CONCERTS

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

To browse through more than a decade of The Strad’s recording reviews, visit www.thestrad.com/reviews

THIS MONTH’S RECOMMENDED RECORDINGS Our pick of the new releases

Cuarteto Casals: a brilliant Bach encounter PAGE 86

Superb collaborative spirit from Antje Weithaas PAGE 88

Alban Gerhardt: rethinking the classics PAGE 91

Breathtaking musicianship from Joshua Bell and Daniil Trifonov

FADI KHEIR

New York

JOSHUA BELL (VIOLIN) DANIIL TRIFONOV (PIANO)

STERN AUDITORIUM, CARNEGIE HALL 30 MAY 2023

Violinist Joshua Bell once again proved himself to be not just an outstanding soloist and leader, but also a formidable collaborative partner in his recital with pianist Daniil Trifonov.

Beethoven’s Violin Sonata op.12 no.1 began vigorously and offered sumptuous colours in the first-movement development. The dramatic opening of Prokofiev’s First Violin Sonata op.80 was well suited to the pair, and Bell performed the extended double-stopped passage flawlessly and with great beauty. The Andante was appropriately sombre, while also possessing grace and depth of emotion thanks in part to a beautifully blossoming and carefully applied vibrato, and the concluding Allegrissimo had flair and impressive mastery.

Bell himself introduced the second half of the programme, noting the Ysaÿe connection between Bloch’s ‘Nigun’ (from Baal Shem) and Franck’s A major Sonata. It was refreshing to hear such an esteemed performer address the audience in such a relaxed way (‘I was looking it up in the dressing room,’ he shared). ‘Nigun’ was performed with tremendous passion and intensity before the Franck closed the evening beautifully, with many opportunities to witness Trifonov’s skill – as virtuosic and versatile as Bell’s – and to relish the impressive collaboration between the two musicians. Bell’s bow control, breathtaking pianos, tasteful glissandos and perfectly timed ritardandos contributed to a remarkable performance. Two encores rewarded the full house’s standing ovation: a Romance by Clara Schumann and Brahms’s First Hungarian Dance.

LEAH HOLLINGSWORTH

IVALAS QUARTET

WEILL RECITAL HALL, CARNEGIE HALL 17 MAY 2023

The Ivalas Quartet, the graduate resident quartet at the Juilliard School, presented a ‘space-inspired’ programme at Weill Recital Hall, opening with Golijov’s Tenebrae, a meditative work written after the composer’s visit to the NYC Planetarium with his son. Sensitive leading from Pedro Sánchez on cello and an impressive viola solo by Aimée McAnulty were highlights. Jamaican composer Eleanor Alberga’s String Quartet no.1 followed, with a wonderful introduction by Sánchez that included demonstrations of the ‘fugue without a subject’ in the first movement, the portrayal of ‘solar winds’ in the Espressivo and Jamaican rhythms in the pizzicato of the finale. The group displayed an almost frenetic energy and real rhythmic fervour, making for a first half that was very well played, with fine attention to detail, though it could have been infused with more character.

Beethoven’s epic op.130 was poignantly introduced by McAnulty who reminded us all that ‘when we create something, we don’t know the life it will have’ as she discussed Beethoven’s legacy. This work offered a glimpse into what the Ivalas could do beyond mere technique, with playing of tremendous heart and beauty. The quartet’s sense of rubato and timing effectively conveyed the music’s spaciousness, while its commitment to dynamics – even extreme hairpins – was laudable, and I loved the gentle approach to the tempo of the fourth movement. The Cavatina began quite intensely, before giving way to an almost surprising lightness of sound, which set up well the whimsy and buoyancy of the finale. The audience gave a standing ovation and the quartet returned with a gorgeous account of the slow movement of George Walker’s First String Quartet.

LEAH HOLLINGSWORTH

Philadelphia

GENEVA LEWIS (VIOLIN) EVREN OZEL (PIANO)

AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY 4 MAY 2023

Near the beginning of Fazil Say’s Violin Sonata (1997), Geneva Lewis adroitly navigated some double-stopped trills – almost birdlike in their high wailing. Among many fascinating sequences is the inclusion of a Turkish folk song, ‘Odam Kireçtir’, as well as dance music from the region. Pianist Evren Ozel also had some striking moments, such as in the fourth movement, ‘Anonym: Andante’, with his fingers damping the piano strings to create a softly percussive result, which Lewis overlaid with a drone motif. The finale has a mournful, dreamlike intensity.

