenging Sinfonia concertante op.125. She navigated the sheer range of the work with ease and confidence, her tuning impeccable in the tricky double-stops, enjoying a lovely interplay with the orchestra. The virtuosic second movement was despatched with technical mastery and tremendous vigour, its staccato passages nicely biting without being harsh, while Weilerstein’s sensuous vibrato in the fortes and breathtaking bow control in the piano writing of the second theme gave character and depth. The finale boasted extravagantly long lines and impressive power paired with impressive sensitivity and expression. The transition into the E major arpeggio passage was simply gorgeous and the furiously paced ending truly virtuosic. All in all, it was a performance that impressed for its great mastery, emotional investment and power.

The programme closed with Dvořák’s ‘From the New World’ Symphony, brilliantly performed by the orchestra. The clarity of playing, combined with depth of sound and expressive lyricism, was some of the best I’ve heard from the Philharmonic.

LEAH HOLLINGSWORTH

Philadelphia

AIZURI QUARTET PERELMAN THEATER, KIMMEL CENTER 12 FEBRUARY 2023

A Clara Schumann song, ‘Ich stand in dunkeln Träumen’ (I Stood Darkly Dreaming), arranged by Karen Ouzounian – cellist of the Aizuri Quartet – began this programme exploring the subject of darkness to sunrise. And, with its gentle melancholy, it made an apt prelude to the almost shocking impact of Bartók’s Fourth Quartet.

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Dark colours abound in the Bartók and here they were given with meticulous attack, rhythmic crispness and textural variety. In contrast, the delicate second movement – prestissimo, with mutes – flickered like a cloud of fireflies. The pizzicato fourth movement emerged as an axis of night timbres. But, whatever imagery might come to mind, the foursome were fearless throughout.

From composer Tanya Tagaq came Sivunittinni (2015), originally commissioned by the Kronos Quartet. Its gutteral ferocity is sometimes countered by moments of pale daylight, but Tagaq said in her notes that she meant it as ‘a little bit of a wake-up’ about the human condition. That’s exactly the tone the Aizuri found.

Sivunittinni made a fine contrasting preamble to the last work: Haydn’s String Quartet op.76 no.4, the so-called ‘Sunrise’. For the ensemble to switch so smoothly and effortlessly from Tagaq’s angular, socially conscious message to Haydn’s blissful flights of sunlight spoke volumes about the group’s chameleonic persona. On offer here was not only enthusiasm, but a salon-suitable stateliness and elegance, plus exacting attention to the composer’s rhythmic playfulness.

BRUCE HODGES

CASALS QUARTET PERELMAN THEATER, KIMMEL CENTER 16 FEBRUARY 2023

‘Can we skip to the Beethoven?’ murmured the man behind me in the sold-out audience for the Casals Quartet, making its debut with the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. Thankfully the doubter remained, because if he had departed he would have missed a high-velocity reading of Ligeti’s First Quartet (1953–4), subtitled ‘Métamorphoses nocturnes’ – one of the great experiments in string quartet writing from the period.

Its theatrical elements can’t be overstated. From the electrifying high registers on the strings, to the slow-moving chords in the middle, dynamic contrasts were outsized. Vibrato was minimised, as was the case through the entire evening. The foursome were particularly cogent in quiet moments, when the room seemed to shrink in size to that of a doll’s house. As a friend remarked later of Ligeti, ‘Such a show-off.’ True, perhaps, but the results were so compelling that they only reinforced his monolithic legacy.

Hugely characterful performances from the Aizuri Quartet

SHERVIN LAINEZ

Provocative and unconventional: Maxim Vengerov

IDAGIO/ DIAGO MARIOTTA MENDEZ

The unskippable Beethoven quartet (E minor op.59 no.2) was rife with felicities, including a deeply moving slow movement with frozen consonant chords. And, at the risk of wearing out a metaphor, skipping appeared with happy frequency in the final movement with its borderline-hilarious dotted rhythms.

To open the evening, Haydn made a welcome appearance with his Quartet in E flat major op.20 no.1, with French bows offering a light, springy touch. As before, minimal vibrato only reinforced the ability of the ensemble to let the buoyant score speak without additional underlining.

BRUCE HODGES

Edinburgh

MAXIM VENGEROV (VIOLIN) ROMANIAN NATIONAL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA/ SERGEY SMBATYAN USHER HALL 27 NOVEMBER 2022

You could never accuse violinist Maxim Vengerov of playing it safe – in his larger-than-life interpretations, his wide-ranging repertoire, even his forays into conducting. But his concert with the Romanian National Philharmonic Orchestra at Edinburgh’s Usher Hall – part of an eleven-stop UK tour – was at times head-scratchingly perplexing. All the Vengerov traits we’ve admired for decades were present and correct – that gloriously rich, focused sound; that nimble, immaculate technique; that sense of meaning and purpose he injects into even single notes; and, above all, that effortless charisma. But his main showpiece felt more like a post-modern commentary on Prokofiev’s First Violin Concerto than simply the concerto itself, with unaccountable accents, portamentos and off-kilter rhythms throwing the first movement out of shape, and a second movement driven so furiously hard and fast that at times it was even hard to discern the notes. It made for a provocative, unconventional account, but one that felt nervy and unsettling rather than thrillingly unpredictable.

