Mannes Chamber Music: Milhaud, Beethoven, Franck and Shostakovich

Yesterday evening's recital at Mannes began with a piece by Darius Milhaud entitled Scaramouche pour deux pianos, Op. 165b (1937).  Originally adapted from his incidental music to Le medécin volant by Moliérè, this was one of Milhaud's most popular works during his lifetime.  He programmed it to be played at concerts held in Paris during the German occupation and created arrangements for a number of instruments, including one for clarinet and saxophone.  I was intrigued listening to this jazzy piece after having just heard on Saturday two chamber works by Francis Poulenc, a fellow member of Les Six.

The second piece was Beethoven's Violin Sonata in A, Op. 30, No. 1 (1801).  Written in the period immediately following his confessional Heiligenstadt Testament in which he disclosed to his brothers his thoughts of suicide, the composer in these works began to progress beyond the classical traditions of Haydn and Mozart and as he entered his middle ("Heroic") period.  Interestingly, Beethoven titled the Op. 30 sonatas “for piano and violin,” an indication of the importance he placed on the keyboard parts as a full partner and not mere accompaniment.

The second half of the program began with the Sonata in A for Violin and Piano (1886) by César Franck.  The piece was written as a wedding present for the famous Belgian violinist Eugène Ysaÿe and is a standard of the violin repertoire.  It was a great favorite of Marcel Proust, and it has been speculated the author used it as the source of his imaginary Vinteuil sonata when writing À la recherche du temps perdu.

The final piece was not shown on the program.  The same Mannes students who had earlier performed Shostakovich's Piano Quintet in G minor, Op. 57 (1940) at a downtown recital gave another performance of the work yesterday evening.  I've always considered this to be the Shostakovich's most successful work.  While I've found his symphonies sometimes too cold and formal (which might at least in part be due to the Stalinist strictures under which the composer was forced to work), the quintet is a much more personal and accessible piece though still imbued with Shostakovich's distinctive style.  I recently heard another excellent performance of this work by the Chamber Music Society in a program presented on WQXR. The rendition by the students may have been a bit less polished than that played by the CMS but still showed great musicianship and ably conveyed the full power of the music.