A Family Affair
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center is under way, having opened its season on Thursday night. The concert was organized by CMS’s new artistic directors, David Finckel and Wu Han. They are cellist and pianist, husband and wife. They are not responsible for the rest of this season’s programming – that was arranged by their predecessor, David Shifrin. But they will be responsible for all of 2006-07.
This opening concert had a theme, namely music from the East – not China and Japan, but Bohemia, Hungary, and so on. In the audience was the president of Hungary, in town for the U.N., no doubt. Alice Tully Hall was full of flowers, tuxedos, and gowns, and the crowd seemed particularly happy to be there.
The program opened with music for piano four hands, played by Emanuel Ax – probably the most ubiquitous solo performer in New York – and his wife, Yoko Nozaki. (Husbands and wives were also a theme of this concert.) Mr. Ax and Ms. Nozaki played two “Slavonic Dances” of Dvoryak, both very well-known – one in C major, the other in A flat. The first dance did not begin well, as one pianist or the other committed a bobble – fell on the keyboard before his (or her) time. (I’m not protecting – I just didn’t see.) This was no great problem. It was, as Horowitz would have said, “an act of God.”
That first dance was spirited and decently crisp. The other one, in my opinion, has more a sly walking quality than a dancing quality. The two pianists could have been more insinuating – but, again, they were respectable.
And I might say a further word about Mr. Ax. As he walked out onto the stage, I heard a fellow critic say exactly what I was thinking: “He’s slimmed down.” And I point out this seemingly irrelevant fact to recall a nice moment from last season: With Yefim Bronfman, Mr. Ax played a two-piano recital. He said, charmingly, at encore time that they would have offered four-hand music – music on one piano – but their combined size made this problematic. “We’re both on diets.”
After the “Slavonic Dances” on Thursday night came more Dvorak, five of his “Gypsy Songs,” including the best-known: “Songs My Mother Taught Me.” This is, indeed, one of the most famous songs in the worldwide repertory. Doing the honors was the soprano Dina Kuznetsova, who owns a passionate voice. Note that this is different from saying that she sings passionately: That voice – meaty, sort of dark, alive to possibilities – has passion in it.
She happens to sing passionately, too.
She also has a fine sense of line, and of a song’s shape. Her onsets were imperfect, however, and she made some faces – stagy faces – that, in my opinion, do not enhance a recital performance. But “show it in the face” is a mantra of many a teacher.
Accompanying Ms. Kuznetsova was a co-founder of the Chamber Music Society, the pianist Charles Wadsworth. Can it really be 30 years ago that he was accompanying Beverly Sills regularly? He did a fine job for Ms. Kuznetsova, particularly attuned to those “native” rhythms.
The president of Hungary had reason to sit up for the next item on the program: Bartok’s Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion. In this piece, we need clarity, incisiveness, concentration, and persistence. So it is with many Bartok pieces. The pianists were again Emanuel Ax and Yoko Nozaki, and the percussionists were Don S. Liuzzi and Ayano Kataoka. He is principal timpanist of the Philadelphia Orchestra; she has a busy freelance career (judging from her bio).
This foursome did a creditable job with the Bartok, although we could have had more of the aforementioned qualities. At times, the playing needed greater definition – some mud was allowed in, some clutter built up. Mr. Ax showed both virtuosity and understanding. But he might have imparted more lyricism in the slow movement. (Bartok can be as lyrical as anyone, when he wants to be.) And on the whole, this movement – like much of the rest of the sonata – could have used more abandon, more daring. A gust or two more of musical inspiration.
The players wrestled fairly excitingly with the last movement, and yet Bartok’s droll moments did not come through. Still, it was good to hear this seldom-performed piece, and the players’ respect for it was catching. So was their enjoyment.
After intermission, the concert let its hair down a little, as Wu Han and Paul Neubauer took the stage to play some salon music, Gypsy-style. Mr. Neubauer is one of the world’s top violists, and, as a young man, he spent some time in European cafes, playing with Gypsies. (So we learned from Wu Han, who spoke to the audience.) Clearly, Mr. Neubauer absorbed the spirit.
He and Wu Han played three pieces by Georges Boulanger, a Romanian composer who was no relation to the renowned composition teacher. The pianist displayed just as much gusto – and sympathy – as the violist. After the Boulanger pieces, the pair tucked into a little Gypsy piece called “The Canary” – and Mr. Neubauer sounded like one, too.
Best about this concert was the performance with which it closed. Joining Wu Han for Smetana’s Trio in G minor, Op. 15, was her husband, David Finckel, and the violinist Cho-Liang Lin. This is an unusual piece, full of wonderful melodies, and sincerity, and heart. The three musicians did it maximum justice. Earlier, I mentioned abandon – this performance had that, but it was never without control. Wu Han has a knack for playing into the keys, and avoids pounding. Mr. Finckel produced his familiar gorgeous sound. Mr. Lin’s sound was less pleasing, but he made up for it in musical aptitude. It’s a joy to be in authoritative hands – an audience member can simply sit back, relax, and let the music fill him.
In her remarks to the audience, Wu Han had mentioned that Smetana wrote his trio with great love. From the performance, you could tell.