Spaulding
Classical
Leila Josefowicz – Violin
A very nice concert at Spaulding auditorium, which I enjoyed from the center of the second row. The show was not well attended – maybe only two thirds full. It started off with a Brahms piece, and then a Schumann sonata. After intermission, a sequence of 6 short movements by de Falla. Then a strange but blessedly short modern piece by Kurtag. The last piece, my favourite, was the Beethoven Sonata #8. I didn’t recognize the opus number, but I did recognize the music, which I have listened to many, many times. This is such a beautiful piece – I never get tired of it – and it brought tears to my eyes yet again.
With an ovation, she played “Smile” (by Charlie Chaplin) as an encore with long high sliding bow strokes – very striking.
Shortly after the concert, she and accompanist Pedja Muzijevic returned for an audience question and answer, a nice feature that often happens at the Hop. She mentioned that she had an 8-month old son, who was at the concert with his grandmother (and indeed I saw them with the stroller taking the hallway back to the Hanover Inn). So she has a bit of a challenging schedule. Although her son has heard a lot of music already, apparently he has a fear of concert halls, and burst into tears when she started playing a Zimmermann concerto.
This is also the first performance with her accompanist. He is from Bosnia, and started piano at age 9, which he characterized as being rather late.
It may also have been the first performance with her violin. After asking the audience about how old we thought her violin is, and hearing numbers from 50 to 200 years, she surprised us by saying only 2 weeks old. She has been trying a lot, and finally found this new one that she likes from a maker in Brooklyn (Sematova?), I think.
In response to another question, she answered that she was forced into violin by her father, and she didn’t want to practice. That sounds familiar! But she has taken to it now. I learned from a fellow concertgoer that she premiered at Carnegie hall in 1994 at age 16, a child violin prodigy.
She now does a lot of new music, or music that is not often played, such as the Schumann piece. She commissions new music, from composers such as Luca Francesconi, Violin Concerto #2 from John Adams, and a new composer Sean Shepherd.
Leila Josefowicz Playbill
Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra
I quite enjoyed the Dartmouth Symphony on Saturday night. And I love the photo (at left) that they used to publicize the show.
In general this was a high caliber performance, and I feel lucky to have it so accessible. Students are in front in the orchestra, but there are a fair number of other professionals involved. For example, there were 3 students violists listed, but 8 playing, 4 students cellists with 8 playing, 1 student bassist but 3 playing. And I bet that these students aren’t music majors, but are all doing other stuff, and still finding time to practice 2 or 3 hours a day.
The first piece was a short and sweet piece for strings only by Tchaikovsky. It made a nice introduction to the concert.
The second item was a Cello Concerto by Shostakovich. The soloist was Bonnie Thron, who I had heard was a Hanover native, although this wasn’t in the program. She was a tall and striking woman, playing on a small platform facing the audience, providing a very good view of her playing. I particularly liked the first part of the 2nd movement, which was very lush. This was followed by a long solo cello cadenza. I am sure it was played well, and certainly it was interesting to watch her expressive technique, but the music really didn’t appeal to me.
After intermission, it was time for Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. It’s strange but I really have not heard this played very often in concert. Perhaps there is a fear that it is too much of a cliche or something, but it really is such a great piece of music. The dynamic contrast, starting right off, going from very loud to very soft, is something that is really spectacular when heard live. Also, the tempo was quite fast – faster than in the recordings I have.
This piece drew an ovation from the audience, as might be expected. The encore piece was a short Trepak from the Nutcracker Suite – lively and fun.