Ray Chen and Zhang Zuo at People’s Symphony Concerts

This weekend, Your Correspondent dutifully went to Town Hall in New York for another in what has proven to be a stellar season of People’s Symphony Concerts.  Originally scheduled was violinist Augustin Hadelich (born 1984), whom we have covered previously in these pages.  Hadelich is one of the up-and-coming stars of the classical music world, and we were initially disappointed when we learned a scheduling conflict prevented his appearance.

However, we were more than delighted when the incomparable violinist Ray Chen (born 1989) took his place, with pianist Zhang Zuo (born 1988) accompanying him.  The result was magic – one of the finest concerts we have seen in some time.  It is rare that the seen-it-all crowd at PSC applauds between movements, but the demonstrative audience this past Sunday could not contain itself.  Chen played with such charm and insouciance, and his bowmanship was so exciting and sure-handed, that anything short of adulation would be unworthy.

The concert opened with the Violin Sonata No. 1 in D minor, Op. 12, No. 1 by Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770-1827).  The playing was robust and passionate, and the sound of Chen’s violin – he was playing the 1715 Joachim Stradivarius on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation – has a clarity that was uncanny. 

Both players were transcendent in the Violin Sonata No. 1 in D minor, Op. 75 by Camille Saint-Saens (1835-1921).  The interval between movements was interrupted by unprecedented applause and, I’m sure if roses were on hand, they would’ve been happily tossed at the players.  The first act ended with the crowd on its feet and waiting for more.

Following the intermission, Chen and Zuo (nick-named “Zee Zee”) played a medley of songs by Manuel de Falla (1876-1946).  Though sprightly and fun, they were a step down in complexity and interest from Beethoven and Saint-Saens.  The duo returned to Saint-Saens for the Havanaise in E Major, Op. 83, which had a delicious Cuban feel.  The concert ended with Tzigane by Maurice Ravel (1875-1937), which had a wonderful, Romanie feel. 

The audience would not let them leave without an encore, and Chen and Zuo served up a wrenchingly beautiful Thais by Massenet. 

Zuo has recently been chosen to join the BBC’s flagship Young Artist program in the UK for the next two seasons.  She has played with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the National Orchestra of Belgium.  Dressed in a stunning evening gown of fuchsia, Zuo is a striking presence and gifted accompanist.

The performance, though, rested confidently in the assured palm of violinist Ray Chen.  Born in Taiwan and raised in Australia, Chen was accepted to the Curtis Institute of Music at age 15,  where he studied with Aaron Rosand and was supported by Young Concerts Artists.  An emerging social media star, Chen is the first-ever classical musician to be invited to write a regular blog about his life as a touring soloist for the largest Italian publishing house, RCS Rizzoli.  He cut a striking figure in a sheer dark suit with cream-colored lining, so it's no surprise that he is supported by Giorgio Armani and was recently featured in Vogue.  More, please.

One parting word about People’s Symphony.  There are still some tickets let for their three, concurrent series, but numbers are limited.  PSC has also created unlimited student passes, where full-time students age 35 or younger can enjoy unlimited access to all remaining concerts for one flat fee of $25.

PSC remains the best deal for New Yorkers passionate about music that I have ever come across, and subscriptions will not be regretted.  The can be found at:  http://pscny.org/.

Behzod Abduraimov, at People’s Symphony Concerts

Your correspondent has been attending People’s Symphony Concerts for well-nigh 25 years, and one of the many attendant pleasures is seeing emerging masters before they become household names.

Such a pleasure was on hand last Saturday while watching pianist Behzod Abduraimov in a concert that could only be called magical.

Born in Tashkent in 1990 Behzod began to play the piano at the age of five. He was a pupil of Tamara Popovich at the Uspensky State Central Lyceum in Tashkent, and studied with Stanislav Ioudenitch at the International Center for Music at Park University, Kansas City, where he is now Artist in Residence.

Clad in a simple black shirt and slacks, Abduraimov opened with Four Impromptus for Piano, D. 935 by Franz Schubert (1797-1828), a performance of wonderful subtlety and delicacy.  His playing went from lightly (indeed, liltingly) melodic to melancholy and back with effortless transition.  The Impromptus are a challenge to even the most accomplished player, and Abduraimov played with all the sensitivity of a man three times his age.

