CONCERT REVIEW: Trio triumphs with Mendelssohn at Mahaiwe

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS WITH MUSIC
Celebrating Mendelssohn-
and Discovering Eduard Franck I
Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center
Great Barrington, Mass.
Saturday, February 21, 2009

Review by Seth Rogovoy

(GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass.) -- Last Saturday night, the Close Encounters With Music chamber music series paid tribute to Felix Mendelssohn just weeks after the bicentennial of his birth with a concert featuring works by Mendelssohn and others in his circle, including his protégé Eduard Franck. The program was Close Encounters at its best – with a clearly defined theme and, in this case, well chosen selections that built upon each other individually and added up to a whole that was greater than the sum of its parts.

The Franck piece, Piano Trio, Op. 22, being given its American premiere, was an early number by the junior composer that revealed a youthful, vibrant personality, full of brash wit and complexity, sort of a Mozart one hundred years on.

Chopin’s Sonata for Cello and Piano gave pianist James Tocco his moment in the spotlight, while Fanny Mendelssohn’s Three Romances for Violin and Piano was a showcase for violinist Shmuel Ashkenazy, who played with remarkable agility and delicacy, in stark contrast to looking like a guy who could walk off the stage and onto the set of The Sopranos.

All of these elements came together in the final number, Felix Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio No. 2, Op. 66. The composer’s genius came through vividly, as this modest work for trio was layered to achieve an orchestral effect, which was needed to capture the full extent of the musical narrative and the emotions it incorporated.

The players, including Close Encounters’ artistic director Yehuda Hanani on cello, threw themselves into the work with gusto, leaving the audience hungry for more, which they will get when the series revisits Mendelssohn and Franck in another performance included works by the two on May 30th, again at the Mahaiwe.

Editor-in-chief Seth Rogovoy is Berkshire Living's award-winning music critic.