Bruce Hodges visits Philadelphia’s Perelman Theater on 8 November 2024 for the performance of Kurtág, Beethoven and Schumann
Coming three days after the Presidential election in the US, when emotions were running high, this programme had no doubt been chosen long ago. But the outcome not only mirrored the mood but also provided a modicum of comfort and distraction.
Four stellar musicians deployed ethereal statements by György Kurtág as prefaces, framing more familiar works in a fresh context. To open, Mitsuko Uchida offered Kurtág’s brief ‘Play with infinity’ (from Játékok III), scarcely a minute in length. Its skeletal sparseness cast a long shadow over the rest of the evening and made an unusual bridge to Beethoven’s Piano Trio in E flat major op.70 no.2, with violinist Stephanie Zyzak and cellist Oliver Herbert echoing Kurtág’s quietude.
The tonal beauty of both players deserves mention: Zyzak’s instrument is from 1778, by Giuseppe and Antonio Gagliano, while Herbert plays on a Guadagnini cello that belonged to the great Italian cellist Antonio Janigro, lent by the Janigro family.
After the interval, violist Beth Guterman Chu joined Zyzak and Herbert for four selections from Kurtág’s Signs, Games and Messages, again with a pale, ghostly opening. This time, the prologue tiptoed into Schumann’s Piano Quartet, with its prayer-like beginning. Among many delights, it would be hard not to see the third movement, marked Andante cantabile, as a highlight, with all four players striving to outdo each other in delicacy and restraint.
BRUCE HODGES
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