Juilliard Chamber Recital: Paul Frucht, Shen Yiwen and Dvořák

Yesterday afternoon, Juilliard staged the final chamber recital in this season's Wednesdays at One series and made use of the occasion to showcase two of the winning compositions from the 2014 Gena Raps competition.  Ms. Raps, who studied piano under Artur Balsam, is a Juilliard graduate and a member of the Mannes faculty.

The first piece was the world premiere of "Levity" for Piano Trio by Paul Frucht.  This was a thoroughly modern piece that could perhaps best be described, at least in the absence of any program notes, as peripatetic.  That anyway was the word that came to my mind as I sat listening.  In keeping with its title it was an upbeat and energetic piece that was quite enjoyable to hear.  Though the piano part did not always appear completely integrated with that of the strings, that impression may only have resulted from my ignorance of the composer's intentions.  The music was very ably performed by the Hsin Trio consisting of Sissi Yuqing Zhang (violin), Yin Xiong (cello) and Han Chen (piano).  I had seen these same performers just last month at another Wednesdays at One recital, though I don't believe they had at that time formally named themselves as a trio.  On that earlier occasion, they played the Tchaikovsky Piano Trio in A minor, Op. 50.  At both performances they were coached by Joseph Lin (violin), David Finckel (cello) and Joseph Kalichstein (piano).

The next work was another world premiere - Four Chinese Brush Paintings by Shen Yiwen - and was much more traditional than I had anticipated.  The composer was very successful in using Western instruments to create sounds that one could readily associate with historical Chinese music (or at least this foreigner's concept of such music) and therefore by extension with Chinese artwork as well.  This was especially fitting as a reverence for the past lies at the heart of Chinese art; painters often work with historical subjects as a means of demonstrating a continuity with those artists who have preceded them.  Before beginning the work, violist Gregory Luce remarked that none of the four movements have titles because brush paintings are what the viewer observes them to be.  He may here have been referring, at least in part, to the concept of du hua in which the content of a given work is secondary to the associations to which it alludes.  In this manner an artist can stir the heart of the viewer by referring in his painting to a prior image which made use of the same or similar content; the recollection of the earlier work is intended to create a more intense emotional impact.  The performers here were the Aeolus Quartet, Juilliard's graduate resident string quartet, whose members include Nicholas Tavani (violin), Rachel Shapiro (violin), Gregory Luce (viola) and Alan Richardson (cello).  I had an opportunity to hear these musicians in recital last May at this same venue and was very impressed by their rendition of works by Haydn and Ravel.  They are on a par with, if not superior to, a good number of more established ensembles that I've heard over the years.

The program closed with one of Dvořák's most popular chamber works, the Piano Trio No. 4 in E minor, Op. 90 (1891), nicknamed the "Dumky."  As I had just heard on Monday afternoon a performance by the Jupiter Players of the same composer's String Sextet in A major, Op. 48, I had a unique opportunity to witness the manner in which Dvořák's use of East European folk sources, here most obviously the Ukrainian dumka, evolved over the years in which he continued to compose chamber music.  Only months after having written this piece, he would travel to the United States where he would be exposed, with the assistance of Harry Burleigh, to the Afro-American folk tradition and would in turn incorporate elements of that music in his chamber works as well, most notably in the "American Quartet," Op. 96.  The musicians were the Hyon Trio; the ensemble consisted of Julia Ahyoung Choi (violin), Jennifer Yunyoung Choi (cello) and Kevin Ahfat (piano).  Like the performers on the previous two pieces, these were exceptionally talented individuals.  The strings were particularly impressive in the second movement adagio in capturing the lush sensuality of Dvořák's music, and I thought the pianist's facility at the keyboard remarkable throughout.  They were coached by David Finckel and Vivian Weilerstein.