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| Emanuel Ax |
We
each have our places of solitude where perhaps we listen to our
favourite music or better yet actually get to play some of it with
our friends.
I
got a call from a friend in New York who had just heard Emanuel Ax
play in an all Mozart program with the Philharmonic led by Alan
Gilbert. Years ago, in another age, I got to hear Emanuel Ax play a
Mozart concerto live, and yes, there really is nothing like hearing
it live, and all the words like “inevitable” or “natural” or
anything implying that he makes it sound as if the music should “flow
like oil” (Mozart's own words) certainly fit his playing as they
apply to few others of his generation.
Another
of our favourites is the cellist Yo-Yo Ma. We heard him play at
Tanglewood a few years back and after the concert saw him attend to his adoring public and sign autographs with what seemed like
infinite patience and graciousness rarely seen these days.
I'd
like then to suggest having a listen to the two of them play this
exquisite masterpiece by Franz Schubert (1797-1828), a Sonata (D.
821) he wrote in November of 1824 in Vienna. The original was
written not for a violincello but a bowed guitar called an Arpeggione
and piano accompaniment.
What's
particularly instructive about this performance is the spaces between
notes and the way the music is carried along by using the sustain of
each instrument in a close match of careful inter-layered textures.
This is intimate classical chamber playing at it's very best. Even
when the music likes a faster tempo with lighter figurations, the
sustains between the instruments hold everything together in a
coziness that is rarely felt and experienced as well as this. Those
who perhaps regard all modern interpretations as lacking what the old
masters of perhaps the early 20th century could do, should
certainly listen to this; not only is Ax the consummate accompanist,
but Yo-Yo's tone is often so supple as to take your breath away. This
sonata is in 3 movements:
1.
Allegro moderato in a minor
[PART 2]2. Adagio in E major
3.
Allegretto in A major
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| Yo-Yo Ma |
FINIS
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