Above: clarinet virtuoso David Shifrin
Tuesday November 19th, 2013 - A delightful programme of music celebrating the clarinet was featured at Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. The Society gathered a distinctive ensemble of artists tonight, among them one of my favorite singers, mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke. This week I have the pleasure of experiencing Sasha's artistry twice, for she follows up tonight's chamber evening with performances of Britten's Spring Symphony with the New York Philharmonic.
The Society's Wu Han greeted us with irrepressible, energetic charm; she explained that she had left the evening's programming up to Mr. Shifrin and then turned the stage over to the musicians. A packed house seemed eager to hear everything that was offered: again, CMS is the place to be for serious music-lovers.
The evening commenced with an unusual Mozart adagio for two clarinets and three basset horns (K. 411) which the composer purportedly arranged as a sort of entree for the members of the Masonic lodge which he had joined in 1784. The piece is brief, with organ-like sonorities.
Above: Sasha Cooke, photo by Rikki Cooke
In the splendid aria "Parto, parto..." from Mozart's penultimate opera, LA CLEMENZA DI TITO, Sasha Cooke's timbre seems to have taken on an added richness since I last heard her. The singer's expressive qualities were, as ever, to the fore, and the power and beauty of her interpretation made me long to hear her at The Met again where lesser artists hold forth in roles that would suit Ms. Cooke to perfection. Be that as it may, her singing of the aria tonight, graced by Mr. Shifrin's polished roulades, was a thoroughly engrossing musico-dramatic experience. The Opus One Piano Quartet's first-rate playing of this chamber arrangement was an ideal compliment to the singer and clarinetist.
Leaping forward from the 18th century to the 21st, Sasha Cooke displayed her versatility in the New York premiere performance of Lowell Liebermann's Four Seasons. In setting poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay, the composer seems to me to have crafted a contemporary masterpiece: his highly evocative, coloristic writing summons visions of the changing seasons with spine-tingling textures. There are several remarkable passages - the transition from Spring to Summer was especially marvelous - and the composer set The Death of Autumn twice, with the singer's poetic response to the text varying in mood between the two. A chilly misterioso motif depicts swirls of snowflakes at the singer intones the beautiful 'What lips my lips have kissed' and the work closes with the poignant recollection of lost love: 'But you were something more than young and sweet and fair - and the long year remenbers you'.
Sasha Cooke, with her gift for communicating not just words but emotions, gave a sublime performance of this fascinating new work; Mr. Shifrin and the musicians of Opus One - Anne-Marie McDermott, Ida Kavafian, Steven Tenenbom and Peter Wiley - produced a glowing soundscape in which the voice was heard in all its affecting radiance.
Following the intermission, Stravinsky's Berceuses du chat were performed by Ms. Cooke and three clarinetists: Mr. Shifrin, Romie De Guise-Langlois, and Ashley William Smith. These wryly charming lullabies were sung with soulful 'Russian' tone by the delightful Sasha.
The evening's second New York premiere, Christopher Theofanidis' Quasi una fantasia is dedicated to Mr. Shifrin and was performed by him and fellow-clarinetist Chad Burrow, with the Opus One Quartet. Facing one another, the two clarinets engage in a musical conversation and sometimes blend in duet; the ensemble provide commentary and pulsing rhythmic motifs.
Sasha Cooke's lovely rendering of four contrasting Mendelssohn lieder - accompanied by Ms. McDermott - was followed by the composer's melodious Concertpiece No. #1 which was lovingly played by Mr. Shifrin with Mlles. De Guise-Langlois (on Basset horn) and McDermott at the Steinway.
A rarity, Ponchielli's Il Convegno (The Meeting), which featured Mr. Shifrin and Miss De Guise-Langlois in a gentle virtuoso dialogue backed by the ensemble, ended the evening. All was well - and beautifully played, of course - though I did feel that the Mendelssohn and Ponchielli were too similar in mood to be played back-to-back. I think interjecting the Stravinsky songs after the Mendelssohn Concertpiece might have set the two ensemble pieces in higher relief.
The Program:
- Mozart Adagio in B-flat major for Two Clarinets and Three Basset Horns, K. 411 (1782)
- Mozart “Parto! Ma tu ben mio” from La clemenza di Tito, K. 621 for Mezzo-Soprano, Clarinet, and Piano Quartet (1791)
- Liebermann Four Seasons for Mezzo-Soprano, Clarinet, and Piano Quartet (2013) (New York Premiere)
- Stravinsky Berceuses du chat (Cat’s Cradle Songs) for Voice and Three Clarinets (1915)
- Theofanidis Quasi Una Fantasia for Two Clarinets and String Quartet (2013) (New York Premiere)
- Mendelssohn Concertpiece No. 1 in F minor for Clarinet, Basset Horn, and Piano, Op. 113 (1832)
- Mendelssohn Selected Songs for Mezzo-Soprano and Piano
- Ponchielli Il Convegno (The Meeting), Divertimento for Two Clarinets and Strings (1868)
The Artists:
- Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano
- Opus One Piano Quartet, piano quartet
- Bella Hristova, violin
- Kurt Muroki, double bass
- Chad Burrow, clarinet
- Romie de Guise-Langlois, clarinet
- Wai Lau, clarinet
- David Shifrin, clarinet
- Ashley William Smith, clarinet