RECORDINGS IN REVIEW: YOUNG MUSICIANS
2013; Wiley; Volume: 101; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/tyr.2013.0053
ISSN1467-9736
Autores Tópico(s)Diverse Music Education Insights
Resumo1 8 7 R R E C O R D I N G S I N R E V I E W J A Y N O R D L I N G E R The term ‘‘young musician’’ is a relative one. What’s young for a singer or conductor may not be so young for a pianist or violinist. Evgeny Kissin was a pianist to reckon with when he was twelve. Hilary Hahn was a formidable Bach violinist when she was seventeen . Conductors blossom when they’re about seventy. (I exaggerate just a bit.) Lorin Maazel, as his bio says, ‘‘conducted most of the major American orchestras’’ between ‘‘the ages of nine and fifteen .’’ That is most rare. Speaking of bios, these tend to give a musician’s age when he is impressively young and impressively not. So at the beginning of his career, John Smith’s bio will read, ‘‘Not yet twenty-five, Mr. Smith has already . . .’’ Near the end of his career, it might say, ‘‘Now in his mid-eighties, Mr. Smith is still . . .’’ But in between, silence, where the subject of age is concerned. In the following pages, I will look at recent recordings from musicians we may regard as young – or ‘‘emerging,’’ we might say: two violinists, three pianists, and a conductor. Ray Chen is a violinist who was born in Taiwan in 1989. As near as I can tell, he did most of his growing up in Australia, and studied at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. He has now recorded the Tchaikovsky and Mendelssohn concertos with the Swedish Radio 1 8 8 N O R D L I N G E R Y Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Daniel Harding (Sony Classical , B005UKH7F6). ‘‘I’ve got a right to sing the blues,’’ sang Eileen Farrell. By the same token, a violinist has a right to record the Tchaikovsky and Mendelssohn concertos – to have his say in them. Do we have too many recordings of these concertos? Well, they come and go, with a core remaining in the catalogue. Chen plays the two concertos out of chronological order, beginning with the Tchaikovsky. Like everyone else, he makes choices regarding portamento, rubato, and so on. You or I might not agree with those choices – but for the most part they are musically defensible. Chen pays special attention to rhythm. Maybe too special an attention. The temptation in a familiar work such as the Tchaikovsky is to be di√erent for di√erence’s sake. Rostropovich played the Dvořák Cello Concerto all his life, and toward the end of that life, I think, he made it all too di√erent – perhaps trying to keep himself interested. In any event, Chen leaves his mark on Tchaikovsky’s first movement, and the orchestra around him is superb: lovely, fresh, and exciting. No one has told them that this concerto is supposed to be old hat. In the second movement, which Tchaikovsky calls a Canzonetta, Chen puts on some exemplary phrasing. And the orchestra’s woodwinds put on some exemplary warmth. The music becomes a little slow, in my opinion, sneaking from the given Andante into an Adagio. Also, Chen favors little stutters and hesitations that strike me as unwise. In the Finale, he favors a detached style, as opposed to legato, as he does elsewhere in the concerto. This is one of those choices I was speaking about. Chen also does some stopping and starting, which is di√erent from normal tempo fluctuations. Regardless, he catches the playfulness of this music, and its ‘‘ethnic’’ nature, too. His rendition of the Finale is as ethnic, or folkish, as you’re likely to hear. The Mendelssohn concerto? In this work, the soloist needs to be liquid, and Chen has an adequate amount of that quality. The cadenza in the first movement is wonderful, like a brief voyage of musical discovery. And the tension that Chen and his partners work up in the remainder of the movement is terrific. The middle movement, Andante – Mendelssohn’s own Canzonetta, if you will – is an achievement. From Chen et al., it is dear and lovely without being precious or sentimental. And the last...
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