ROCKPORT What a spectacular setting you have here! pianist Wu Han said from the stage of the Shalin Liu Performance Center, a venue that delights on every visit, not least for the spectacular view of Cape Ann visible through the large window at the back of the hall. Han gestured toward cellist David Finckel and joked that if she hadnt had to pay attention to him, Id be staring out the window.
But pay attention they surely did. Though the two share a musical affinity that would enable them to get by on autopilot they are married and have performed as a duo for years their Sunday concert was a full-intensity affair that took nothing for granted. You could sense the depth of their rapport from the way they glanced toward one another at crucial moments, as well as from the unified conception of each piece. The result was a superb afternoon of no-holds-barred music making.
Their program was Beethoven and Brahms, as core as core repertoire gets. They opened with Beethovens Sonata in A major, a work less frequently encountered than others in the composers middle period. Full of long-breathed melodies and rhythmic acuity, it is Beethovens confident exploration of the expressive limits of a form he had already mastered. The high spirits of the finale made the adventure seem not only bold and complex but fun as well.
Both in the Beethoven and in Brahmss E-Minor Sonata, the two played in an enjoyably extrovert style Finckel projecting throughout the cellos range and Han producing a deep, rounded tone in the piano. It was also superbly controlled, keeping the textures lucid even in the busiest moments. You could hear Brahms continuing Beethovens experimentation, though there are also sublime touches of Schuberts graceful lyricism.
The second half began with Beethovens set of variations on Handels See, the Conquring Hero Comes, an early piece that contains glimpses of the achievement to come. Brahmss F-major Sonata was perhaps the gem of the afternoon, restless and searching right from the brash chords that open the piece. Even in the slow movement, Finckel and Han maintained a balance of serenity and agonizing uncertainty, a tension that comes to resolution only with the breezy, rollicking finale.
As a tonic to the concerts Germanic hegemony, the duo offered the slow movement of the Chopin cello sonata as an encore a patch of tranquillity that unfolded as sailboats rocked gently in the water behind them.
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Tags: Liu, Shalin Liu