United States Various: Tobias van der Pals (cellist), Pål Eide (piano). Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall, New York, 10.11.2022. (DS)
Glière – Con Moto in E Major from ‘Twelve Pieces’, Op.51 No.1
Glazunov – ‘Chant du menestrel’, Op.71
Leopold van der Pals – Sonata, Op.5a (world premiere)
Tchaikovsky – ‘Pezzo capriccioso’, Op.62
Rachmaninoff – Sonata in G minor, Op.19
As the times grew brief in New York City and temperatures plummeted to freezing, the necessity was excessive for the consolation so singularly present in intimate recitals of salon-reminiscent music. Fortunately, Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall is again in full swing with a roster of chamber music and solo choices. And with performers getting back from all corners of the globe, one could be wrapped within the pleasure of listening to repertoire past that of the native zeitgeist.
In early November, cellist Tobias van der Pals and pianist Pål Eide made the journey from Scandinavia to supply a fascinating efficiency of newly re-discovered works in addition to others hardly ever heard in live performance on this facet of the Atlantic. Even the items by composers standard within the United States – Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff – have been gems chosen from unfairly uncared for repertoire.
Van der Pals and Eide carried out the 2 opening brief items by Reinhold Glière and Alexander Galzunov with a welcoming tone and lightness of emotion that was completely paying homage to the fin de siècle interval. Van der Pals’s type is considered one of joyful power and charming, informal consolation, and the response of the New York viewers was ecstatic. The partnership with pianist Eide established a mix of unwavering mutual help with out sacrificing independence and married their sound right into a musical dialog that was interesting to listen to.
They carried out the lately unearthed Sonata in D minor by the cellist’s distant relative, Leopold van der Pals. Taking on the function of musical archeologist, van der Pals discovered the manuscript and re-worked it painstakingly right into a performance-level piece. It was initially written in exile throughout World War II at a time when many composers grew to become disconnected from colleagues and broader musical actions, and represented a frozen second in time – like a misplaced letter folded into extra broadly identified historic occasions. Van der Pals carried out the work with a ardour that expressed a love of household, residence, historical past and discovery. The sonata itself struck an exquisite tone between expressionist drama and hints of modernist construction – by no means abandoning fully acquainted tonalities but remaining hypnotically recent.
The cellist’s strategy to sound all through the live performance mirrored a dynamic relationship to the character of music. Through his actions and pleasantly unfiltered facial expressions, he embodied the moods that handed all through the works. Even throughout Tchaikovsky’s technically unforgiving ‘Pezzo capriccioso’, his smiles, sweeping gestures and unabashed modifications in vibrato have been matched to their goal. His considerate information and uncompromised love of the repertoire have been enthralling. Beside him, Eide’s clear rhythmic enjoying and fluid strategy to dynamics made for a super companion within the string sonata whereas showcasing the important function of the piano on this repertoire. They created an improvisational-like ease that remained constant all through, even in probably the most tough passages.
To conclude, they journeyed via Rachmaninoff’s 1901 Sonata for Cello and Piano with an exquisite mixture of expressive urgency and laid-back curiosity. They embraced, head on, every distinction in Rachmaninoff’s combination of the straightforward and the advanced, from the motif to the intensely melodic. And they didn’t hesitate to boldly body the bizarre dips and climaxes of the ultimate Allegro mosso motion with an efficient choice to spotlight the pauses that exist in Rachmaninoff’s composition, giving it a superb interpretation that prevented the standard (admittedly North American tendency) to play his works with syrupy, shallow nostalgia.
The recital efficiently transported listeners from the current second to the previous and onward to the unknown, stunning us at each flip. Van der Pals and Eide acquired a standing ovation and, with an power that confirmed no finish in sight, carried out their encores (a Glazunov Spanish Serenade and van der Pals’s Nach der Jagt) to a grateful and ebullient viewers.
Daniele Sahr