The Catskill Chronicle

Review by Barry Plaxen

SHANDELEE, NY (August 14, 2014) – Two faces familiar to past Shandelee Music Festival audiences, pianist Cullen Bryant (photo bottom right) and cellist David Requiro, took the stage on August 13, 2014 in the Sunset Pavilion with Festival newcomer, cellist Meta Weiss. Their program, however, was not a mixture of the familiar and the new. On first glance, the forthcoming program was totally unfamiliar. But then, who among us can roll off our tongues the titles of pieces written for cello duet and piano.

The remarkable musicians thrilled the audience with a highly varied and anything but heterogeneous selection of works for two cellos, covering a span of five centuries, including three contemporary works.

The first of these was composed by a mutual friend of the cellists, Jean-Paul Bottemanne (b.1964), “A due celli” which was a “dialogue in musical language.” The short piece had extremely innovative sounds emanating from the instruments. Unique in its language, it was easy to see that the newness of its “spiky and ethereal” composition was appreciated by Weiss and Requrio.

The second contemporary work, “fake it til ya make it” by Matthew Bridgham (b.1989) continued in the dialogue between-two-cellists vein, but this work contained not only brief spiky momentary verbiage as in the first work heard, but longer phrases – sentences, if you will. And some very new and interesting sounds.

The evening actually started with an unfamiliar work, but within a familiar milieu: Vivaldi (1678-1741). Of course, if you had time to think, it would come as no surprise that he wrote concertos for two cellos. Later, in the middle of the first half of the concert, we heard another Baroque piece, a sonata for two cellos by an unfamiliar composer, Jean-Baptiste Barriere (1707-1747). Not as vibrant or inventive as Vivaldi’s piece, the work offered a glimpse into the exploration of the technical challenges the cello is capable of, with back and forth segments divided equally for the two cellists. It is only now that I write and try to conjure up what I heard last night re: this work and Vivaldi’s, that I realize that any work for two cellos MUST be a dialogue between the musicians. Barriere was as gifted as Vivaldi in having his musicians share equally in the expressing of his back and forth dialogue.

And as we listened to Barriere’s very simple musical ideas, we could really take note of the variety of expression by the two cellists. Different tones from two different instruments, different affects and effects from two different physical touches and two different sensibilities. Each repeated phrase as they “chatted” was fully and easily expressed with subtly different nuances simply because they were two different people.

The first half of the evening ended, again, in familiar territory with an unfamiliar work, Paganini’s (1782-1840) “Variations on One String” on a theme from Rossini’s “Moses.” Originally adapted by Paganini for the violin, the great cellist Pierre Fournier re-transcribed it for cello. As expected, it was both lyrical and virtuostic, and seemed extremely difficult, as we heard a tiny, tiny bit of not right-on high register notes. All in all, it was a show-off piece, just as Pagainini’s other works are, and belying the title – it was (I think) played on one string, yes, BUT one string on two cellos.

The second half of the program contained three surprises. Three delights. Three reasons to sit through that half another time. And another.

Though credited to Shostakovich (1906-1975), his “Pieces for Two Cellos and Piano” are actually adaptations of adaptations: themes from his early films scores, a ballet suite and a play, first arranged for two violins and later re-set for two cellos. The surprise, especially for this Shostakovich lover, was not so much the simplicity of the composition or the exquisitely beautiful and consonant lyrical quality, but the deep passion a genius inherently incorporates into music that, on the surface, seems to align with Offenbach or Johann Strauss, Jr., yet moves its audience to tears. Kudos to Lev Atovmian (1901-1973) who is credited with doing the adaptation.

Enhancing the effects of Shostakovich’s music, we were still, in a way, moving upward emotionally as we listened to Jan Radzynski’s (b.1950) “Five Duets for Two Cellos.” It was written by the composer as a birthday present for another composer, Andre Hajdu (b.1932), who was a student of Kodaly, Milhaud and Messaien, and BOY! did it show – in Radzynski’s gifts, his literal gift to Hajdu and his figurative gift of musical talent. Unlike the first two simpler and cerebral contemporary works we heard earlier, Radzynski’s music had rhythms and fabric like Kodaly, melodies and character like Milhaud, passion and texture like Messaien and, most wonderfully, musical architecture like all three had, with structure, with an “arc” of movement from beginning to middle to end.

Then the third surprise – a coda for the evening as we took a trip to 1973, the year Gian-Carlo Menotti composed his “Suite for Two Cellos and Piano,” a time when music grounded in melody was not in vogue. Pity. The first three movements of the suite soared with tuneful ideas and their exposition, culminating in a not-as-soaring last movement “concluding the felicitous confection.”

Though I have expounded on the merits of the program, I don’t mean to minimalize the contributions of the three musicians. I have always held that both Bryant and Requiro have that wonderful knack of bringing forth the intentions of composers, and Weiss also has that attribute. As diverse and fascinating as the program was, without their technical capabilities, personas and talents it would not have also been deeply moving.

The superb concerts continue at Shandelee with another Young Artist solo pianist (Anna Han) on August 16 at 3:00 p.m. and a piano trio (Hermitage Piano Trio) on August 19 at 7:00 p.m. www.shandelee.org and 845-439-3277.