Golden Age of the Violin @ CMS

Following the senseless horror of the terrorist attacks in Paris this past Friday, we turn yet again to music as a source of consolation. These words from Leonard Bernstein have echoed thru my mind over this weekend since the appalling news from France reached us: “This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.”

Sunday November 15, 2015 – A trio of superb young violinists were featured at this evening’s concert given by at Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center at Alice Tully Hall. Paul Neubauer and David Finckel – masters of the viola and cello respectively – joined their young colleagues in celebrating the expressive violin style epitomized by the legendary Fritz Kreisler.

Kreisler was in fact the first violinist I ever heard; my parents had some of his recordings and by the age or eight or nine I was already preferring these – and Horowitz, Flagstad, and Toscanini – to my mom’s favorites: Lawrence Welk and the McGuire Sisters.

The first music we heard this evening was also oldest music on the programme: a sonata for two violins by Jean-Marie Leclair. Leclair may be the only violinist/composer in history to have had a highly successful career as a ballet dancer prior to turning to composing full-time around 1723. Today’s sonata dates from 1730 and was played with lively charm by Danbi Um and Sean Lee. Passing the melodies back and forth, the duo were well-matched, nuance for nuance. The tender sadness of the sonata’s Andante graziosa maintained a forward momentum, and then our two violinists sailed confidently thru the swirls of notes than make up the concluding Presto.

Mr. Lee returned to the stage immediately with Benjamin Beilman and Paul Neubauer for Anton Dvorak’s C-major terzetto, composed in 1887. It opens with a tranquil theme, becomes more animated, then gently shifts between moods. After a passage of hesitations, as if unsure where to go next, the composer gives us a warm lullabye-like melody with a genial ending. A feeling of propulsive dance – and a touch of Mendelssohnian sparkle – fills the Scherzo; a central song with the flavour of a country waltz is most attractive, followed by a da capo which sweeps forward in alternating currents of lyrical breadth and teasing delicacy. In the final movement, Mr. Neubauer’s viola had a shivering motif, followed by an impassioned theme from Mr. Beilman; then there’s a brisk rush to the finish. 

David Finckel’s name in my Playbill is now triple-underlined and festooned with exclamations marks for his marvelous playing in the Alexander Borodin 1881 D-major quartet. The cello sets the pace for the opening Allegro moderato and is given some heartfelt melodies in the later movements; these were relished by Mr. Finckel whose tone has an intimate, romantic glow.

A Spring-like feeling pervades the opening of the Scherzo: Allegro, and then a familiar tune is heard: my mother would have recognized it as the melody of the 1950s pop song “Baubles, Bangles & Beads” (from the musical KISMET) which was recorded – seemingly – by everyone, including Marlene Dietrich and Frank Sinatra. For all the tune’s appeal, it still sounds best in its original Borodin setting. The second movement then rushes ahead, only to withdraw to a pizzicato fadeout at the end.

Borodin sets the third movement as a Nocturne and Mr. Finckel sets the mood to perfection. Danbi Um, in the first violin chair, then takes up a sweet, high theme. Mssrs. Lee and Neubauer make the middle voices sing, the latter in a lovely melodic exchange with Mr. Finckel’s cello (“Gorgeous blends!” I scrawled in my Playbill.) Ms. Um takes up a shining theme, passing it to Mr. Finckel who descends with it into the cello’s depths. This Nocturne, with all four players deeply immersed in the music, made a particularly satisfying impression. In the concluding movement, the quartet summarized the work in recurrent themes, playing with such conviction that the audience were swept along and responded with especially warm applause, summoning the musicians out for a second bow. 

After the interval, Ben Beilman stood alone on the stage and delivered a stunning performance of Eugene Ysaÿe’s E-minor sonata (1924). The work is a virtuosic test piece for which Mr. Beilman gets top marks. This young artist displays thorough technical assurance as well as a masterful control of dynamics. He took the strenuous demands Ysaÿe places on the player in stride, and an appealing aspect of modesty in his delivery endeared him to the crowd. This is a serious musician with something to say to us. The applause that enveloped Mr. Beilman at the end of his dazzling performance was amply deserved, bringing him out for a double curtain call. 

No one could blame Fritz Kreisler for featuring the violin in his A-minor quartet: it was, after all, his instrument. Mr. Beilman, fresh from the demands of the Ysaÿe, was at his most lyrically persuasive here, regaling us with the melodic treats Kreisler has laid out for him. Danbi Um seconded Ben’s beautiful playing with many graceful turns of phrase, while Mssrs. Neubauer and Finckel brought Olde World warmth and expressiveness to their playing.

Though rife with melodic felicities, including a waltz tune “mit schlag” and a gorgeously-sustained Ben Beilman high fade-away at the conclusion of the Romanze, the Kreisler quartet is one of those perfectly pleasant works that falls short of being truly memorable. But I can’t imagine it being better-played than it was this evening.

In her welcoming remarks tonight, Chamber Music Society co-artistic director Wu Han had spoken of the distress we have all been feeling after the horrible events in Paris. She said that from Friday night til Sunday morning she had been so consumed with sadness that she couldn’t play the piano, but that at last she sat down to practice and found solace at the keyboard. She promised us that the evening’s programme would be uplifting, and she was right. 

The Repertory:

• Leclair Sonata in E minor for Two Violins, Op. 3, No. 5 (1730)
• Dvořák Terzetto in C major for Two Violins and Viola, Op. 74 (1887)
• Borodin Quartet No. 2 in D major for Strings (1881)
• Ysaÿe Sonata in E minor for Violin, Op. 27, No. 4 (1924)
• Kreisler Quartet in A minor for Strings (1919)