Emanuel Ax & Yo Yo Ma - Grote Solisten

Woensdag 24 februari in het Concertgebouw in de Cyclus "Triple Ax":
* Yo-Yo Ma, cello
* Emanuel Ax, piano

* R. Schumann - Adagio und Allegro in As, op. 70
* R. Schumann - Fünf Stücke im Volkston, op. 102
* Lieberson - Remembering Schumann (Ned. première, in opdracht van het Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Barbican Centre, Carnegie Hall, Los Angeles Philharmonic en San Francisco Symphony)
* Chopin - Introduction et polonaise brillante in C, op. 3
* R. Schumann - Fantasiestücke, op. 73 (bew. voor cello en piano)
* Chopin - Sonate in g, op. 65

"If the evening was more Schumann-centric, he was more the cello man than Chopin, and the program featured his smaller character pieces for the instrument, with song-like structures that suited him (and the cello) perfectly. Indeed, many authorities believe Schumann was at his highest inspiration in his songs. And the cello was, for him, a kind of super-human voice.

That happens to suit Ma perfectly. He is an essentially lyrical player with a surprisingly delicate tone. His admired robustness comes from a combination of intense body language, powerful phrasing and intense vibrato, as well as all-around fervor and sociability.

Ma warmed up in Schumann’s short Adagio and Allegro, which opened the program, but quickly assumed the function of character player in “Five Pieces in a Folk Style,” which followed. The title of the first asks for it to be played “Mit Humor,” and Ma was straight man. But he is a man of many emotions, and elsewhere he was ardent lover and grand enthusiast. Ax remained in the background, well-mannered yet intense accompanist. They were even dressed like star and host – Ma fashionably in a dark suit with black shirt, Ax (like President Obama in his State of the Union speech) in white shirt and red tie.

Lieberson’s elegiac “Remembering Schumann” treated the duo as equals and paid homage to Schumann as songster. The composer has himself contributed importantly to the American song literature, particular in works for his late wife, the mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt-Lieberson (who happened to be a fabulous Schumann singer). The composer has also worked before with both instrumentals (they participated in the premiere of his large-scale chamber work, “King Gesar,” which is crying out for a revival).

“Remembering Schumann,” which had its first performance Tuesday in San Francisco at the beginning of the Ax and Ma tour and which will be played again in Carnegie Hall in New York on Friday, was co-commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic (the Disney program’s presenter) and is part of an ongoing relationship between the orchestra and Lieberson. His “Neruda Songs,” one of the most admired new works of the past decade, was another L.A. Philharmonic commission and will be repeated in April when Gustavo Dudamel returns.

The new 17-minute duo is in three movements, each a set of variations on chords, a melody or the letters of Schumann’s name in music notation (and slightly rearranged). The 19th century composer is not so much remembered here as half remembered and half envisioned in a spaced-out Schumann dream, with fragments filled out in a new language.

“Remembering Schumann” is virtuosic yet subtle. Past and present become indistinguishable, and the variations become not so much inventions but different ways of looking at the same materials.

For the two Chopin works, the early and insignificant Introduction and Polonaise Brillante and the late and significant Cello Sonata, Ax took control. He is one of our most celebrated Chopin pianists, and it is the elaborate piano parts in these works, particularly the sonata, that give juicy cello melodies their substance and meaning.

Ax and Ma recorded these works in the early ‘90s when both sounded daisy fresh. They still do, but their interplay has grown with an impassioned Ax insistently handing over a tune to Ma as if he were passing along hot nuclear material.

The encore was strange. Ma was apparently the joker here, transposing the violin line down an octave in the slow movement of Brahms’ Third Violin Sonata. It was haunting.

— Mark Swed L.A.Times"



Guardian:George Hall


Emanuel Ax/Yo-Yo Ma Barbican, London


The Polish-born American pianist Emanuel Ax is giving three Barbican recitals focusing on two of this year's anniversary composers, Schumann and Chopin, over the next few weeks. In the first programme, he shared the platform with his regular cellist partner Yo-Yo Ma in a unity of approach and gesture that made every item a true duo.

Schumann came first. It's not often remembered that he studied the cello briefly as a youngster, though only one of the works here was written for the instrument. The Five Pieces in Folk Style are a group of character pieces, full of the quirkiness and idiosyncrasy typical of Schumann in his late period. Ma was particularly adept at finding the ideal weight as well as colour of tone to express their essential natures, but not even with both players at their most imaginative did the Adagio and Allegro written for horn sound ideal in its alternative cello format. The Three Fantasy Pieces conceived for clarinet worked surprisingly well, though, with Ma's sense of spontaneity matched by Ax in every note.

Even more than Schumann, Chopin is so indelibly associated with the solo piano that the existence of his substantial sonata for cello comes as a surprise. But it's a passionate and expertly composed piece, dynamically delivered here by both players in a striking realisation of its thematic material.

There was a new piece, too, jointly commissioned by the Barbican to celebrate Schumann's bicentenary. The American Peter Lieberson's Remembering Schumann makes the occasional specific reference to its subject's music but generally contents itself with emulating his fantasy and freedom in a less specific idiom. Pleasant if discursive, it registered as pallid beside its models, especially when performed with this level of commitment.