Oberon's Glade

Tag: David Shifrin

  • CMS: Brahms the Master

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    Above: clarinetist David Shifrin

    Tuesday October 21st, 2014 – The music of Johannes Brahms is well-represented at the great classical music venues of New York City this season. At the Philharmonic, Lisa Batiashvili just finished a series of concerts where she gave a resplendant reading of the composer’s violin concerto. Upcoming Brahms events on my calendar include Yefim Bronfman playing the piano concerto #2 with Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony at Carnegie Hall (January 31st, 2015); a performance of the GERMAN REQUIEM at Carnegie with Daniele Gatti leading the Vienna Philharmonic (March 1st, 2015); an All-Brahms evening at Chamber Music Society on April 24th, 2015; and Jonathan Biss playing the piano concerto #1 with the New York Phiharmonic (May 21st – 23rd, 2015).

    Tonight at Alice Tully Hall, the artists of Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center carried the Brahms banner high in an evening devoted to some of the composer’s most endearing, intimate works, all of which were composed during the final decade of his life. 

    My ability to concentrate was somewhat taxed this evening by small but pesky audience distractions, and an unfortunate late seating after the first movement of the opening work really broke the mood. But eventually the excellent music-making prevailed.

    Timothy Eddy launched the Trio in A minor for Clarinet, Cello and Piano, Op. 114, with the warmth and richness of his tone immediately evoking the sensations of tenderness and regret that will colour the entire evening. David Shifrin, in his 26th year of performing with the Society, called forth the plum-coloured resonance of his clarinet, and Shai Wosner – a pianist new to me – played with elegance and impressive dynamic control. The blending of the three instruments in the adagio was particularly heartfelt.

    Mr. Wosner returned for the Sonata in D minor for Violin and Piano, Op. 108, with violinist Erin Keefe who looked lovely in a midnight-hued pleated chiffon gown. The two musicians immediately established a fine rapport and together they poured forth the melodic themes in an unending stream of poignant lyricism. Ms. Keefe, in the sonata’s gently romantic adagio, moved compellingly from the delicacies of the initial passages to the more passionate expressions as the music flows forward. In the sentimental intermezzo that follows, both players ideally sustained the mood, carrying us into the finale where the two musicians spurred one another on with playing that managed to be both eloquent and lively.

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    After the interval, pianist Shai Wosner (above) took the stage alone for two brief solo keyboard works: the Intermezzo in E-flat major, Op. 117, No. 1, and the Rhapsody in E-flat major, Op. 119, No. 4. The Intermezzo’s melody is drawn from a lullabye associated with Lady Anne Bothwell, a young 16th century Scotswoman who was classically seduced and abandoned, singing to her infant son. Mr. Wosner’s refined playing here held the hall in a rapt silence before giving way to the grand flow of the Rhapsody. The two pieces, so contrasted yet linked by a common key, made for an intimate interlude before the concert’s closing work: the Quintet in B-minor for Clarinet, two Violins, Viola and Cello, Op. 115.

    Alexander Sitkovetsky (violin 1) and Mark Holloway (viola) joined Ms. Keefe, and Mssrs. Wosner and Shifrin for this richly melodic musical feast, the voices trading themes in this quintet with its somewhat unusual structure: it closes not with a vivid presto but with a set of variations – Mr. Shifrin’s clarinet in high relief – which end in an unexpectedly thoughtful state. Earlier, it was in the quintet’s adagio that the five players created some of the most luminous resonances of the entire evening. I wanted it to go on and on.

    Tonight’s Repertory:

    Participating Artists:

  • The Virtuoso Clarinetist @ CMS

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    Above: clarinet virtuoso David Shifrin

    Tuesday November 19th, 2013 – A delightful programme of music celebrating the clarinet was featured at Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. The Society gathered a distinctive ensemble of artists tonight, among them one of my favorite singers, mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke. This week I have the pleasure of experiencing Sasha’s artistry twice, for she follows up tonight’s chamber evening with performances of Britten’s Spring Symphony with the New York Philharmonic. 

    The Society’s Wu Han greeted us with irrepressible, energetic charm; she explained that she had left the evening’s programming up to Mr. Shifrin and then turned the stage over to the musicians. A packed house seemed eager to hear everything that was offered: again, CMS is the place to be for serious music-lovers.

