Avery Fisher
Hall at Lincoln Center. Orchestra
(Center, free).
Program
Sonata for two
violins in D major, Op. 3, No. 6 (1730) by Jean-Marie Leclair (1697-1764).
Selections from
Forty-four Duos for two violins, BB 104 (1931) by Bartok (1881-1945).
Anne had a class
tonight, so I was on my own. I took the
5:25 pm train which got into New York about 10 minutes late at 6:35 pm. With a good subway connection, I managed to
pick up my ticket for the evening and got into the auditorium with 7 minutes to
spare.
The pre-concert
program consists of two short pieces. The
Playbill has a short annotation of Leclair’s work. The most interesting part unfortunately was
that he was murdered, probably by his nephew who was also a violinist.
The sonata was
short (even shorter than the advertised 12 minutes,) yet consists of four
movements: Andante, Allegro, Largo, and Allegro ma non-troppo. The Playbill annotation made the music quite
easy to understand. It was a delight,
and contains some rather challenging passages (the composer was a violinist,
after all.)
Someone asked
Bartok for permission to transcribe some of his piano compositions into duets
for violins. Bartok countered by writing
44 duets, with most of them (except 2) based on actual folk tunes. The six selections - some short, others
shorter - totaling 9 minutes of play, are: Transylvanian Dance, No. 44; Fairy
Tale, No. 19; Burlesque, No. 16; Sorrow, No. 28; New Year’s Greeting I, No. 21;
and Arabian Song, No. 42. Between the
titles and the notes, there was no doubt where things were. Yet there was some hesitation before the
audience applauded at the conclusion.
Here Goulding
took the lead. For me this is
characteristically Bartok in that I get it (i.e., I can follow the music,) yet
I don’t get it (i.e., not sure where he was trying to say.) At one level I could dismiss them as simply etudes
written for student/teacher recitals, but I suspect there is more to the.
When Goulding
and Tetzlaff came on stage, I was surprised at how young she looked. (She was born in 1992, a search of the web
revealed.) A perusal of the Playbill
told me she already has quite a few awards under her belt, and that she is
Tetzlaff’s student. Must be a star
student for her to be invited along. She
put in a delightful performance, and seems to command a certain stage
presence. I can see her performing on
the big stage at some point.
Tetzlaff is
known for playing a violin modeled after a Guarnerius. Goulding performs on a Stradivarius (General
Kyd, ca. 1720.) So it is doubly amazing
that Tetzlaff produced a much richer sound than Goulding did.
In the flurries
of activities this afternoon (including preparation for my trip to Hong Kong
the next day,) I didn’t get to eat anything before I left the house. So I bought a half sandwich at Avery Fisher,
for $6.50. I am quite sure they were selling
whole sandwiches for $8 each the last time I bought something.
The entries for
both the pre-concert and the concert were written inside UA117 (EWR-HKG.) That may explain the more than usual amount
of typing and grammatical mistakes.
(Note: I did some proof-reading before posting this blog on August 16.)
No comments:
Post a Comment