Great Barrington — A band of outlaws showed up at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center on Saturday, June 11, to wrap up the year’s Close Encounters with Music (CEWM) series. Representing these bad boys onstage were pianist Michael Chertock, violinist Yehonatan Berick, cellist and CEWM Artistic Director Yehuda Hanani, with comedienne and author Alison Larkin delivering a funny and engaging pre-concert talk.
“Music That Shook the World!” featured works by six composers whose revolt against tradition scandalized concertgoers and forever changed the way we think about classical music.
There’s no better example of such a work than Igor Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring,” a composition Leonard Bernstein called “the most important piece of music of the 20th century.” The scene of its tumultuous 1913 premier comes vividly to life in the BBC documentary “Riot at the Rite,” a clip of which set the stage perfectly for Saturday evening’s program.
Although “The Rite of Spring” is one of the most recorded works in the classical repertoire, it is rarely presented as a fully staged ballet but has nevertheless existed in a state of perpetual renaissance since the 1920s, when new choreography gave the piece a fresh lease on life.
Pianist Michael Chertock plays “The Rite of Spring” with two hands. Perfectly. (He used Sam Raphling’s arrangement on Saturday.) Any piano arrangement of this piece is likely to be good in some respects and not so good in others. Not so good are the murky textures that result from packing together all the notes in Stravinsky’s densest low-register harmonies. Stravinsky aficionados are accustomed to hearing every note in every chord in every register when a variety of orchestral instruments play them. What’s best about a solo piano arrangement is that it transports you to the Paris rehearsal rooms where pianists in 1913 pounded out Stravinsky’s score for bewildered dancers who were trying to make sense of the ballet for the very first time. (Such moments are well illustrated in the BBC documentary.)
Also appearing as a movie clip, George Antheil’s “Ballet Mécanique” is scored for electric buzzer, three different-sized airplane propellers, two electric bells, xylophone, 16 player pianos, timpani, glockenspiel, and an assortment of other percussion instruments. A delightfully cacophonous mélange of pounding rhythms, deranged melodic lines, and percussive color, “Ballet Mécanique” is important not only as a piece of music in its own right but also as a link to Antheil’s pioneering film music. (He wrote over 30 film scores.)
Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 8, Op. 30 No. 3 may sound almost conventional by modern standards, but at the time of the sonata’s publication in 1803, Beethoven had hardly begun to push the limits of form and harmony that Haydn and Mozart had employed so masterfully during the latter part of the 18th century. But a new master had arrived in Vienna, and by now the young composer had developed a habit of ignoring old rules and making up new ones. Yes, he continued to employ traditional forms, but he would soon reinvent them, and by the time of his late compositional period Beethoven had altogether surpassed his peers. Henceforth, he occupied a musical world of his own.
Chertock’s and Berick’s performance of Violin Sonata No. 8 was precise and exquisitely nuanced. They were clearly comfortable with the piece, and the crowd loved it.
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, few composers had a greater influence on other composers than Claude Debussy. In his pre-concert talk, Mr. Hanani pointed out that Debussy almost single-handedly ended the Germans’ centuries-old dominance over the world of classical music. Chertock and Hanani delivered a richly evocative performance of Debussy’s brief but popular Sonata for Cello and Piano, striking a pleasing balance between spontaneity and precise ensemble. Saturday’s audience responded enthusiastically to this 10-minute performance and no doubt would have loved to hear an immediate encore of it. Debussy’s sonata goes by quickly, but he is capable of saying in 10 minutes what other composers say in 20.
Having given the New York premiere of Olivier Messiaen’s momentous “Quartet for the End of Time,” Yehuda Hanani was the perfect choice of cellists to perform the piece’s fifth movement, “Louange à l’Éternité de Jésus,” on Saturday. Mr. Hanani practically owns this piece, and he performed it Saturday with all the confidence and authority one would expect.
The show closed with Paul Schoenfield’s frequently performed “Café Music” for violin, cello, and piano. For this piece, commissioned in 1986 by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Schoenfield drew inspiration from his stint as house pianist at Murray’s steakhouse in Minneapolis. Chertock, Berick, and Hanani were obviously at home with it, especially Berick, who made it sound like the only style of music he ever plays.
Saturday’s concert made for a strong finish in the 24th Close Encounters with Music series, and the Mahaiwe crowd cheered at mention of the fall schedule.
