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As Washington Performing Arts Society President Neale Perl pointed out, Monday evening's recital at the Kennedy Center was cellist Yo-Yo Ma's 23rd appearance sponsored by the organization. WPAS returns again and again to someone like Ma, not only because one can be reasonably assured that he will deliver a fine recital but also because he can sell out a space like the Concert Hall, even though it is arguably too large for the sort of performance he will give. As the evening was also the occasion for the WPAS Fall Celebration gala, with the concert as its centerpiece, Ma offered a selection of some of the greatest hits from his prolific discography.
It was all beautifully played, with an emphasis on ethereal sound and gentle rather than forceful interpretation. The opening of Schubert's sonata for arpeggione (A minor, D. 821) set the tone, almost too soft to be heard, followed by a subtle folk accelerando on the second theme. The second movement showed off Ma's luscious, broadly shaped legato, full of ardor. If Ma has a weakness, it is an avoidance of rawer, bravura sound, as in the spiccato passages in the third movement. English pianist Kathryn Stott, who has partnered with Ma on recent recordings (instead of Emanuel Ax), was technically proficient if perhaps too subservient to her more famous counterpart.
The high point of the program was the gloriously decadent Shostakovich D minor sonata, op. 40, a piece that the average listener would not identify as belonging to the dreaded, dissonant oeuvre of the modern era. Ma's reading seemed to take off from where the Schubert ended, in long-lined lyricism and a first-movement tempo definitely on the non troppo side of Allegretto. The scherzo was a danse macabre of skeletons and machine-gun motifs, while the somber folk recitative of the third movement featured a piano interlude of graveyard bells. The fourth movement's turn toward the more bitter tone often associated with Shostakovich was communicated well, especially in the spiteful, ultrafast dance-like section. The first half probably should have ended there, but the duo pressed on with a movement from Astor Piazzolla's Tango Suite (no. 4, Le Grand Tango), an extremely appealing work that is more or less the Argentinian equivalent of Ravel's La Valse. The tone was tragic but intensely contained, exactly the mood of the tango.
The only thing better than hearing Yo-Yo Ma play a recital like this is taking someone with you who has never been to the Kennedy Center before. Was it painful? Here is what DCist's own Arts Editor, Heather Goss, had to say about riding along to hear some classical music:
One nice part about seeing Yo-Yo Ma as a completely green classical music fan is that you can walk out saying, "That was amazing," and you're pretty much guaranteed to be right. Watching him go after his cello strings with such passion it literally catapults him right out of his seat, you know you're watching the classical music Rock Star. Along with Stott, who hit her keys with similarly dramatic arm movements, they almost seemed to be 'dueling banjos' at times; finishing their notes with the kind of intense enthusiasm and satisfaction that gave the other the friendly ultimatum to "Go ahead, beat that," (and lucky for us, the other always rose to the challenge). Even in their quieter moments, watching Ma and Stott somehow hold barely imperceptible notes for what seemed to be an impossibly long time was breathtaking.The second half opened with a selection from Ma's Obrigado Brazil disc, Bodas de Prata & Quatro Cantos by Egberto Gismonti (b. 1947), a set of character pieces ranging from the atmospheric and melancholy to more muscular pop-inspired song. It was a tasty but non-filling introduction to César Franck's A major sonata, featured on Ma and Stott's 2003 recording of French sonatas. Again the first movement's tempo was moderate, creating a soft, introspective character, contrasted by the wild-eyed intensity of the furtive, breathless second movement. All night long, Ma's many excursions onto the highest string of his exquisite Davidoff Stradivarius, made in 1712 and previously owned by Jacqueline du Pré, were most beautiful when a degree of caution was observed. Apply too much pressure, and the tone could become strident, as it did sometimes in the last movement. At the end of this sumptuous meal, three encores were offered by Ma and Stott, like gracious hosts who seem to know that you need just one more Armagnac to keep warm on the walk home: cello-piano arrangements of Elgar's Salut d'Amour, Gershwin's first piano prelude, and Saint-Saëns' Swan from Carnival of the Animals.
The next WPAS classical concert features Dmitri Hvorostovsky (November 20, 8 p.m.), putting all of his smarmy, sebaceous charm to use in a program called From Russia with Love, with the Academy of Choral Art and the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, in the Music Center at Strathmore. It will be just like his last WPAS recital, but even more so.
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