Joshua Bell, violin; Steven Isserlis, cello; and Jeremy Denk, piano. May 5, 2019.

Prudential Hall at NJPAC, Newark, NJ.  Tier 1 (Seat E103, $73.65).

Program

Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 49 (1839) by Mendelssohn (1809-18470.

Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67 (1944) by Shostakovich (1906-1975).

Trio elegianque No. 1 in G minor (1892) by Rachmaninoff (1873-1943).

Piano Trio in A minor (1914) by Ravel (1875-1937).

Two of the three musicians are quite well-known, so it was easy to decide to buy a ticket to this event when discounted tickets became available.

I do not know what to listen for in Chamber Music except how the music sounds, how well the individual players do, and how the musicians work together as an ensemble.  Beyond those I usually don’t have much to say (for instance, about the structure of the piece or its movements.)

I can say so much, though.  The overall experience was great, the players performed beautifully – and there were some challenging passages; they cooperated well; the string players had great intonation.  The last item isn’t always a given, one “old” complaint I had of Bell was that his pitch was often off; to be fair, that complaint has been less frequent the last few years.

Here is my recollection of the individual pieces, aided by the notes I took during the performance:

Mendelssohn.  The movements are (i) Molto allegro ed agitato; (ii) Andante con moto tranquillo; (iii) Scherzo: Leggiero e vivace; and (iv) Finale: Allegro assai appassionato.  They add up to about 30 minutes.  Whoever thinks Prudential Hall has great acoustics has not seen much, the sound in Tier 1 sounded muddled,  The first movement sounded elegant bordering on regal, the second movement was peaceful, the third fiery, which led to an equally exciting finish in the fourth.  At this point I told myself I could sit through the whole thing, despite the antiseptic sound of the hall (for lack of a better adjective).

Shostakovich.  His movement markings tend to be straightforward, and for this 30-minute work they are Andante, Allegro con brio, Largo and Allegretto.  The cello began the movement with harmonics that slid up and down the instrument’s neck, and the movement has a simple sound I often associate with Shostakovich.  The violin and cello had a lot of muted passages.  Despite the marking of Andante for the movement, there were some fast passages thrown in.  The movement ended with a satisfying flourish.  The second movement was a non-stop exercise in allegro tempo.  The third movements started sounding like music written 150 years earlier, but the harmony eventually devolved into “weird,” with the strings making huge interval leaps.  The fourth movement was played attacca, and began with a lot of pizzicato.  It had a heavy dose of folk-like music but felt sad and dark overall.  Both strings had del segno and harmonics passages.  The work ended on quiet pizzicato from the strings.

Disclosure. I watched part of the Trio again on YouTube, with Gidon Kremer at the violin.  This was a recording from about 20 years ago, and he sounded much better then, with great intonation.

Before the concert began, some young people from a local youth chamber orchestra played the Canon by Pachelbel and a movement form Vivaldi’s Concerto for Four Violins.  (The person next to me said they are from the Elizabeth Morrow School in North Jersey.)  Despite the ushers’ best efforts, they couldn’t stop some people from trying to take photographs or videos during the group’s performance.  What was inexcusable was how these family and friends felt they could come in and out as they pleased during the Trio’s performance, and that the ushers would allow them to do so.  My neighbor remarked, appropriately, that this wasn’t a baseball game.  The creaks and groans of the seats while people moved about had to be quite disturbing to the musicians.

The Elizabeth Morrow School Youth Chamber Orchestra played a couple of pieces before the Trio began.

Things quieted down a bit after the intermission.

The 15 minute Rachmaninoff piece provided a nice change of pace.  It began with the cello playing a fifth interval, followed by the violin.  When the piano crept into the ensemble it led with a beautiful romantic melody that Rachmaninoff seemed to have an abundant supply of.  The piece ended with a quiet recollection of the initial melody.

Ravel’s piece was also about 30 minutes long.  Tempo markings are in French: Modere, Pantoum (Assez vif), Passacaille (Tres large), Final (Anime); one can guess what they mean.  It began with a clean introduction.  Per a Wikipedia article I read, Ravel was worried about the cello’s not being heard, so he oftentimes separated the two string instruments by two octaves, with the piano (right hand, at least) in the middle.  That he did with the beginning.  The Scherzo was a delightful give and take among the instruments.  The Largo Passacaglia began with a piano melody followed by the cello and the violin.  It started simple enough but got more complicated as the movement progressed.  The Finale was rapid harmonics, constant motion, with a dose of oriental flavor.

During the Ravel trio one could hear clearly the barking of a dog.  I did see a service dog during intermission.

The three musicians put together a delightful program for the afternoon.

This was a great concert, despite the interruptions. NJPAC was running some promotions (including $50 for 2 seats), and the hall was reasonably full.  One complaint I do have is the lack of Program Notes other than (rather) detailed biographies of the musicians.

This program is repeated many times as the group tours various cities.  I get a lot of web ads about their appearance in Santa Barbara.  One can conclude these ad placement algorithms are either very smart or very dumb.