Weaving a Web of Passion

When asked to name his favorite holiday, Lenny Bruce replied that it was springtime daylight savings day, explaining, “on that day, you have one less hour to suffer.” Had Antonin Dvorak been asked the same, he would undoubtedly have chosen the polar opposite day in autumn so he could have enjoyed 60 extra minutes of radiant optimism. Dvorak was simply one of those endearing people who always see the glass as three-quarters full.The legacy of his infectious ebullience palpably held sway at Bargemusic Saturday evening, and I venture to say that he would have enjoyed the performance of his “Dumky” Piano Trio.Dvorak came here to found a conservatory and would have been pleased with the mix of veteran and aspirant performers in this concert. The group consisted of violinist Mark Peskanov, a master of Slavic brio as well as the executive and artistic director of Bargemusic, Jose Ramos Santana, a fine and nurturing pianist, and cellist Marie-Elizabeth Hecker. More about her later, but for now it was rare to experience a piano trio wherein the member with the smallest hands was the pianist. Ms. Hecker is tall with exceptionally long fingers and Mr. Peskanov has huge mitts, like David Oistrakh. His violin looks like one of those quarter-sized Suzuki models during performance.The “Dumky” is imbued with the most toe-tapping set of native dances, swirling, czardas-like, and insistent. Although there were times I wished for a significant bump in tempo, overall this was exciting music-making. The trio was very well blended; there was no sense that the piano and violin dominated the cello, an endemic problem in many triumvirates who play together on a regular basis.Dvorak was the most ardent disciple of Brahms and nowhere is this more musically apparent than in his delightful Cello Concerto, which sonically pays homage to his mentor’s “Double” Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Orchestra.Brahms’s sketch for his bucolic masterpiece was the Sonata No. 2 for Cello and Piano, written at the Hamburg master’s Lake Thun retreat in Switzerland the summer before the creation of the larger and more famous Op. 102. Ms. Hecker proved extremely impressive in her traversal of this particular piece of Romantic epic poetry.All of nineteen years, Ms. Hecker is the pupil of Peter Bruns, who is, for my money, the best cellist performing today. Mr. Bruns is also a former principal of the Dresden Staatskapelle Orchestra and now teaches in Leipzig. Last year, Ms. Hecker won the International Rostropovich Competition, recognized as the zenith of contests for her instrument. Her tone is immediate, yearning, importunate. Her sound seems to grab the listener by his sleeve and never lets go. She began the Brahms F major at such a confident, strikingly high volume that, had I not known better, I would have sworn that Barge management had hidden a microphone onstage. This arresting beginning was notable for its consistently accurate intonation, even at its expansive decibel range.Ms. Hecker played with her eyes closed throughout, weaving a web of passion and controlled intensity. In the best Romantic tradition, she endowed each phrase with its own dynamics, with small contrasts paying big dividends. She has a generous vibrato and even waggles her bow in the old style. Her performance resulted in searingly beautiful communication, supported quite solidly by Mr. Ramos Santana, who only went off the rails for a moment in the Allegro passionato. Ms. Hecker displayed a fine-tuned sense of pizzicato in the Adagio affetuoso and a remarkably mature sense of stylistic variation throughout the piece. She suffered one enervated patch in the Allegro molto — there has to be some room for her to improve — but overall she was singularly and steadfastly eloquent. A strong career awaits her if she so desires. She even looks a little like Jacqueline du Pre.The only significant problem with the evening occurred during the opening, in which the trio played Mozart, specifically the G major, K. 561. Here the rendition was suitably playful, the cello in every sense an equal partner. But the barge is a small space and there is no backstage.Traditionally, the musicians have a little side area in which to stand and prepare and await their entrances. However, this night, they had to remain onstage as the overflow crowd jammed into this area as well. Alas, it may be time for Bargemusic owner and impresario Olga Bloom to go out and buy a bigger boat.

Weaving a Web of Passion

Weaving a Web of Passion

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