He followed with the Mephisto Waltz No. 1, S. 514, by Franz Liszt (1811-1886), a performance filled with drama and passion.  Abduraimov did not play the piano as much as he assaulted it … providing the dual pleasure of listening and watching the performance.  A showman as much as a musician, Abduraimov understand the body language of great playing, and the crowd rose to loud and rapturous applause at the end of the piece.

Abduraimov concluded with Pictures at an Exhibition, by Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881).  Here is, of course, a splendid showcase for the young pianist’s many talents.  Mussorgsky guides the listener through a series of painting, each eliciting separate and distinctive emotions.  It is a great test of virtuosity, and Abduraimov rose to the occasion splendidly.  This is surely a great talent who will leave his mark on the classical music world.

A word now about Peoples’ Symphony Concerts, founded in 1900 by the conductor Franz Arens to bring the world’s finest music to students and workers for minimum prices.  That winter, more than 7,000 people swarmed Cooper Union to hear Arens, the son of an immigrant farmer, conduct his series of five Peoples' Symphony Concerts.  Subscriptions for the five concerts ranged from $.25 to $1.25 and single tickets went for as little as $0.10 each.

Arens himself started out a poor student in Europe who had been too broke to attend many concerts.  When Arens returned to New York, he was determined to find a way to bring music to students, teachers, workers, and others unable to pay standard ticket prices.  Since those early years, hundreds of thousands of Peoples' Symphony Concerts audience members have heard the world's foremost concert artists and ensembles at the lowest admission prices of any major series in the country.

During many years of attending, Your Correspondent heard such masters as Richard Goode, Garrick Ohlsson, and Marc-Andre Hamelin.  There are three concert series, two taking place on Saturday evenings at the spacious (and newly-renovated) theater at Washington Irving High School in Gramercy Park, and one on Sunday afternoons at Town Hall in midtown Manhattan.

Many of my readers support the New York Metropolitan Opera, WQXR and/or Tanglewood, but few seem to know this wonderful resource for people who are serious about music.

There are still tickets available for this season; visit http://pscny.org  or call (212) 586-4680 for more information.  

People’s Symphony Concerts Return!

If New York is the classical music capital of the world, then perhaps the best bargain in the world for music lovers is the series of concerts presented by People’s Symphony.

The Peoples’ Symphony Concerts series was founded in 1900 by the conductor Franz Arens to bring the world’s finest music to students and workers for minimum prices.  That winter, more than 7,000 people jammed into the old hall at Cooper Union to hear Arens, the son of an immigrant farmer, conduct his series of five Peoples' Symphony Concerts.  Subscriptions for the five concerts ranged from $.25 to $1.25 and single tickets went for as little as $0.10 each. 

Arens himself started out a poor student in Europe who had been too broke to attend many concerts.  When Arens returned to New York, he was determined to find a way to bring music to students, teachers, workers, and others unable to pay normal ticket prices.  Since those early years, hundreds of thousands of Peoples' Symphony Concerts audience members have heard the world's foremost concert artists and ensembles at the lowest admission prices of any major series in the country.

Your correspondent has been going for nearly 25 years, and has heard such world class masters as Richard Goode, Garrick Ohlsson, and Marc-Andre Hamelin.  There are three concert series, two taking place on Saturday evenings at the spacious (and newly-renovated) theater at Washington Irving High School in Gramercy Park, and one on Sunday afternoons at Town Hall in midtown Manhattan.

The season opened last week with a magnificent performance by the Musicians From Marlboro, the touring extension of the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont.  This group is comprised of exceptional young professional musicians together with seasoned artists in varied chamber music programs. Each program is built around a work performed in a previous summer that Artistic Directors Richard Goode and Mitsuko Uchida and their colleagues felt was exceptional and should be shared with a wider audience. The resulting ensembles offer audiences the chance to both discover seldom-heard masterworks and enjoy fresh interpretations of chamber music favorites.

The concert opened with a relatively new work by Svervánszky, the Trio for Flute, Violin and Viola.  This piece was filled with a rich, folkloric, Middle European flavor, and was played with great brio by the troup.

The was followed by the Sonata for flute, viola and harp, L. 137 by Debussy.  This was, perhaps, my favorite piece of the evening – offering a lush, yet limpid, interval of pure aural pleasure.

The evening progressed with Officium breve in memoriam Andreæ Szervánszky, Op. 28 by Kurtág which, frankly, went in one ear and out the other.  However, as with most contemporary pieces, mileage varies depending on user.

