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PREVIEW: Christine Lee, Cathy Basrak, Jenny Ahn perform Reger and Beethoven, Sunday, Mar. 2

"We look back, knowing his style, and we try to capture the sound Beethoven would have had in mind as a young man. We just try to guess," BSO cellist Christine Lee told The Berkshire Edge.

Lenox — Three members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra will perform a program of trios by Reger and Beethoven on Sunday, February 2, 3 p.m., at Tanglewood’s Linde Center for Music and Learning.

The musicians performing will be:

BSO violinist Jenny Ahn. Photo courtesy of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

The program for Sunday is as follows:

  • Max Reger — Trio No. 1 in A minor, Op. 77b
  • Ludwig van Beethoven — Trio in D, Op. 9, No. 2
BSO violist Cathy Basrak. Photo courtesy of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Cellist Christine Lee joined the BSO in 2023, having released her inaugural album, “Voyage,” in 2021. I spoke with Christine last week by telephone to get her take on Sunday’s all-trio repertoire. Our conversation has been edited for clarity and length.

EDGE
What do you think of Max Reger’s music?

LEE
I am not so familiar with Max Reager, to be completely honest. But I learned one of his cello suites when I was little, and I’ve sort of gone back to the piece here and there but never performed it in public. I find his music challenging, because it doesn’t speak to me on an instinctive level. I think it is very cerebral. In the trio, there are a lot of sequences and patterns, and it feels very much like a study, because there’s a lot of double stops.

EDGE
So it’s like an etude?

LEE
Yes. Violists are very familiar with Reger as a composer. So Cathy [Basrak] and I both had a similar reaction, because there are multiple voices going on at the same time. It becomes quite rich. And that’s something I wouldn’t necessarily have noticed were I playing by myself. Reger’s music is seldom heard, so we have an important responsibility to champion such works and challenge ourselves.

EDGE
On to Beethoven. His Trio in D, like much of his early work, is strongly reminiscent of Haydn and Mozart. Yet we get hints of the young composer’s future maturity.

LEE
Absolutely.

EDGE
Can you talk about those hints, how you experience them and how obvious or subtle they are?

LEE
That’s a really great question and spot on. It’s especially meaningful for us to be playing the Beethoven now, because the orchestra has just reached the end of the symphony cycle. We’ve had this journey of hearing the early to late style and how his voice really developed.

But the Trio in D is, I think, even earlier. So, as you mentioned, it’s a lot like Haydn or Mozart. And in rehearsals, to give you an example, we speak of subito dynamics, which became Beethoven’s thing more in his middle to late works. So we look back, knowing his style, and we try to capture the sound Beethoven would have had in mind as a young man. We just try to guess. And if we were to play his early work the way we play his middle-to-late work, with the subito dynamics, it really wouldn’t sound organic.

We decided that when we hear this first simple melody, then we want to play it as an homage to Haydn. But when it returns in the development section, why don’t we sort of introduce Beethoven—the Beethoven that we know in his middle and late period? He was on a constant journey to connect with himself and discover himself. And we’re hoping that comes across.

* * *

Hear members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra perform a program of Reger and Beethoven at 3 p.m. on Sunday, February 2, at Tanglewood’s Linde Center for Music and Learning, Lenox/Stockbridge.

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