After Say’s reverie, Beethoven’s Tenth Violin Sonata made an agreeable companion before the interval, with the first movement imbued with Schubertian songfulness. The plaintive second movement showed off the tonal lustre of Lewis’s instrument, created c.1770 by Zosimo Bergonzi of Cremona, before both violin and piano intertwined in happy synchronisation for the scherzo. With springy energy in the flowing finale, the artists’ vigour in the faster sections reminded us of the composer’s astonishing penchant for surprise.

Rarely heard, at least in the US, Douglas Lilburn’s twelve-minute Sonata for violin and piano was composed in 1950 for violinist Ruth Pearl and pianist Frederick Page. In its soaring, rhapsodic lines, Lewis and Ozel combined warmth and empathy.

But perhaps the best came last: a blistering reading of Bartók’s First Violin Sonata. Despite the relative calm of the intense, probing central slow movement, the percussive fury of the surrounding ones showed both artists at their explosive peak.

BRUCE HODGES

Stunning Bartók from Geneva Lewis

EAST COAST CHAMBER ORCHESTRA, JUPITER QUARTET

PERELMAN THEATER 9 MAY 2023

String orchestras don’t seem to get much love, at least in America, so the opportunity to hear 14 string players – a composite of the East Coast Chamber Orchestra and the Jupiter Quartet – was irresistible. In its death-defying arrangement by Mahler, Schubert’s ‘Death and the Maiden’ Quartet grew, flaunting more outsized emotional extremes. If anything, the ten extra strings added even more pathos and symphonic range to the existing profundity. The sizzling finale was particularly exhilarating – tautly managed at breakneck speed, and without a conductor.

Impressive form from ECCO and the Jupiter Quartet

ECCO PHOTO PETE CHECCHIA. LEWIS PHOTO MOTTI FANG-BENTOV

Opening the evening was Sonata da chiesa (1990) by Adolphus Hailstork, now 82 years old and living in Virginia. This is a luminous bit of mid-century radiance that seems not unrelated to, say, the tonality of Samuel Barber. In the pleasing Perelman Theater acoustic, the glow emanating from the ensemble reminded me that string orchestras can conjure up a wider range of textural variety and splendour than some imagine.

In between came Jessie Montgomery’s Banner!, written for the 200th anniversary of the US national anthem. Instead of a straightforward tribute to ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’, Montgomery was inspired to ask questions about the nature of patriotism. Her intriguing results encompass a Charles Ivesian range of influences, eventually colliding in a riotous bolt of colour at the end.

But the Schubert/Mahler will linger longest in the memory: the minds and hands of these talented musicians brought an iconic work to blazing new life.

BRUCE HODGES

London

SAINSBURY ROYAL ACADEMY SOLOISTS

WIGMORE HALL 10 MAY 2023

The 18 string players of the Sainsbury Royal Academy Soloists produced punchy accents in the opening of Wolf’s Italian Serenade. The playing was vibrant and energetic, with a good fruity bass sound from the four cellos and two basses and fine solos from violist Gordon Cervoni and cellist Jihyo Jung.

Practice makes perfect: the Sainsbury Royal Academy Soloists in rehearsal

COURTESY ROYALACADEMY OF MUSIC

Each of Piazzolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires (in Leonid Desyatnikov’s arrangement) featured a different soloist stepping forward from the ranks; it began with ‘Summer’ and Muriel Oberhofer, who at first was almost drowned by the orchestral heft but proved idiomatic in the quieter, slower passages, finding good contrast with the more fiery writing. Emil Hartikainen opened ‘Autumn’ with energetic insouciance, before being rather upstaged by a beautifully played cello solo from Jihyo Jung. He launched into the cadenza with athletic exuberance and brought plenty of personality to the sultry melodies which followed. In ‘Winter’, Francisca Caldas de Brito produced another dashing cadenza and plenty of sultriness in its melodies, playing with a rich, woody tone and moments of pathos and fire. Jihyo Jung was splendid again in another solo. Iohan Coman concluded the work with a vivacious display of rapid-fire pyrotechnics and muscularity in ‘Spring’.

The concert ended with Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence, whose opening movement had thrilling swagger and real momentum (though not always perfect intonation). There was excellent ricochet bowing in the Allegretto and, some uncertain entries notwithstanding, great joie de vivre in the finale.