The concert ended with a gripping rendition of Beethoven’s String Quintet in C Major, Op. 29, which was greeted by the crowd with long, loud and lusty applause.

Artists for the evening included David McCarroll, violin; Nikki Chooi, violin; Kim Kashkashian, viola; Wenting Kang, viola; Karen Ouzounian, cello; Marina Piccinini, flute; and, Sivan Magen, harp.  These are exceptionally talented young people.

Many of my readers support the New York Metropolitan Opera, WQXR and/or Tanglewood, but few seem to know this wonderful reasoure for people who are serious about music. 

There are still tickets available for this season; visit http://pscny.org  or call (212) 586-4680 for more information.  

The Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio With Nokuthula Ngwenyama at People’s Symphony

Nokuthula Ngwenyama

Once again the good folks at People’s Symphony Concerts (PSC) amaze and astound us with musicians both old and new to the program.  Last Saturday, perennial PSC favorites the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio returned for a concert of Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Dvorak, amply assisted by a stunning Nokuthula Ngwenyama on the viola.  The result was magical.

The Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio debuted at the White House nearly 35 years ago, and they continue to bring technical mastery, expressive depth, and magnetism to the concert stage. Their 30^th Anniversary was celebrated at Carnegie Hall, where Richard Danielpour devoted a piano quartet in honor of the anniversary – the piece has since become a part of their extensive repertoire. The Trio is one of today’s most beloved ensembles and these three artists share their passion for music with audiences worldwide.

The Trio – Joseph Kalichstein, piano, Jaime Laredo, violin, Sharon Robinson, cello -- has traveled the globe, including japan, New Zealand and Australia, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Brussels, Copenhagen, Lisbon and Paris, as well as Helsinki, South Bank and Tivoli.  Their most recent CD is of Schubert Piano Trios, released on the Bridge label.

Nokuthula Ngwenyama came to international attention when she won the Primrose International Viola Competition and the Young Concert Artists International Auditions at age 17.  In 1998, she received the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant.  She has performed throughout the US and across four continents – and she has recently been featured as a Face to Watch by the Los Angeles Times.

With a wealth of talent such as this, it is no surprise that last Saturday’s concert was one to remember.  The concert opened with Trio in B-flat major, Op. 11 (1798) by Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770-1827).  This piece was interesting, and the playing worthy, but it is not Beethoven at his best.  The adagio is not perfectly conceived, to my ear, and the Tema con variazioni: Pria ch’ io l ‘impegno not wholly satisfying.

The Piano Trio in C minor, Op. 66 (1845), by Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847), on the other hand, is more coherently conceived.  Mendelssohn is not in the same league of genius as Beethoven, and though less ambitious he was more consistent.  Op. 66 is wonderfully melodic and the third movement, the Scherzo, Molto allegro quasi presto, is delivered with great gusto.  The Trio did a wonderful job of bringing it to life.

However, the undisputed highlight of the concert was the Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 87 (1889) by Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904).  We here at The Jade Sphinx had never heard this piece before, and it was as if a thunderclap erupted in the house.  This is a remarkable piece – melodic and dramatic, with a clear musical line and distinct tone and point of view.  Ms. Ngwenyama joined the trio for this piece, and her bowing was clear and strong, tightly controlled and passionately delivered.  One could almost hear the entire ensemble beating to one heart, and the flourish with which they finished brought applause long, loud and lusty.  It was one of those electric moments that PSC can deliver with such astounding regularity.

Kuok-Wai Lio Makes His People’s Symphony Concert Debut

One of the great clichés in film and theater is the Big Star suddenly becoming incapacitated, and the new-comer making a last-minute hit.

Well, I’m happy to report that this is exactly what happened at a People’s Symphony Concert (PSC) last Sunday (January 12^th).  For the first concert of the New Year, celebrated pianist Radu Lupu (born 1945) was scheduled to play.  Lupu has been a great friend of PSC for several years, and has always been met with riotous applause.

Last week, however, Lupu came down with the flu – threatening to turn into pneumonia.  Not only did his illness force a cancellation of his PSC concert, but Lupu also had to miss his final performance with the Montreal Symphony and hasten his return to Europe.  We here at The Jade Sphinx wish him a speedy recovery.

However, never letting an opportunity to let new, significant talents make their mark, PSC managers Frank Salomon and David Himmelheber reached out to up-and-coming pianist Kuok-Wai Lio (born 1989).  Lio – who considers Lupu “a god” and who planned on watching the performance from the audience -- quickly stepped in to perform selections by Leos Janacek (1854-1928), Franz Schubert (1797-1828), and Robert Schumann (1810-1856).  The result was magical.

