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Two concert artists with impressive international performing, teaching, and recording credentials paid a visit to Southampton’s Rogers Memorial Library last Sunday, to present an extraordinary recital before a capacity audience.
Cellist Antonio Lysy and pianist-conductor Neal Stulberg, both faculty members at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA), had just performed at the Swiss Embassy in Washington, D.C., in a concert commemorating the 50th anniversary of the death of Swiss-born composer Ernest Bloch.
A visit with friends and family in the Hamptons, and the support of the Friends of the Library organization gave local music lovers a welcome opportunity to hear and meet these two renowned musicians.
Program choices ranged from Beethoven to Piazzolla, including works by Bloch as well as the Argentinean composers Alberto Ginastera and Osvaldo Golijov.
The concert opened with Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Variations from Mozart’s The Magic Flute in E Flat Major,” a duet for cello and piano based on a popular aria from the opera. In lieu of written program notes, the performers took turns introducing the musical selections. “Did Beethoven write this as a commission from a duke … or did he perhaps think he could do better [than the original composer] ?” Mr. Lysy whimsically asked the audience, as he explained that his “role” would be Papageno. Mr. Stulberg, at the piano, graciously bowed as the interpreter of “Papagena.”
Lighthearted as the work is, Mr. Lysy and Mr. Stulberg performed it with great involvement and technical seriousness. Mr. Lysy’s deep cello tone richly complemented Mr. Stulberg’s brilliant, playful piano passages. With the cellist seated facing the audience, and the pianist facing the keyboard at a right angle, little eye contact was possible for the performers. Yet, the interplay between Mozart’s lovers was perfectly portrayed; the music augmented by small physical gestures—a quick, over-the-shoulder smile, an expressive flourish of hands.
Mr. Stulberg next introduced the first of two works by Ernest Bloch (1880-1959) on the program, a 1923 composition for solo piano titled “Nirvana.” The work does not have Bloch’s “Jewish accent,” Mr. Stulberg remarked. In fact it is so atypical that one “would never guess” its composer.
“Nirvana,” according to the composer’s notes, is meant to depict a state “without desire, without fear … peace.” As played by Mr. Stulberg, the work evoked a meditative calm—somber chords in the left hand, high notes that could be temple bells in the right—an impressionistic, tone-poem aura reminiscent of Debussy.
The much better-known work by Bloch, played later in the program, was “Prayer, from ‘Jewish Life Suite’” for cello and piano. Mr. Lysy and Mr. Stulberg performed this beautiful piece in all its moving splendor. Again, Mr. Lysy’s lyrical cello and Mr. Stulberg’s piano were in perfect accord, soaring with the haunting melodies, bringing out the stately gravity of the main theme.
Of the three Argentinean composers on the program, Osvaldo Noé Golijov, born in 1960, is the most contemporary. His “Omaramor” for solo cello is based on “My Beloved Buenos Aires,” a melody by the revered tango singer Carlos Gardel. Mr. Lysy tuned his cello a semi-tone lower to perform this somewhat edgy work, full of melancholy sliding notes and odd harmonies reminiscent of the essential accordion-like instrument of all tango orchestras, the bandoneon.
Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983) whom Mr. Lysy described as “the Copland of Argentina,” was represented by “Pampeana No. 2.” As Aaron Copland did for the American countryside, Ginastera painted his native landscape and folklore in music.
In this duet, Mr. Stulberg’s piano and Mr. Lysy’s cello traveled through a panorama of vast open skies, empty plains, wild horses, and gauchos riding after them. The musicians’ energetic virtuosity, combined with lively body language during the fast and furious “chase music” passages, brought gasps and whoops from the audience even before the piece was finished. It was a fitting tribute to the artists, and a refreshing limbering-up of the usually all-too-solemn classical music audience.
Ástor Piazzolla’s “Le Grand Tango” concluded the concert. Piazzolla, who lived from 1921 to 1992, was a student of Nadia Boulanger, who recognized his unique “voice” and encouraged him to forge ahead in his own, nontraditional style, instead of trying to emulate traditional composers. In line with the current resurgence of interest in ballroom dancing, his music is popular in recordings and performance. Nonetheless, even highly accomplished ballroom dancers find it so difficult to fit steps to it that Piazzolla has been accused of “killing” the traditional tango.
“Le Grand Tango,” presented in fine form by Mr. Lysy and Mr. Stulberg, is dissonant and demanding in the extreme. Melody and embellishment alternate between piano and cello as the piece builds from slow and sultry to a fast and challenging finale—a duet that is more like a duel.
One can imagine a “tango ballet” choreographed to this music. It would highlight a few passages of gliding elegance, and a lot of testosterone-fueled exhibitionism, the ultimate machismo contest. When the performers reached their fiery ending, the audience erupted in applause, bravos, and cries of “more, more!”
Mr. Stulberg and Mr. Lysy obliged with a short encore, “Supplication,’ by Ernest Bloch.
A concert by artists of this stature is a gift. Mr. Lysy has appeared as a soloist with orchestras all over the world—a list too long to repeat here. He is also the director of a prestigious chamber music festival in Tuscany, and has recorded extensively for CBC and BBC Radio, and for the Claves and Pelléas labels, among others. His teaching career has included positions at McGill University in Montreal, and the International Menuhin Music Academy in Switzerland.
Mr. Stulberg’s dual career as a pianist and conductor encompasses frequent engagements in Europe, Asia, Israel and Russia, as well as the United States. His performances of Mozart concertos conducted from the keyboard are praised for their buoyant virtuosity. He has given numerous premieres of works by contemporary composers, and has recorded for West German Radio and the Composers Voice label.
The Rogers Memorial Library, through its “Friends” organization, consistently brings superb cultural programs to the community, for which multiple bravos and thanks are due. For support of Sunday’s concert, many thanks go to Elizabeth Wright and David Beier of Southampton.
on Apr 21, 2009