Before the interval, he’d been the luxury soloist in the four Seascapes by Ukrainian-born, US-resident Alexey Shor, which were given far more eloquent, heartfelt readings, though they felt rather wasted on music that was full of charm, less so of memorable material. Conductor Sergey Smbatyan began the evening with a decidedly lacklustre Sibelius Karelia Suite, but his Romanian musicians burst into vibrant life for a gripping Tchaikovsky Romeo and Juliet to close what had been a rather baffling couple of hours.

DAVID KETTLE

London

PAVEL HAAS QUARTET, BORIS GILTBURG (PIANO) WIGMORE HALL 1 FEBRUARY 2023

The Pavel Haas began its concert with Martinů’s Seventh Quartet, the players producing a bustling energy in the first movement, with cellist Peter Jarůśek growling effectively underneath, along with moments of slinky legato, all imbued with dramatic impetus. After the flowing lyricism of the Andante, with its gently lapping arpeggios, there was a nice exuberance to the rhythmically sparkling Allegro vivo, complete with pointed syncopations.

The opening Allegro of Bartók’s Fourth Quartet was fierce but never harsh toned, switching splendidly between dynamic and dramatic extremes. The players scurried through the Prestissimo, weightless and driving. Jarůśek’s opening soliloquy in the Non troppo lento was strong and spacious, and at the end he and leader Veronika Jarůšková offered a tender duet. The Allegro pizzicato was fingerboard-slapping fun, and the quartet brought tremendous rhythmic élan to the motoric writing in the final Allegro molto, given with crystalline clarity of texture.

Pianist Boris Giltburg joined the Pavel Haas for Dvořák’s Second Quintet, at the beginning of which Jarůśek was again in the spotlight, playing the opening melody with full-toned beauty, after which there were strong contrasts of major and minor passages and telling use of rubato. The musicians brought out the many facets of the Andante Dumka: floating easy charm, profundity and the quiet intensity of violist Dana Zemtsov’s lament. The Scherzo was effervescent and the finale light, with great lyrical shaping.

TIM HOMFRAY

Patricia Kopatchinskara and Joonas Ahonen on electrifying form

MARK ALLAN/BARBICAN

PATRICIA KOPATCHINSKAJA (VIOLIN) JOONAS AHONEN (PIANO) MILTON COURT CONCERT HALL17 FEBRUARY 2023

The perpetually challenging nature of Schoenberg’s Phantasy looks after itself. Recognising this, Patricia Kopatchinskaja lavished on its yawning dissonances a lush, Brahmsian cantabile that the composer’s Viennese contemporaries would have admired. Fining down her tone to a confidential whisper, she breathed miracles of characterisation into Webern’s Four Pieces.

And yet – both surprisingly and predictably – the most modern-sounding composer on the programme turned out to be Beethoven. Kopatchinskaja’s reading of the C minor Sonata (no.7) stretched Classical grammar to its limits, firing off chords like gunshots and interrogating every phrase. It was radical stuff, but only insofar as a modern staging of Fidelio is radical. By her side, Ahonen’s piano sounded comparatively limited – through not through any lack of accomplishment on his part.

What makes Kopatchinskaja stand out from the crowd is not so much the bare feet, the cult following or the audience engagement that elicited an album leaf from the teenage Ligeti’s bottom drawer. It’s her almost unerring eye for the individual features of each piece she plays. The ‘Kreutzer’ after the interval took the Baroque severity of the introduction at face value, then tiptoed into the Presto with the bar-by-bar confidence of the Seventh Symphony at the same point. Her vibrato was much wider and warmer than for the C minor Sonata, recognising the proto-Romantic nature of this work. On another day, the stylistic patchwork of the Andante variations might seem mannered – clockwork doll one moment, rococo flirt the next – but at the time it made unforgettable, irresistible sense.

PETER QUANTRILL

ALENA BAEVA (VIOLIN) VADYM KHOLODENKO (PIANO) WIGMORE HALL 19 FEBRUARY 2023

It’s been some years since I’ve heard a Sunday-morning coffee concert at the Wigmore Hall and, judging by this one, I’ve been missing out. Russian-born Alena Baeva was joined by her regular recital partner Vadym Kholodenko for compelling performances.

A warm breeze blew through the opening trill of Beethoven’s Violin Sonata in G major op.96, and this level of care and listening continued throughout the recital. Beethoven’s slow movement inspired eloquent playing, subtly controlled by a high bow arm. With its grace and gentle swing, the central Trio of the Scherzo contrasted well with the movement’s outer sections.

In Valentin Silvestrov’s Lullaby from the third cycle of Melodies of the Moments, Baeva traced the heart-wrenching threads back to Schumann and Mahler without ever forgetting the impact of a simple idea sincerely expressed. The barely audible pizzicato close led directly into the shimmering piano opening of Schubert’s Fantasie D934, over which Baeva cast a magically suspended melody, which in turn contrasted beautifully with the exuberantly dancing final section. Of course, it helps if your duo partner is, like Kholodenko, a Van Cliburn Competition winner, and your partnership, like theirs, spans over 20 years. Good to know a spot to find world-class music-making (and a coffee or sherry), all before lunchtime!

EDWARD BHESANIA