Lio began playing at age five.  In 1997, he was awarded a scholarship to study at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, and in 2006, he entered the Curtis Institute of Music.  His principal teachers included Gabriel Kwok and Gary Graffman.  He has also worked with Andras Schiff at international master classes and festivals in Europe.

Lio has received prizes in international competitions, including Fulbright, Gina Bachauer, Seiler, Steinway, Ettlingen and Chopin (Tokyo).  In 2004, he was awarded a Commendation of Merit from the Chief Executive of Macau. 

Lio played Janacek’s In the Mists (1912) to great effect.  The piece has a sweet and delicate air, and Lio captured that with great sensitivity.  It was a wonderful crystallization of mood, and the performance, transporting.

For Schubert, Lio played Four Impromptus, D. 935 (1827).  These were handled with remarkable élan, including the Impromptu in B-flat Major, which is the most interesting, and musically satisfying, of the group.

After intermission, Lio returned for Schumann’s challenging Davidsbundlertanze, Op. 6.  This includes 18 movements, and mastery of this piece is a mark of true virtuosity.  Lio handled it deftly and with astonishing empathy for a performer so young. 

Kuok-Wai Lio is a remarkable talent and we will be hearing more from him in the years to come. 

Garrick Ohlsson at People’s Symphony

Last week we told you about People’s Symphony Concerts – which have been in existence since 1900, when they were founded by conductor Franz Arens.  World class musicians – both emerging talents and old masters – have been the mainstay of People’s Symphony, and each and every year the lineup grows more impressive.

So, I was greatly excited when an amateur musician friend told me of a concert he heard in San Francisco where Garrick Ohlsson (born 1948) played.  That same concert was in the offering at People’s Symphony and the early verdict was … it was not to be missed.

Nor did Ohlsson disappoint.  The concert at Washington Irving in Gramercy Park last Saturday evening was simply splendid.  Dressed in impeccable tie and tails, Ohlsson is showman enough to command the stage in any venue, and once he sat behind the Steinway piano, he held the audience spellbound for more than two hours.

Ohlsson opened with the very familiar Two Rhapsodies, Op. 79 (1879) by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897).  This warhorse is a mainstay of classical music stations, and one would expect its allure to dim with over-familiarity.  Not so under Ohlsson’s skillful playing; it was fresh and alive and the line of Brahms’ music clean and clear.

Ohlsson followed with Fantasia on Ad Nos, ad salutarem undam, S. 259 (1850) by Franz Liszt (1811-1886), easily my favorite piece of the evening.  This is Liszt at his most ornate and outlandish, and Ohlsson played the Adagio with tremendous gusto and the Fuga with deep sensitivity.  If you are not an aficionado of Liszt or his music, this piece may well change your mind.  It demands quite technical virtuosity, and Ohlsson plays it with brio.

The program continued with Selection from Etude for Piano (1915) by Claude Debussy (1862-1918), which I found amusing, but undemanding.  Debussy has never been wholly to our taste, but the Pour les sixtes was quite wonderful and almost enough to make me reconsider my opinion on this polarizing composer.

Ohlsson ended with Fantasy in F minor, Op. 49 (1841), by Frederic Chopin (1810-1849).  It is a work of deep, emotional tenderness, and it was beautifully rendered by the pianist.

Garrick Ohlsson has a worldwide reputation for his Olympian interpretive and technical prowess.  He was born in White Plains, NY, and began his piano studies at age 8.  He has won too many awards to be fully chronicled here, but they include the Chopin Competition in Warsaw and the Avery Fisher Prize.  His 2013-14 season will include recitals in Montreal, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Los Angles, Seattle and Kansas City, culminating in February at Carnegie Hall.  In January, with the Boston Symphony, he will present the world premier of a concerto commissioned for him from Justin Dello Joio; he will also play, this year, works by Beethoven, Schubert and Charles Tomlinson Griffes.  If you have even the remotest interest in virtuoso piano playing, be sure to see out Garrick Ohlsson this year.

One parting word about People’s Symphony.  There are still some tickets let for their three, concurrent series, but numbers are limited.  It remains the best deal for New Yorkers passionate about music that I have ever come across, and subscriptions will not be regretted.  The can be found at:  http://pscny.org/.

