Classical Review: Midwinter Night’s Dream
By URY EPPSTEIN
01/01/2013 21:07
Joost makes the cello sing with a rich, full and warm tone, but also makes it sound pensive, lyrical, dramatic and intensely emotional.
Piano Photo: Wikicommons
A duo recital of cellist Ina Joost and pianist Allan Sternfield is a musical
event so rare it borders on the sensational.
Entitled Midwinter Night’s
Dream, it presented Mendelssohn’s non- Summernight’s Variations
Concertantes.
Although mostly Romantic, except for Debussy’s Sonata, the
program featured a work by a stil-lon- these-shores but little-known composer –
Miaskovsky, a Russian whose style is not identifiably Russian.
His Sonata
opens with a melodious, meditative movement, followed by an attractively
agitated one. It was played with noticeable self-identification on the part of
the artists.
Joost makes the cello sing with a rich, full and warm tone,
but also makes it sound pensive, lyrical, dramatic and intensely emotional,
though never sentimental or exaggerated, all according to what a work requires.
Her sincere- sounding expressiveness injected vibrancy into the conclusion of
Debussy’s Sonata, without getting trapped by the common cliche of
impressionistic nebulousness. These captivating characteristics made Brahms’
Sonata a gripping artistic experience such as one is seldom privileged to
hear.
Sternfield was a full-fledged musical partner, displaying utmost
attentiveness and sensitivity. His impressive musical personality contributed
his own profound interpretation of the works persuasively, yet without ever
becoming domineering.
To sum up, this duo recital radiated the intimacy
and artistic sincerity that the term “chamber music” stands for.