JAVS Fall 2012

In the second half, Atar Arad played Epitaph —his own composition—an elegiac work influenced by Israeli music. Arad dedicated his performance in memory of Zvi Zeitlin, a long-time Eastman violin pedagogue. Paul Neubauer concluded the concert with an arrangement by Eckart Schloifer of Reinhold Gliere’s Concerto for Coloratura Soprano and Orchestra, op. 82 (under the title Two Pieces for Viola and String Orchestra ). The viola and orchestra sounded lovely, particularly in the lush first move ment. But reducing Gliere’s original version for soprano and full orchestra down to viola and strings denuded the work of its haunting orchestration, resulting in a muddy sameness that not even an oth erwise outstanding performance could correct. My day started at 9:00 a.m. with a recital by two recent prize winners: Paul Laraia, first-prize winner (senior division) of the 2011 Sphinx Competition, and Ayane Kozasa, first-prize winner of the 2011 Primrose Competition. These two talented young per formers had very different approaches to sound and repertoire. Laraia had a bold, robust sound, and he gave a no-nonsense interpretation of Hindemith’s 1937 solo sonata. This straightforward attitude was extended to Bruch’s Romance , which showed no Romantic excess. Kozasa offered a more nuanced approach to her works, displaying superb technique and colors in Arvo Pärt’s Fratres . She closed the recital with perhaps the most musical performance of Paganini’s Sonata per la Grand Viola I have ever heard. Thursday, May 31

The 11:00 a.m. IVS Delegates recital began with Viacheslav Dinerchtein (Switzerland) premiering a viola sonata by Fabian Müller; attractive enough but suffering from a bit-too-long middle movement. Max Savikangas (Finland) followed with the pre miere of his Kepler 22-b , a work inspired by NASA’s discovery of the extrasolar planet that gives the work its name. Featuring ample extended viola techniques, the work was particularly enjoyable for the bombas tic piano part, capably played by recent Eastman graduate Peter Klimo. Bogusława Hubisz-Sielska (Poland) followed with three short works, including the lovely Elegy for Solo Viola by Rachel Knobler. The concert concluded with Hindemith’s marvelous ly dark Des Todes Tod , op. 23a, for voice, two violas, and two cellos. Katherine Ciesinski’s voice was suit ably somber for these songs about death, and Louise Lansdown (United Kingdom) shone on the final movement for voice and viola alone. Audience mem bers exiting this concert were pleasantly surprised to encounter the Eastman Viola Choir in the lobby, which was performing a selection of popular tunes (including Day Tripper and Eleanor Rigby ). Katherine Ciesinski returned for the 2:00 p.m. recital by Kim Kashkashian. Here, the two artists performed Brahms’s Two Songs, op. 91, dedicated in memory of Karen Tuttle. Kashkashian next played a selection of twenty-one short movements entitled Signs, Games and Messages by György Kurtág. Previously acquainted with the composer’s music only in smaller doses, I feared that this performance was destined to be the musical equivalent of an over sized wine tasting, where the too small samples all blur together leaving you at the end with a desire for anything other than wine. Recognizing the difficulty of programming all these pieces together, Kashkashian “walked the audience through” her chronological presentation of the works, which could be divided into five distinct periods beginning with 1961. Her method of communicating with the audience was effective, and you could hear delin eations of style between the periods (the least effec tive compositionally being the 1987 works and the most effective being the “Hungarian” period pieces from 1993–94).The recital concluded with a per formance of Schumann’s Fantasiestücke , op. 73.

From left to right: Wendy Richman, Louise Lansdown, Katherine Ciesinski, Rosemary Elliott, and Mimi Hwang in the final movement from Hindemith’s Des Todes Tod

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