The New Season of People’s Symphony Concerts Opens with Pianist Lise de la Salle

We have covered the wonderful work done by People’s Symphony Concerts in these pages before.  The series was founded in 1900 by conductor Franz Arens.  The goal of People’s Symphony was to bring the best music to students and workers at affordable prices.  In its first year, more than 7,000 people squeezed into the old hall at Cooper Union to hear Arens, the son of an immigrant farmer, conduct the first series of People’s Symphony Concerts.  As a music student in Europe, Arens was too poor to attend many concerts in his youth.  When he returned to New York, Arens was determined to find a way to bring music to students, teachers, workers, and others unable to pay high ticket prices.  Since those early years, hundreds of thousands of Peoples' Symphony Concerts audience members have heard the world's foremost concert artists and ensembles at the lowest admission prices of any major series in the country.  During the first season, subscriptions for the five concerts ranged from $.25 to $1.25 and single tickets went for as little as $0.10 each. 

Current manager Frank Salomon, ably assisted by David Himmelheber, continue a tradition of incredible (and increasing) value to New Yorkers who are serious about music.  The duo run the program, which includes two different series that play Saturday night at Washington Irving High School, near Gramercy Park, and a third series which runs Sunday afternoons in Manhattan’s Town Hall.  The auditorium at Washington Irving has just been fully renovated, with new seats, refinished floors and an upgrade of the doors and trims.

Each year, some of the most prestigious names in classical music participate in People’s Symphony Concerts.  In more than 20 years your correspondent has attended PSC, I have seen such leading lights as the Guarneri String Quartet, Garrick Ohlsson, the Julliard String Quartet and Richard Stoltzman. 

The 2013 season started last Saturday with a wonderful performance by French pianist Lise de la Salle.  La Salle, 25, has emerged as one of the most acclaimed artists of her generation.  She began playing piano at the age of four and gave her first concert at nine in a live broadcast on Radio-France.  At 13, she made her concerto debut with Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in Avignon and her Paris recital debut at the Louvre before going on tour with the Orchestre National d’Ile de France. At 16, she came to international attention with her Bach/Liszt recording for Naive which was selected by Gramophone as "Recording of the Month."

De La Salle has given recitals in Berlin, London and Paris, as well as New York, and has made concerto appearances in Lisbon, Copenhagen, St. Petersburg and Lyon, and is equally renowned for her frequent performances in the Far East. She will soon make her Philadelphia Orchestra debut and her first appearance at Carnegie Hall as soloist with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.

In her first PSC concert, de la Salle played the Bach/Busoni Chaconne with perhaps an expertise that was a bit too cold-blooded to be emotionally moving.  The 6 Preludes by Claude Debussy was played with a sure hand, richly conveying the delicate, solitary notes that resounded throughout the hall.  (Washington Irving has, perhaps, the best acoustics outside of Carnegie Hall.)

De la Salle was most masterful in her playing of Robert Schumann’s Variations on the name "Abegg" in F major, and his Fantasie C Major, Op. 17.  Her understanding of the rich vein of romanticism and feeling to be found in Schumann was quite remarkable – I have seldom heard Schumann done with such empathy and virtuosity.

The pianist made a fetching impression in her gold and purple evening gown, and her regal bearing set the right tone for the evening.  All-in-all, it was a wonderful start to what promises to be another sterling season of People’s Symphony Concerts.

Jade Sphinx readers interested in tickets for this year’s season can log onto: http://pscny.org/home/index for more information.

ECCO: East Coast Chamber Orchestra

The Musicians of ECCO

Your correspondent has been attending People’s Symphony Concerts (PSC) on-and-off for the past 20 years.  PSC seeks to serve the citizens of the New York area by presenting classical music performances of the highest caliber at affordable ticket prices.  I started in college and never stopped.  Some of the most moving musical experiences of my life have been at Peoples’ Symphony Concerts.

One of them was last Saturday, when I had the great pleasure of hearing ECCO: The East Coast Chamber Orchestra.  This spectacular Orchestra started in 2001, when a group of young musicians – mostly colleagues and friends from leading conservatories and music festivals across the country – envisioned the creation of a democratically-run, self-conducted chamber orchestra that would thrive on the pure joy and camaraderie of classical music making.  That joy is evident in each of their concerts, and abundantly clear in their first-ever commercial recording, which I picked up after the concert.  The CD includes Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings n C Major Op. 48, Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony in C minor, Op 110a and the exuberant and surprising La Follia Variations for String Orchestra, arranged by ECCO’s own Michi Wiancko after Francesco Geminiani’s Concerto Grosso No. 12 in D minor.  Please do yourself a favor – buy this CD.  You will not be disappointed.  In fact, you can get a better taste of ECCO on YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvUmuER6Ngc. 

