spring break? as if!

While the Classical Beaver makes it seem like we in the Oregon Symphony are doing keg stands, beer bongs, wet t-shirt competitions, and slathering sunscreen all over each other’s bodies during spring break, it’s often quite different for some of us. Yes, there are some lucky musicians who have scraped together the funds to head for a sunny clime for a much-deserved getaway. But for others there are obligations at home to take care of, and for others of us, like me, there are chances to perform out of town that otherwise would not be possible.

I’ve been in Philadelphia since last Wednesday, doing rehearsals to play on a my friend Timothy Schwarz’s faculty recital at Lehigh University (in Bethlehem, Pa.). We worked on Bohuslav Martinu’s Three Madrigals for Violin and Viola (1947), which are wonderful examples of virtuoso writing for two stringed instruments. At times, with the double-stops (playing on two strings at on time on one instrument) going on in both instruments, it almost seems like a string quartet is playing on stage! They are wonderful, character-filled pieces, and the show off both the violin and viola to great effect.

The recital was held in the 1500 seat Baker Hall of Lehigh University’s new and fantastic Voellner Arts Center complex. The Voellner Center is truly state of the art, has great acoustics, and would comfortably hold a major symphony orchestra on its capacious stage. In short, it was a magnificent place to play a recital!

The other guest artists on Timothy Schwarz’s recital were David Kim, concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra; Thomas Kraines, former member of the Peabody Trio and faculty member at Princeton University; Dominic Fiori, double bassist; and Paul Salerni, pianist, who is on the composition faculty of Lehigh University. It was a great group of players, and was great to hear them play with Tim in the course of his recital.

I was lucky in that the Martinu was the opening piece on the recital – I would play first, and then get to relax and hear my other colleagues perform. Waiting around sucks, and I was glad not to have to go through the waiting!

There was some pressure, however, as the first stand of violins from the Philadelphia Orchestra would be listening! David Kim played the Prokofiev Sonata for Two Violins with Tim right after the Martinu, so I knew he’d be lurking in the wings as we performed. And Tom Kraines’ wife is the Associate concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and she was in the audience. Yikes!

The performance, in short, was very fun, and seemed to go very well. That was a huge relief for the both of us, as we’d last done this piece together perhaps 20 years ago, while in school together at Peabody Conservatory. We just had a couple days to put it together, and with the house concert in Philadelphia the night before to work out the kinks, we were able to do a convincing performance.

If you’re interesting in hearing a recording of the Martinu, there is an excellent recording by Phillip Setzer and Larry Dutton of the Emerson String Quartet available.  [Amazon.com link] Martinu: Three Madrigals

After the Martinu, (the concert being a sequence of duos for various instruments and Tim’s violin) followed the Prokofiev Sonata for Two Violins. If you don’t know this piece, I highly recommend that you check it out. It is one of the most virtuosic pieces out there for violin duo, and it is also a very well composed piece, with all of the characteristic touches that we love in Prokofiev’s music. There’s a great recording by the two violinists of the Pavel Haas Quartet that I would highly recommend. [Amazon.com link] Prokofiev: Sonata for Two Violins

After intermission came the great Duo for Violin and Cello, Op. 7 by Zoltán Kodály. Written in 1917, this work is one of the great all-time works for string duo, and it covers virtually every aspect of the Hungarian musical vocabulary of the time. Like Bartók, Kodály was very interested in the folk music of his home region, and made extensive use of both quoted folk music as well as original musical material written in the style of the folk music. There’s only one recording to own of this piece: the epic recording by two legends, Janos Starker and Josef Gingold. [Amazon.com link] Kodaly Duo for Violin & Cello

The last piece was the slightly (ok, very) silly Gran Duo Concertante by Giovanni Bottesini, in the arrangement by Camillo Sivori for violin and double bass with piano accompaniment. It is a piece that provides many jaw-dropping moments for both the violin and the double bassist, who must perform virtual physical acrobatics to make her way through the piece. It was a light ending to a huge recital program. And everyone sounded great, especially Tim!