Review: VSO chamber music with Orli Shaham

It’s that time of year for musicians to play a lot of Christmas music and other festive pieces, but there’s room for something more than the typical holiday fair. That’s what the Vancouver Symphony delivered in its chamber music concert (December 13), sponsored by Ann Bardacke and David Wolf, which featured stellar pianist Orli Shaham and musicians from the orchestra playing works by Shostakovich, Mozart, and Poulenc at First Presbyterian Church.

Shaham, VSO’s Artist-in-Residence, teaches piano and chamber music at The Juilliard School, and has served on the juries of the Cliburn and Honens International Piano Competitions. Shaham co-hosts “From the Top” on National Public Radio, and her discography includes all six of Mozart’s piano sonatas on the Canary Classics label. She has appeared with the VSO several times, most recently in August at the Vancouver Arts and Music Festival, playing Rachmaninoff’s “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.”

In her introductory remarks to Shostakovich’s “Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor,” Shaham concisely described each of its four movements and included historical context as well. We learned that Shostakovich wrote the piece in 1944 in memory of his friend Ivan Sollertinsky, who was a musicologist, music critic, and polymath, and that the final movement, in particular, delved into Jewish folk melodies – perhaps as a defiance of the Nazis who forced Jews to dance by their own graves.

Collaborating with violinist Eva Richey (VSO’s concertmaster) and cellist Jonah Thomas, Shaham and her colleagues delved into the Shostakovich with passionate earnestness. The piece started with a haunting eeriness, because the notes for the cellos were extremely high, while the violin sounded from its middle to second was much faster and briefer – with periodic sonic lunges. The musicians galloped ahead impressively right up to the final note. Shaham laid down a slow passacaglia in the third movement, which evoked a solemn and sad atmosphere. And it remained serious even after the pizzicato passage for the strings and the quickening tempo. The musicians conveyed a sense of depth and tragedy in the final movement.

The second movement was much faster and briefer – with periodic sonic lunges. The musicians galloped ahead impressively right up to the final note. Shaham laid down a slow passacaglia in the third movement, which evoked a solemn and sad atmosphere. And it remained serious even after the pizzicato passage for the strings and the quickening tempo. The musicians conveyed a sense of depth and tragedy in the final movement.

The group maintained a terrific balance throughout the Shostakovich. Richey and Thomas deftly conquered a lot of tricky passages, and Shaham was the epitome of a chamber musician, listening to her collaborators while playing her part with the highest level of musicality.

Before playing Mozart’s “Sonata for Piano and Violin No. 21 in E minor”, Shaham remarked on how the piece, (completed in 1778) remains one of few that Mozart wrote in a minor key. She also mentioned that scholars thought that it was written in response to the death of Mozart’s mother, but that more recent evidence has led some to think that he wrote or at least began it before is mother died.

Shaham, who has a real affinity for Mozart, teamed up with Brandon Buckmaster to create an elegant and lovely performance of the sonata. They displayed excellent dynamics throughout, exchanging phrases seamlessly and with refinement. The beautiful melody in the second movement was strong and soothing at the same time, which made it all the more satisfying to hear.

In describing Poulenc’s “Sextet for Piano and Winds,” Shaham noted how it was influenced by circus music, and it had a fair amount of quirky humor. The sextet (flutist Rachel Rencher, clarinetist Igor Shakhman, bassoonist Margaret McShea, hornist Dan Partridge, oboist Alan Juza, and pianist Shaham), got into the spirit of the piece, but it was more difficult for me to grasp because the heating system came on and was fairly loud.

The sextet, which Poulenc finished in 1932 and revised in 1939) offered a lot of switching back and forth from jaunty episodes (like the opening) to plaintive passages to rhapsodic sections to elegant sequences, and even segments in which phrases seemed to wander all over the place. After an interjection of seriousness, the piece concluded with an emphatic, majestic sound that almost gave it a triumphant feeling – which was the exact opposite from where it began, enhancing the eccentric quality of Poulenc’s music.

Shaham returns on May 19th for another chamber music program with musicians of the VSO, and it will also be held at First Presbyterian. The acoustics of the church are fairly good – as long as the heating system doesn’t kick in.