Saturday’s concert started with a lilting performance of the Divertimento for Strings in F Major, K. 138 (1772) by Mozart (1756-1791).  This was followed by Variations on a Theme of Brank Bridge, Op. 10 (1937) by Benjamin Britten (1913-1976), which contained a great many amusing passages and considerable wit, flawed, perhaps, by the absence of a unifying emotional theme.  I have often found it curious that 20^th Century composers are so identifiable by their sound, and how disjointed their emotional appeal can often be.

ECCO then provided an expert interpretation of Fantasias in 4 Parts (1680) by Henry Purcell (1659).  Baroque music has never been my particular forte (I always thought that if it was Baroque one should fix it), but this piece had, for this listener, an unusual emotional attachment and genuine sweetness at its core. 

ECCO closed the evening with another 20^th Century composer, Bela Bartok (1881-1945) and his Divertimento for String Orchestra, Sz. 113 (1930).  As if fitting for the evening’s closer, the Bartok was the most moving and entertaining piece in the concert.  At turns moody, romantic and joyful, Divertimento could only have been written at that strange moment when the world prayed that war would not come while knowing, at heart, that it was inevitable.  A “Divertimento” is written to entertain both the listeners and the players, but the occasional melancholy in this piece can still be felt.  It was the last work Bartok wrote before fleeing Nazi-sympathetic Hungary.

ECCO has a prominent presence on Facebook.  Become a follower and learn of their concert schedule – they are not to be missed.

The Tokyo String Quartet

Great art may be forever, but great artists are not themselves always so lucky.

That melancholy thought struck me as I heard the legendary Tokyo String Quartet perform last weekend under the auspices of People’s Symphony Concerts.  I have attended People’s Symphony on-and-off now for more than 20 years and this concert will always rank with me among the most memorable.

The Tokyo String Quartet formed in 1969 at the Juilliard School of Music, and the founding members all attended the Toho Gakuen School of Music, studying with Hideo Saito.  Success came rapidly to the quartet, winning first prizes at the Coleman Competition, the Munich Competition and the Young Concert Artists International Auditions.

When not on tour, the quartet serves on the faculty of the Yale School of Music (where they’ve been since 1976) and you can hear them on more than 30 albums under RCA Victor Red Seal and Deutsche Grammaphon.  Or, you may remember them from appearances on Great Performances … or even Sesame Street.

The quartet currently consists of Martin Beaver and Kikuei Ikeda on violin, Kazuhide Isomura on viola and Clive Greensmith on cello.  These wonderful musicians perform on the Paganini Quartet, a group of renowned Stradivarius instruments named for the legendary virtuoso Niccolo Paganini, who played these very instruments during the 19^th Century.

The Tokyo Quartet was joined Saturday by Alon Goldstein on the piano, and it was a serendipitous grouping.  The quartet played Haydn’s Quarter in E-flat Major, Op. 76, No. 6 with a beautifully lyric touch.  They followed with Debussy’s Quartet in G minor, Op. 10, transforming what is often a cold, intellectual piece into a moving experience.  After the interval, Goldstein joined them for Brahms’ Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 34.  Readers familiar with this piece know the emotionally affecting tenor of this piece, and many people in the audience were reduced to tears.  Perhaps the theatrical showmanship of Goldstein helped keep the quartet (and the audience) in check, as he played with dramatic flair and grandiloquent verve.  Thinking it would be impossible to top all this, the five returned for an encore of Dvořák that served as a perfect palette cleanser.

The concert was ultimately melancholy as your correspondent realized that The Tokyo String Quartet would soon be no more.  Both Isomura and Ikeda plan to retire, and, rather than reassemble with other players, the group has decided that the 2013 season will be its last.  They will be on tour for the next year and a half, and you are urged to see this extraordinary group if at all possible.  They have also released a new album of Franz Schubert’s String Quintet on the harmonia mundi label.  This is the last, and perhaps the most haunting, of Schubert’s chamber works, and Tokyo captures both the light and the dark of the piece. 

You can learn more about the final tour of The Tokyo String Quartet on their Web site:  http://www.tokyoquartet.com/index.php