New Zealand Varied: Andrew Joyce (cello), Jian Liu (piano). Outdated Library, Whangarei, New Zealand, 16.6.2024. (PSe)
J S Bach – Sonata in G minor, for Cello and Piano
Vaughan Williams – Six Research in English People Tune
Dorothy Buchanan – Soliloquy for Two
Fang Dongqing – ‘Lin Chong’
Hindemith – Phantasiestück in B main, Op.8 No.2
Brahms – Sonata No.2 in F main, Op.99
‘Some programmes’ works huddle spherical a theme, while others are twains that’ll by no means meet; most programmes to at least one or the opposite lean; to mingle is rarer, but far more candy.’
As poems go, that’s pretty horrible, but it surely does draw out the purpose of the reasonably populous programme of this recital, offered by Whangarei Music Society in affiliation with Chamber Music New Zealand.
England-born cellist Andrew Joyce gathered a wealth of expertise working with many English orchestras earlier than shifting to NZ and becoming a member of the NZSO in 2010. When away from his orchestra, he’s a chamber music fanatic. The Chinese language pianist Jian Liu has been everywhere in the world, gathering performing accolades a-plenty in addition to adjudicating competitions, and giving premiere performances of many works by NZ composers. He’s additionally an educator (with NZSM) and devoted chamber musician, a founding member of the Te Kōkī Trio.
In accordance with the ‘blurb’, this tour is their first outing particularly as a duo, and their programme ‘celebrates their musical and cultural heritages’. That final was true sufficient however, as was borne out by listening, it was not the complete reality. Though the interval divided the six works into 4 plus two, an underlying sample emerged when you regarded them as two units of three. The second and third works of every set ‘huddled’, every spherical a distinct ‘theme’; while the primary shaped ‘twains that’ll by no means meet’, each with the remainders of their units and with one another – which all provides as much as about as ‘mingle’ as anybody can fairly make it. Whether or not this sample was chosen intentionally just isn’t for me to say; but it surely was palpable.
The duo began with the final of Bach’s three Sonatas for Viola da Gamba and Harpsichord. Neither the devices nor Joyce’s vibrato had been HIP, however the efficiency nonetheless bubbled with a fascinating HIP-style freshness and vivacity. Furthermore, Joyce and Liu had the blissful knack of subtly sustaining a delicate ‘highlight’ on the main line because it hopped from one participant to the opposite – particularly helpful within the attribute ‘stream of consciousness’ mode of Bach’s period, earlier than kind was invented!
Representing the ‘English’ heritage, Vaughan Williams’s Six Research in English People Tune had been realised with admirable delicacy, the gamers thoughtful of those being, not straight preparations, however contrapuntal evocations of the distinctive ambiance and timeless enchantment of those previous melodies. That mentioned, it struck me as curious that the concluding examine on As I walked over London Bridge was brisk to the purpose of sprinting. Was VW’s tongue ever so barely in his cheek?
Kiwi composer Dorothy Buchanan’s Soliloquy for Two, written in 2017, sounds remarkably like a continuation of the VW. It’s based mostly on a Robert Frost poem describing a traveller confronted by a fork in his path, wrestling with the issue of which to take. The music thus is emotionally extra pointed, extra tense; but, there is identical fundamental sense of elaborating the ambiance and enchantment of a easy folks melody.
Standing for the ‘Chinese language’ heritage was composer, Fang Dongqing (b.1981), who’s famously expert at weaving collectively components of conventional Chinese language and Western Classical music. His Lin Chong attracts on the character of that title – principally a ‘knight errant on a quest’ in historic China – within the basic novel, ‘Water Margin’. Immediately, we had been in a really completely different soundworld. Strolling within the Snow is replete with ominous rumblings and dissonances, contrasted with a passage tentatively expressive in a Western means. The central motion, unapologetically titled Slaughter, is extraordinarily harsh, savagely syncopated and alarmingly vicious music – under no circumstances what you’ll anticipate of a cello and piano duo, however brilliantly performed with an excessive amount of venom. It culminated in an enormous, crashing tone-cluster, generated by the influence of Liu’s complete forearm on the bass finish of the piano keyboard. Lastly got here Night time Journey, initiated by the piano rippling below a considerably passionate cello lyric. This was splendidly evocative, but (to me) didn’t sound notably ‘Chinese language’. I have to be lacking one thing.
There’s a fashionable impression that Hindemith’s music (his Symphonic Metamorphoses aside!) is reasonably dry and dusty. I are inclined to associate with that, though my perception was decidedly dented by Joyce and Liu’s enjoying of his Phantasiestück, Op.8 No.2. I used to be fairly greatly surprised by the vertiginous sweep of the fervent theme, negotiated with hair-raisingly pinpoint accuracy by Joyce and additional lifted by Liu’s intensely lively accompaniment. The music reluctantly admitted some efficient factors of repose, however its ardour was all-consuming – till it was all spent.
Brahms is one other oft-regarded as considerably stuffy and heavy-handed, in his case regardless of a powerful array of works which might be something however. When the duo plunged into his Sonata No.2, I used to be flabbergasted: this was Brahms at his vaulting greatest, the music positively teeming – and distinctly pre-echoing (‘huddling’) the Hindemith we had simply heard. Joyce and Lin had been keenly delicate to the dynamics, which they marked sharply, engendering the music extremely emotive, with quieter passages darker and stressed.
Within the Adagio affettuoso, the recurring pizzicato determine was positively punched, contrasting starkly with the soul-searching lyric and its attendant wealthy sonorities. Bringing out the brittleness of its flurrying staccati lent the third motion a sense of Mendelssohn; playful, sure, however (not like Mendelssohn) very a lot the rugged rough-and-tumble of ‘massive boys’ video games’! Beginning broadly within the method of the St. Anthony Variations, heat but keen, the finale quickly acquired a spiky vitality; and once more the duo utilized the dynamics craftily, carving the music’s hills and dales with nigh-on tectonic pressure. This was really spectacular, and nicely deserved its rousing ovation.
The encore was no ‘lollipop’ however the sluggish motion of Rachmaninov’s Cello Sonata, Op.19. This slotted into the sample reasonably nicely, as a result of formally it appeared very like the Hindemith and Brahms. Nonetheless, the merely attractive piano opening, when joined by the cello’s expansive lyric, came visiting us as a ‘breath of the air of one other planet’ – so completely different was the sound, the very ambiance exuded by the music. By itself, this was virtually well worth the admission worth, a superb end to a resplendent recital.
Paul Serotsky
