Reviews
We heard words of welcome and celebration at being together again at an in -person, non socially-distanced indoor concert from Virginia Arts Festival Executive and Artistic Director Rob Cross and Wayla Chambo of WHRO public radio. We were treated to a fantastic evening of chamber music by world-class performers of music by Debussy, Ravel and Brahms, with unexpected encores. We got a sense of the depth of accomplished playing of these musicians, all while realizing how friendly and open they are as human beings. Pianist Olga Kern, who is the Connie & Marc Jacobson Chamber Music Series Director, opened the program with the Debussy Prelude No. 24 (also known as Book 2, No. 12 Prelude) Feux d'artifice (Fireworks). Her intense playing of runs with her back bent forward gave way to an upright posture with more gentle riffs of rippling, dreamy notes. This opening gift to the audience (not part of the printed program) was a true display of pyrotechnics, possibly written for Bastille Day, since it had strains of the Marseillaise woven in. Kern was then joined by cellist Thomas Mesa for the scheduled Claude Debussy (1862-1918) Sonata for Cello and Piano. Cuban American Mesa is a prize-winning, charismatic, new-generation cellist who told us the piece would carry us deeper into Debussy's musical language. We have known and loved this piece from recordings, but in person, as Mesa said, “It sounds as if it's being made-up on the spot.” The vivid playing was a gentle interaction at first, like flirting. Then the dialog became wilder and wilder, as if they were caressing as each briskly answered the other's sound. The second movement's plucked strings echoed in the piano had a jolly energy in this playful Serenade. I chuckled. It is “free in tempo, seemingly rhapsodic, yet organized with exactitude and with an unequaled ear for harmony.” (Robert Maycock). In the final movement they play together very fast, as if the piano is chasing the cello sound, until it becomes a duet, now engaged in each other's sound. They made Debussy gleam through their virtuosic and stylish performance.  The encore piece by Mr. Mesa was The Swan from Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) Carnival of the Animals. Written for cello, it was an enthralling, beautiful melody, superbly played. The scheduled Johannes Brahms (1822-1897) Violin Sonata No. 3, Op. 108 (1888) came next. Olga Kern introduced violinist Alexandre Da Costa. Born in Montreal, Canada, he was a musical prodigy, playing on stage by age nine. The Allegro opening movement offered a floating, rhythmically-driven theme in D minor, and then in contrast, a second theme in F major. Rhythmic elaborations led into ominous drama. The Adagio is a song without words, nostalgic in mood and richly melodic. In the Un poco presto third, the piano is featured with the violin adding rhythmic accents and color. Clara Schumann described it “like a lovely girl playing with her lover.” The fourth Presto agitato offers the sonata's most turbulent and dramatic music. Mr. Da Costa involuntarily moved his left foot into the air as his playing became most intense. Presto agitato, indeed! Mr. Da Costa told us that their encore pushed the limits of what his left arm can do! The performers laughed and then launched into Vittorio Monti (1868-1922) Csardás, a Hungarian dance that skipped along in high spirits. A repeat had the violin sound high and thin and now speeding along, going faster and faster and faster in this wonderful showpiece. After an intermission the Kerns returned in a piano four-hands piece by Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) My Mother Goose (Ma mčre l'Oye) as she introduced her son Vladislav Kern, an American pianist, composer and poet who is building a worldwide concert career. He was born in Russia and then began studying piano at age four and began his studies in Moscow at age six. At age twelve he moved to New York where he studied at Juilliard. In the first four pieces mother Olga sat on the right, treble side of the keyboard with son Vladislav on the left, bass side and switched positions for the fifth one. Mother Goose inspired by children's stories and written as a ballad, had begun as a suite for a pair of child piano students. Pavan for Sleeping Beauty is a sad and stately dance of twenty measures; Little Tom Thumb wanders in the woods dropping breadcrumbs—alas, the bird songs that indicate his path out of the woods are lost to him; The Green Serpent tells of a little princess cursed by a witch to be ugly and a little prince cursed to be a snake who travels to the land of the pagodas where they are restored and marry; Conversation of Beauty and the Beast includes Beauty, an elegant waltz and Beast (gruff dissonances). They combine, first with tension, then compatibility; The Fairy Garden has enchanting music, from rolled chords indicating light and then a happy ending, The melody becomes joyous as streams of high notes join in. For an encore, Vlad Kern dazzled us with Franz Liszt (1815-1886) Mazeppa Transcendental Etude No. 4 (1851). It is manic from the beginning with a colorful theme, part march, part gallop with a brilliant series of variations. Based on a poem by Victor Hugo (1828), it tells of Mazeppa, who after angering the husband of a Polish noblewoman, is tied to a wild horse and dragged all the way to Ukraine. He is released and eventually leads a Cossack uprising. Back to Brahms, the closing piece was his Trio in E-flat major, Op. 40 (1865) for piano, violin and cello. Written in the year Brahms' mother died, he opens his trio with a lyrical Andante brimming with mournful melodies. All three open together, then the violin is quiet, but only briefly. The simple opening melody builds to a dense, tension-filled one with contrasting, agitated meters. The conclusion is calm after a rumbling piano, only to find a quiet resolution. The ecstatic Scherzo has all three playing with precision, heart, and with great speed. The Adagio opens with tears of pain in the piano in this intensely introspective movement. The passionate piano gains momentum with virtuosic, rhythmic movement, only to fade to silence. It's as if the Finale movement is split between celebration of life and morbid loneliness of loss. It has fast, glittery passages but with off-meter accents. It later becomes contemplative but ends heroically. This concluded this generous program of four announced pieces that expanded to eight, including a bonus one by each performer. It is amazing to have Olga Kern in charge of the VAF chamber music program. It was obvious that all these young performers love what they do and included us in the glow. Back to VAF Index
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