SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

In my review of the opening concert in this twenty-concert series, I asked the question, “Will future recitals by the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players hold up to this level of playing?” Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend the intervening four concerts, but based on the one reviewed here, the answer is an unequivocal “Yes.” The same two attributes of the first concert that made it successful also informed this one: virtuosic performers and unhackneyed, innovative programming of undeservedly neglected repertory.

Virtuosi they are: the list of awards won and venues played by the members of the group are extensive enough to validate their skills. Both Mr. Rabinovich and Mr. Barakhovsky started as child prodigies and Mr. Scheindlin has earned his stripes as a member for five years of the Arditti Quartet.

This concert was subtitled “Radicals,” but could have been more aptly entitled “Descendants” or “Inheritors.” The line of influence runs from Beethoven through Reicha, a contemporary and friend, to Franck, Reicha’s student. As for being radical, certainly there was nothing of that nature in the Reicha Clarinet Quintet, as delightful as it was. The Beethoven Trio as performed here was instilled with a kind of fire that is not entirely appropriate to this early work. Sometimes playing a composer’s early compositions, with the foreknowledge of later works, makes the music appear more radical than it actually is. Beethoven had written a similar trio three years earlier (the 3^rd Trio of the Opus 3 set) that, if played in this manner could equally have been called “radical.” Only the Franck composition might fall under the designation not so much in concept as in practice. The Piano Trio, Franck’s first published piece, certainly sounds ahead of its time with its cyclical theme structure: a method of unifying segments of a work by carrying the opening themes over to later movements, transforming them into other themes, only to return ab initio at the coda. This cyclical structure had been used, though, fifteen years earlier by Beethoven in his last group of quartets. If there was any part of the Franck Trio which was future-looking, it was the pianist’s score.

Mr. Rabinovich mentioned at the beginning of the Franck piece that it was “very difficult and complex.” A glance at the score makes one think not of so much of Beethoven’ s influence but that of Charles-Valentin Alkan’s. Alkan, nine years older than Franck, of whom he was both a friend and a colleague, wrote monumental works for piano. What makes the Franck piece even more difficult than some of Alkan’s compositions is that it allows the pianist no pause. Blocks of chords and arpeggios run continuously through every movement. There is some controversy as to the correct tempo of the first movement described as Andante con Moto but given a metronome marking of 69. The usual verbal description of this number would be at the high end of Adagio and Andante con Moto would normally be near the metronome marking of 100. The rare performances of this work have often followed the metronome marking, so a special award for bravery should be given to this group for playing the music as described by name and not by Franck’s probably incorrect metronome reading. This increase in tempo adds to the technical demands of the pianist in particular. Normally there would be a slow middle movement that would allow the pianist to relax a bit, but not here. Franck has written the middle movement as an Allegro Molto and the final movement, started without pause, as Allegro Maestro. At the conclusion of the piece, Franck, as if making up for the absence of a pause between the second and third movements, places a two measure pause after a false finish. This allowed enough time for the enthusiastic audience to mistakenly get to its feet with bravos before the real final two measures were played.

All the works on this program were confidently performed, giving the appearance of a simplicity which was not, in fact, the case. Mr. Rabinovich at twenty-four looks to be following the path of another virtuoso, the Alkan specialist, Marc-Andre Hamelin.

At the conclusion of the concert the musicians walked off the stage as fresh as they had looked when they came on. It was as if they had finished a marathon without even needing to catch their breath.

This was an all-around exceptional performance of unusual repertory by fearless virtuosi who, although able to attract a devoted audience that filled every seat (even for a 2 p.m. performance), are owed and deserve more publicity and attention than they are currently receiving. 

Stan Metzger