The Russians
A wee reminiscence of March musical events includes a subdued all-Chopin recital by Russian pianist/conductor Mikhail Pletnev at Sherwood Auditorium March 21. The program began with a crystalline performance of Frederic Chopin’s Fantaisie in F Minor, Opus 49, and proceeded through five mazurkas and the Ballade No. 1 in G Minor. Pletnev plays as if Chopin’s musical language has existed from time immemorial and, having been rediscovered, is piped in from a remote and cold star. He plays with reverence within a pianistic métier that ranges from shimmering filigree to the large and passionate statement, but all is carefully considered and measured out, lest overstatement or passion distort.
The recital’s second half included the Polonaise-Fantaisie in A-flat Major, Opus 61, a splendid rendering of the familiar Nocturne in E-flat Major, Opus 9, No. 2, and a speedway reading of the familiar Waltz in E Minor, Opus Posthumous. This playing is about as far from Lang Lang as one can get. I prefer something in the middle of the two extremes, though Pletnev has moments of grace, surprise and transparency, and he is the master of two-handed trills.
Thursday night, Pletnev mounted the podium at Copley Symphony Hall to conduct his Russian National Orchestra. He deviated from the printed program, substituting a rousing, roof-raising performance of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Festive Overture for the printed Rachmaninoff Vocalise. Shostakovich allowed him to show off his trumpets.
He may have cracked something that approximated a smile Tuesday night, but Thursday was deadly formal and serious, continuing with Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, which featured the American debut of 1992 Tchaikovsky competition first medalist Mikhail Mogilevsky. The pianist, who turns 30 in 2007, looks much younger. He played with power, poetry and deeply felt emotion. Though one missed the warmth of the Steinway, Mogilevsky used a Yamaha concert grand. Given the piece, it was a good choice for brilliance and carrying ability.
After Shostakovich and Rachmaninoff, the performance of Tchaikovsky’s Suite No. 3 in G Major, Opus 35 was anticlimactic to say the least. Anticipating this, many in the near-capacity audience left at the interval.
Mozart
Friday night provided respite from Russian music when Vienna’s Altenberg Trio played an all-Mozart program at the Neurosciences Institute auditorium, under the auspices of Mainly Mozart. Aside from exemplary musicianship, verve and style, the program was graced with unparalleled camaraderie, good spirits and intimate address, delivered by pianist Claus-Christian Schuster, who imparted more knowledge of Mozart and his times than most would learn in a semester of specializing at university.
It was a warm and wonderful and revelatory evening, and the lads from Vienna can return anytime.
Meanwhile, check out the May events of the 2006 San Diego Jewish Music Festival. Chamber Music lovers have an opportunity to hear Shostakovich songs for piano and voice on May 24. The personable and enlightening Cuarteto Latinoamericano performs May 30. Included in their program is Argentine composer Osvaldo Golijov’s “Yiddishbbuk.” Check out the entire festival at www.lfjcc.org or by calling (858) 362-1348.
More Mozart
Chamber music lovers had an extraordinary weekend when the Mainly Mozart Piano Quartet played two nights at The Neurosciences Institute.
The Feb. 24 Mainly Mozart program was all Mozart, played by a dream team, comprising violinist Andres Cardenas, violist Cynthia Phelps, cellist Desmond Hoebig and pianist Randall Hodgkinson. Cardenas and Phelps set the tone with the Duo for Violin and Viola in G, K.423. Each movement was more captivating than the previous as the two unaccompanied string players created an entire universe of glorious sound.
Pardon my ecstatic response: Performed by Cardenas and Hodgkinson, the Sonata for Violin and Piano in A, K.526 achieved a perfect balance, and the andante, an extraordinary example of the tempo, was flawless, pristine, mesmerizing. The presto, too, was exemplary, with quicksilver, spine-tingling runs provided by the pianist. Altogether, it was a supremely satisfying evening. n The Quartet in G minor, K.478 exemplifies “you first, no you,” as the piano introduces the themes taken up by the others, who then lead in their turn, with Hoebig providing spotless, solid continuo in the andante.
Altogether, it was a supremely satisfying evening.
