United States Numerous: Yo-Yo Ma (cello), Kathryn Stott (piano). Offered by San Francisco Symphony, Davies Symphony Corridor, San Francisco, 2.4.2024. (HS)
Fauré – ‘Berceuse’, Op.16; ‘Papillon’, Op.77
Dvořák – ‘Songs My Mom Taught Me’
Sérgio Assad – ‘Menino’
Nadia Boulanger – ‘Cantique’
Shostakovich – Cello Sonata in D minor, Op.40
Pärt – ‘Spiegel im Spiegel’
Franck – Violin Sonata in A significant (transcribed for cello)
Cellist Yo-Yo Ma and pianist Kathryn Stott have been taking part in recitals collectively for 4 a long time. To say they had been on the identical web page of their recital in San Francisco was in no way stunning. What that unanimity created in music, from the non secular simplicity of Arvo Pärt to the dexterity required for sonatas by Dmitri Shostakovich and César Franck, was nothing in need of breathtaking.
The viewers in a packed Davies Corridor sat enthralled by the proceedings. It didn’t harm that Ma made a degree of noting that Stott plans to step away from performing on the finish of this 12 months. That this is able to be their final efficiency in San Francisco, a daily cease in earlier years, added a frisson of poignancy to a program already aimed on the heartstrings. It’s a assortment assembled by Stott of items they performed and recorded through the years.
This system, to be repeated on an April tour that takes them to Los Angeles, Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, touches on a shared historical past that traces again to earlier generations. Stott studied with famed instructor and composer Nadia Boulanger on the Menuhin Faculty close to London, and Ma’s school professor had been taught by Luise Vosgerchian, who additionally studied with Boulanger.
This system opened with a set that started with two songs with out phrases by French composer Gabriel Fauré, himself a mentor and buddy to Boulanger. The Fauré songs bracketed Boulanger’s pretty ‘Cantique’, Dvořák’s ‘Songs My Mom Taught Me’ and the Brazilian guitarist Sergio Assad’s ‘Menino’, which Ma and Stott included of their 2003 album, Obrigado Brazil, in a piano-cello association. The suite sailed easily, a examine in absolutely realized and detailed phrasing, steadiness and intent.
All that sweetness was adopted by a stunningly exact efficiency of Shostakovich’s Cello Sonata in D minor, which Ma launched as ‘talking fact to energy’. Though the piece debuted earlier than Stalin’s notorious condemnation of the composer over Woman Macbeth of Mtsensk, its candy lyricism does certainly step by step give technique to considered one of Shostakovich’s tough-minded marches and to tart dissonances because it develops.
Ma and Stott caught these emotional hooks deftly, the transitions occurring with a naturalness that sneaked up on a listener, because the composer had supposed. Stott matched Ma’s means to toss off the music with impeccable virtuosity, regardless of how difficult the execution, making all of it really feel natural.
After the intermission got here Pärt’s ‘Spiegel im Spiegel’, in its authentic string soloist-and-piano model. Like his trendsetting ‘Fratres’, which debuted a 12 months earlier than, this experiment in early minimalism was distinctive for its ethereal points. The mirrors within the title apply to the whole-note solo line, which fits up the size towards a easy, broken-chord accompaniment, solely to descend on completely different notes as if on reflection. It is a high quality instance of what made Pärt’s items magical for many people.
Photographs of Earth and outer area, taken by the Hubbell and Webb telescopes and projected on a display above the gamers, added an additional dimension. Stott had launched the piece as a ‘second of peace’ after the energetic Shostakovich sonata. And certainly it was. Refined modifications in dynamics and tone from each musicians added depth to the music.
This system concluded with César Franck and the showy Violin Sonata in A significant. Franck himself sanctioned a model for cello credited to cellist Jules Delsart, a recent of Franck’s, however Ma performed from the violin rating. Written for Eugene Ysaÿe, the piece doesn’t lack for technical challenges for violinists, and Ma’s accuracy on the high of the cello’s vary made the music really feel completely pure. Every return of the primary themes – which pop up many times by all 4 actions – managed to be concurrently acquainted and recent. Better of all, the wandering momentum modifications got here collectively step by step over the piece’s thirty minutes, gathering the music right into a rousing finale.
The 2 encores appeared to be spontaneous since Ma didn’t have the music and needed to slide his chair nearer to Stott’s bench to learn over her shoulder. They began with a heartfelt and idiomatic traversal of Ernest Bloch’s ‘Prayer’ from the suite ‘From Jewish Life’, which the duo recorded on their current album, Songs of Consolation. After that soulful second got here a dazzler, the Brazilian pianist and composer Cesar Camargo Mariano’s ‘Cristal’. If the steadiness between the 2 musicians muddied the cello’s melodic line every now and then, the sheer vitality was sufficient to ship the viewers out into the cool San Francisco night smiling.
Harvey Steiman
