BWW Reviews: Emanuel Ax in Recital of Beethoven and Chopin Through Gretna Music

It was in 1973 that Emanuel Ax won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in New York, followed in 1974 when he won the Arthur Rubenstein International Piano Competition in Tel Aviv. Forty years later Ax is a lion of the piano and of the orchestral music community, but he is no lion in winter, his touch on the keys as sure and as firm as ever, his clear, often crystalline tone still immediately recognizable to the discerning listener. At Elizabethtown College's Leffler Chapel and Performance Center on March 19, Gretna Music presented Ax in a concert of Beethoven and Chopin that, although traditional in its program, brought Ax's notable technique to the performance, to the delight of the audience that evening.

The evening began with Beethoven's Sonata in A Major, Op. 2, No. 2, a piece that has always been greatly reminiscent of Clementi's compositions, but which is nonetheless one of the most classic works of the young Beethoven. Audience members familiar with Gould's recording may have been struck by Ax's nuances in the first theme of the Allegro and with the tone of the second theme carrying into the canon, while the Largo's counterpointed theme was made only clearer and more pronounced by Ax's dynamic performance. The Scherzo (a new concept in the sonatas of the period, replacing the minuets that were common at the time) was all-too-short, leading into the Rondo,in which Ax's crisp and precise attack was a welcome treatment of the lyrical mood in the movement.

Breaking up the Beethoven half of the program, Ax inserted Schonberg's Six Little Pieces, Op. 19, which the composer intended to represent the lability of mood that humans demonstrate regularly. As the composer intended, the pieces, ranged from a licht that is delicate enough to suggest all the curiosity of a kitten exploring its world, to a concluding sehr langsam that is a lugubrious but not at all oppressive tribute composed on Mahler's death. Ax's deft handling of the brief movements - if they can truly be called that in their extreme brevity - delighted the audience as an audial "palate cleanser" for the next Beethoven piece, the Piano Sonata in c minor ("Pathetique"), Op. 13.

Beethoven was the equivalent of a modern rock star in his day, as is Ax in the classical world, and the combination of the two was not lost on the audience - nor, one suspects, was the fact that the second movement, the Adagio cantabile, is not only one of the best-known pieces of classical music in the world, but has also been borrowed by modern rock star Billy Joel. The opening Grave began with Ax's strong attack on the chords at the opening, allowing for a sense of anger or righteousness under the sorrow one customarily finds in it, before moving into the Allegro (in which a homage to Bach cannot help but be heard). The end of the Schonberg was the perfect prelude to this movement.

After intermission, Ax performed Chopin's Nocturne in E-flat major, Op. 55, No. 2, and the Sonata No. 3 in b minor, Op. 58. The Nocturne is notably different from the others in its lack of a contrasting second half, and is a short and deep piece, its continually developing line of melody bringing a true sense of night-like darkness to the listener despite its near-Baroque feel. One might compare Ax's handling of the theme against Rubenstein's, for interest; he has always had a fine touch with Chopin, as anyone who owns his recordings knows well. The nearly endless series of trills was displayed without the least muddiness, a satisfying performance.

The Sonata opens with a full-flowing melody nearly martial in its sound and strongly developed in its presentation though Ax's tones, moving into the second theme, moved into moments of real delicacy, and the brief Scherzo, an ephemeral break between the first and third movements, provided an alternation of joy with moments of sudden depth. The piece ends in an ebullient transition into B major in the coda, precisely articulated, as were the emphatic, dissonant chords that began the concluding Presto.

The audience's reception of Ax's performance included four returns by Ax to the Leffler stage following the continuous and well-deserved outpouring of enthusiasm for the program and for Ax.

Gretna Music continues its season with a summer program at the Mount Gretna Playhouse, featuring jazz and dance as well as classical music in the Music at Gretna series. For information, 717-361-1508 or visit www.gretnamusic.org.

Photo credit: Maurice Jerry Beznos

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