    The evening commenced with an unusual Mozart adagio for two clarinets and three basset horns (K. 411) which the composer purportedly arranged as a sort of entree for the members of the Masonic lodge which he had joined in 1784. The piece is brief, with organ-like sonorities.   

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    Above: Sasha Cooke, photo by Rikki Cooke 

    In the splendid aria “Parto, parto…” from Mozart’s penultimate opera, LA CLEMENZA DI TITO, Sasha Cooke’s timbre seems to have taken on an added richness since I last heard her. The singer’s expressive qualities were, as ever, to the fore, and the power and beauty of her interpretation made me long to hear her at The Met again where lesser artists hold forth in roles that would suit Ms. Cooke to perfection. Be that as it may, her singing of the aria tonight, graced by Mr. Shifrin’s polished roulades, was a thoroughly engrossing musico-dramatic experience.  The Opus One Piano Quartet’s first-rate playing of this chamber arrangement was an ideal compliment to the singer and clarinetist. 

    Leaping forward from the 18th century to the 21st, Sasha Cooke displayed her versatility in the New York premiere performance of Lowell Liebermann‘s Four Seasons. In setting poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay, the composer seems to me to have crafted a contemporary masterpiece: his highly evocative, coloristic writing summons visions of the changing seasons with spine-tingling textures. There are several remarkable passages – the transition from Spring to Summer was especially marvelous – and the composer set The Death of Autumn twice, with the singer’s poetic response to the text varying in mood between the two. A chilly misterioso motif depicts swirls of snowflakes at the singer intones the beautiful ‘What lips my lips have kissed’ and the work closes with the poignant recollection of lost love: ‘But you were something more than young and sweet and fair – and the long year remenbers you’.

    Sasha Cooke, with her gift for communicating not just words but emotions, gave a sublime performance of this fascinating new work; Mr. Shifrin and the musicians of Opus One – Anne-Marie McDermott, Ida Kavafian, Steven Tenenbom and Peter Wiley – produced a glowing soundscape in which the voice was heard in all its affecting radiance.

    Following the intermission, Stravinsky’s Berceuses du chat were performed by Ms. Cooke and three clarinetists: Mr. Shifrin, Romie De Guise-Langlois, and Ashley William Smith. These wryly charming  lullabies were sung with soulful ‘Russian’ tone by the delightful Sasha.

    The evening’s second New York premiere, Christopher Theofanidis‘ Quasi una fantasia is dedicated to Mr. Shifrin and was performed by him and fellow-clarinetist Chad Burrow, with the Opus One Quartet. Facing one another, the two clarinets engage in a musical conversation and sometimes blend in duet; the ensemble provide commentary and pulsing rhythmic motifs. 

    Sasha Cooke’s lovely rendering of four contrasting Mendelssohn lieder – accompanied by Ms. McDermott – was followed by the composer’s melodious Concertpiece No. #1 which was lovingly played by Mr. Shifrin with Mlles. De Guise-Langlois (on Basset horn) and McDermott at the Steinway.

    A rarity, Ponchielli’s Il Convegno (The Meeting), which featured Mr. Shifrin and Miss De Guise-Langlois in a gentle virtuoso dialogue backed by the ensemble, ended the evening. All was well – and beautifully played, of course – though I did feel that the Mendelssohn and Ponchielli were too similar in mood to be played back-to-back. I think interjecting the Stravinsky songs after the Mendelssohn Concertpiece might have set the two ensemble pieces in higher relief. 

    The Program:

    • Mozart Adagio in B-flat major for Two Clarinets and Three Basset Horns, K. 411 (1782)
    • Mozart “Parto! Ma tu ben mio” from La clemenza di Tito, K. 621 for Mezzo-Soprano, Clarinet, and Piano Quartet (1791)
    • Liebermann Four Seasons for Mezzo-Soprano, Clarinet, and Piano Quartet (2013) (New York Premiere)
    • Stravinsky Berceuses du chat (Cat’s Cradle Songs) for Voice and Three Clarinets (1915)
    • Theofanidis Quasi Una Fantasia for Two Clarinets and String Quartet (2013) (New York Premiere)
    • Mendelssohn Concertpiece No. 1 in F minor for Clarinet, Basset Horn, and Piano, Op. 113 (1832)
    • Mendelssohn Selected Songs for Mezzo-Soprano and Piano
    • Ponchielli Il Convegno (The Meeting), Divertimento for Two Clarinets and Strings (1868)

    The Artists: