I only stayed for the first half of this Sunday's 1:00 p.m. chamber music recital at Morse Hall but still had the opportunity to hear two excellent works, one by Bartók and the other by Ravel.
The program opened with Bartók's Contrasts for clarinet, violin and piano (1938). Though one normally pictures Bartók as an ethnologist trudging through the Hungarian countryside with primitive recording equipment, he was at the same time a well-traveled, internationally acclaimed composer as well as a virtuoso pianist. It really shouldn't come as any surprise then that the present work was the result of a commission from Benny Goodman, one of the world's most celebrated clarinetists. Though best known for the swing music that had made him famous, Goodman became interested in the classical repertoire in the late 1930's after having recorded the Mozart Clarinet Quintet with the Budapest Quartet, and he subsequently commissioned a number of works from renowned composers, including Francis Poulenc, Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein. In this instance, he made use of the offices of violinist Joseph Szigeti (for whom Bartók had already written in 1929 his Rhapsody No. 1) in order to approach the composer. As first written, the piece consisted of only two movements, Verbunkos ("Recruiting Dance") and Sebes ("Fast Dance") . After that version, entitled Rhapsody, had had its 1939 premiere at Carnegie Hall - at which Goodman and Szigeti performed with pianist Endre Petri - Bartók added the middle movement, Pihenő ("Relaxation"). The complete work was then performed in 1940, again at Carnegie Hall, by Goodman and Szigeti with Bartók himself this time taking the keyboard part. The music is lively and exciting. It's derived, like much of Bartók's output, from elements of Hungarian and Romanian folk music but at the same time it incorporates elements of jazz in Bartók's own distinctive style.
At this recital, the work was performed by Ziyao Sun, violin, Noemi Sallai, clarinet, and Shuaizhi Wang, piano; they were coached by Charles Neidich.
The second work was César Franck's famous Violin Sonata in A major (1886), here arranged for cello by Jules Delsart. It's worth noting that this was the only transcription approved by Franck and that in some editions both Franck and Delsart are given credit on the title page. The commission for the new work was not issued by Franck's publisher Hamelle, as was usually the case with transcriptions, but was instead granted by the composer himself in response to a personal request from Delsart. The fact that Delsart was not only a highly respected cellist but also taught with Franck at the Paris Conservatoire no doubt inclined Franck to give his permission. The piano part was kept the same as in the original work and for the most part Delsart simply transposed the violin part to the cello's lower register.
I had just heard the sonata in its original version for violin last month and had posted my thoughts on it at that time. Having had a chance to hear both versions performed so closely together, I was able to compare them and decided that, if anything, I preferred the cello transcription over the original. Though the work is a masterpiece in either case, I felt the cello's lower register created a more pleasing sonority. That's only my opinion, of course, and I doubt many violinists would agree.
The musicians at this performance were Benjamin Fryxell, cello, and Ariana Körting, piano; their coach was Earl Carlyss.
Scheduled for the second half of the recital was Schumann's Piano Quintet. It's an undeniably great work, but since I'd already heard it several times this season and am likely to hear it again next week I decided to skip it on this occasion and instead return to Morse Hall later in the afternoon to hear the full program at the 5:00 p.m. recital.
No comments:
Post a Comment