In setting the stage for this concert’s “musical dialogue
between East and West,” cellist and CEWM Artistic Director Yehuda Hanani noted
that while western music typically features “a buildup of tension followed by
release,” Chinese music seeks instead to achieve “a state of nirvana.” The
enterprising selection of European and Chinese music that followed largely
confirmed this distinction.
The program opened with Ravel’s “Mother Goose” Suite in
an arrangement by the performer, Bulgarian-born pianist Emma Tahmizian. Before
playing, she explained that her arrangement focused on the “magical notes”
connecting the five movements and that she would omit the second movement,
“Little Tom Thumb.” This was an unfortunate loss, as her playing was rich in
detail and nuance, and her arrangement gave the piquant music a newly chromatic
edge.
For the rest of the program’s first half, Tahmizian was
joined by Israeli violinist Hagai Shaham. Their taut but flexible rendition of
Debussy’s “Violin Sonata” made it sound both jazzier and more exotic than
usual. The exhilaration they demonstrated in a passionate account of Joseph Achron’s
soulful “Hebrew Melody” looked much like the nirvana that Hanani associated
with Chinese music. And they were so exuberant in Fritz Kreisler’s “Tambourin
Chinois” that Shaham broke at least one string before it ended.
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| "Empress of Pipa" Liu Fang |
Cellist Hanani then joined her for two American
premieres: Zhou Long’s “Green,” and Ahmad Hamdan’s “From Ahmad to Liu Fang.”
Though the balance between the two instruments didn’t always work, Long’s piece
made the stronger impression.
It was a gutsy move to conclude the program with
Tahmizian’s dazzling account of Leo Ornstein’s “A la Chinoise,” which, though
written almost a century ago, sounded like the most modern and cosmopolitan
work of the evening.
