Some readers may recall that, about a week and a half ago, this site discussed Stella x Schubert, the debut album of both violinist Stella Chen and her accompanist, pianist Henry Kramer. It also observed that both of them would also be making their San Francisco debuts in a program presented by Chamber Music San Francisco (CMSF). That debut took place last night in Herbst Theatre; and all high expectations fostered by the expressiveness and insights that the duo brought to their recording were fulfilled in their performance of not only Schubert but also (in order of appearance) Claude Debussy, Edvard Greig, and Franz Waxman.
Their Schubert selection was the primary composition on their album, the D. 934 fantasy for violin and piano, which includes an extended set of variations on Schubert’s D. 741 “Sei mir gegrüßt” song. (Sadly, CMSF programs include only biographical material, meaning that no background material had been written to account for the music being performed. Thus, the impact of D. 741 on D. 934 was probably best appreciated by Schubert mavens and/or regular attendees of vocal recitals.) What struck me about last night’s performance was that, in spite of my having listened to this music on Stella x Schubert several times, both Chen and Kramer conveyed a sense of in-the-moment expressiveness, much of which was particularly evident in Chen’s phrasing of many of Schubert’s passages.
Schubert was the “grand old man” of the evening, since all of the other works on the program were composed after his death. The earliest of these was Grieg’s Opus 13 (second) violin sonata in G major, which was written in 1867. In spite of the major key, darkness overshadows much of this sonata. The Norwegian composer Gerhard Schjelderup even went so far as to assert that “a Norway without tragedy is not a complete Norway.” Fortunately, neither of the performers gave any signs of wallowing in those tragic qualities; but the performance never shortchanged any of Grieg’s darker qualities.
Darkness also prevailed over the opening selection, Claude Debussy’s only violin sonata, composed in the key of A major and completed in 1917, shortly before his death the following year. I feel very fortunate to have had any number of opportunities to listen to the three sonatas Debussy composed near the end of his life. (His plan had been to compose six.) I must confess that I was a bit concerned about Chen beginning her recital with music with such tragic connotations. However, her focus was on the music, rather than the context; and she and Kramer delivered an account whose rhetorical foundations seized my attention from the opening measure and maintained its grip all the way to the final cadence of the concluding movement.
The final selection was, on the other hand, “something completely different.” Waxman was one of the most inventive Hollywood composers for the better part of the twentieth century. The “Carmen Fantasie” was originally written for violin and orchestra as music for the 1946 movie Humoresque. It was meant to be played by Jascha Heifetz, but he was replaced by Isaac Stern. Nevertheless, Heifetz added it to his concert repertoire; and he recorded it with Donald Voorhees conducting the RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra in November of 1946. Last night Chen followed in Heifetz’ footsteps more than admirably, giving an absolutely dynamite account of the violin-and-piano arrangement that was subsequently published.
Arnold Genthe’s portrait photograph of Mischa Elman (from Wikimedia Commons, made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication)
Audience enthusiasm made it clear that an encore would be in order. Chen and Kramer concluded the evening with the final track on Stella x Schubert. This was Mischa Elman’s transcription of “Ständchen,” the fourth song in Schubert’s D. 957 Schwanengesang (swan song) collection. Elman was another major violinist of the twentieth century. He is not as well known as Heifetz and Stern, probably because his recorded legacy was much shorter; but he definitely made a substantive career, particularly after he moved to New York in 1914. His contribution to last night’s encore definitely deserves attention, and Chen and Kramer knew how to deliver that attention.
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