Juilliard Chamber Music Performed by Pre-College Ensembles

Almost all the many chamber music recitals I've attended at Juilliard have been performed by musicians at the undergraduate or graduate level, but those in the pre-college division are also extremely talented, prodigies in fact, and their performances are well worth taking the time to hear.  Earlier this week, at Alice Tully Hall, several ensembles from this division gave a lunchtime recital, the last in this season's Wednesdays at One series, that featured works by a number of composers.  In order to fit in everyone at this hour-long recital, most performances were limited to single movements of much longer pieces.

The full program was as follows:

• Schumann - Violin Sonata No. 1 in A minor, Op. 105, I. Mit Leidenschaftlichem Ausdruck, performed by Yun Shan Tai, violin, and Chanel Wang, piano
• Fauré - Après un rêve (here arranged for piano trio), performed by Qing Yu Chen, violin, Max Bobby, cello, and Youlan Ji, piano
• Shostakovich - Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67, IV. Allegreto - Adagio, again performed by Qing Yu Chen, violin, Max Bobby, cello, and Youlan Ji, piano
• Mozart - String Quartet No. 14 in G major, K. 387, IV. Molto allegro, performed by Kevin Zhu and Nathan Meltzer, violins, Joshua Kail, viola, and Sebastian Stoger, cello
• Piazzola - Invierno Porteño ("Winter in Buenos Aires), performed by Megan Yao, violin, Sara Scanlon, cello, and Huan Zhang, piano
• Brahms - Piano Trio No. 1 in B major, Op. 8, IV. Allegro, performed by Amy Oh, violin, Esther Yu, cello, and Youlan Ji, piano

The two works that were to me most notable, if only because less familiar, were the Fauré and the Piazzola.  The former was one of Trois mélodies, Op, 7, a trio of pieces written by Fauré between 1870 and 1877 for solo voice and piano and published as a single work in 1878.  This particular selection used as its text a poem by Romain Bussine that was itself derived from Niccolò Tommaseo’s 1841 Canti popolari, the appropriate section of which begins, "Levati sol che la luna è levata." Though Bussine's poem itself is quite passionate, Fauré's short piece is much more ethereal and the dreamer's ardor greatly subdued.  As for Piazzola's tango, this was a transcription of the last of his Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas, originally composed for violin, piano, electric guitar, double bass and bandoneón. It didn't have the lively drama one would normally expect of a tango but instead captured the loneliness of the season it portrayed.

It was very intriguing to hear the young musicians at Wednesday's recital.  For most of them, this was probably the first occasion on which they'd performed before such a large audience and yet all of them were entirely self-possessed and fully in control as they played the extremely challenging pieces listed above.  It never ceases to amaze me what a wealth of talent Juilliard has to offer on all levels to those who attend its musical events.