TIM HOMFRAY

SITKOVETSKY TRIO

WIGMORE HALL 22 MAY 2023

Composer Sam Perkins drew on a collection of curious stories for his entertaining seven-movement work Freakshow, premiered in 2016 to mark the centenary of the Irish Easter Rising. The first movement, ‘The rat circus’, featured grotesque, violent scrunches; ‘The two-headed nightingale’ was a sort of waltz with many portamentos; comic and unsettling. Later, the players were required to play pizzicato on the wrong side of the bridge (‘Pandora’s basket’) and to sign off the work with a sort of pizzicato hoedown and a shout. The Sitkovetsky Trio captured all these musical pictures with colourful, dynamic playing.

Beethoven wrote his Allegretto in B flat major WoO39 in 1812 for Maximiliane, the nine-year-old daughter of friends, who was learning the piano (her mother Antonie Brentano is thought to have been the mysterious ‘Immortal Beloved’). It was played with grace and artful simplicity.

After a stern opening, Mendelssohn’s C minor Trio was performed with a mixture of delicacy and restless energy. The second subject was suitably grand, and the musicians (right) moved into the development with nervy impulse and some pronounced rubato. The Andante espressivo had fluidity and flexibility, and there was a twinkling lightness to the hurtling scherzo. Cellist Isang Enders opened the finale with an exuberant swoop which aptly presaged a performance of turbulence and passion.

TRIO PHOTO JIYANG CHEN. NOVUS PHOTO JINHO PARK. POWER PHOTO JACK LIEBECK

TIM HOMFRAY

NOVUS QUARTET

WIGMORE HALL 26 MAY 2023

The Novus Quartet opened its concert with a rare appearance of a Milhaud quartet, his sixth. After a plaintive viola melody from Kyuhyun Kim there was skilful interlacing of parts in the first movement. The central Très lent was supple, with creamy, sensual playing, and the finale was vivacious, with excellent accord between first violin and cello several octaves apart.

The Adagio opening of Mendelssohn’s A minor Quartet (no.2) was given minimal vibrato, but in the passionate outpouring of the Allegro details were lost: dotted rhythms blurred and small notes indistinct. The second-movement fugue built to a climax of mighty emotion. The Allegretto of the third movement had an essential simplicity, albeit with a few bulges, before the players pecked lightly with upbows through the central Allegro di molto, following which the leader Jaeyoung Kim emoted splendidly in his recitative before the dashing finale got under way.

After the interval came another rarity: Schoenberg’s First Quartet. The playing was sinuous and well balanced, with subtle dynamic nuance. The players were good at turning the heat down as well as up when Schoenberg was in full flow, and there was constant shifting of prominence between instruments in this busy score. Amid its astringencies there were glimpses of sinister cabaret and suave coffee house music. The slow section was poised and reflective, with a beautiful, hushed threnody from viola player Kyuhyun Kim.

The enterprising Novus Quartet

Lawrence Power: easy command

TIM HOMFRAY

LAWRENCE POWER (VIOLA/VIOLIN) SIMON CRAWFORD-PHILLIPS (PIANO)

WIGMORE HALL 31 MAY 2023

For those not enamoured of viola recitals, Lawrence Power is a tonic. As this Wigmore Hall concert again proved, his programming is so imaginative and his musicianship so independent of his instrument that it’s the message, not the medium, that is paramount.

This celebration of British–American violist and composer Rebecca Clarke (1886–1979) interspersed the three movements of her early Viola Sonata, and two of her other pieces, alongside a range of music that inspired her – from Palestrina and Tallis to Vaughan Williams and Bridge to Ravel and Bartók.

There was a magical, timeless pastoral mood in Clarke’s Morpheus – showing a debt both to Vaughan Williams and Debussy; and a quasi- Expressionistic swirling of energy in the finale of Martinů’s Viola Sonata. Power downsized to the violin for Ravel’s early, single-movement Sonata, beguiling in its insouciant lyricism, and for Bartók’s Romanian Dances, though the bowing in the ‘Sash Dance’ and the ‘Fast Dance’ took rustic to the extreme.

To close, Power gave a richly expressive performance of the Adagio from Clarke’s Viola Sonata, underlining its rich drama and reminding us of his easy command of his instrument. The same was true of his pianist, Simon Crawford-Phillips, whose mastery of style and technique throughout was complete.

EDWARD BHESANIA