GREENSBORO, NC – You could almost hear the consternation behind the scenes as Gerard Schwarz and the Eastern Music Festival deliberated over what to call their most recent Saturday evening concert, the penultimate fourth of five offerings in this season’s Joseph M. Bryan Jr. concert series. All four of the pieces on the program could have been a headliner, beginning with Antonio Vivaldi’s Concerto for Lute and Strings, played on guitar by the estimable Jason Vieaux. At this banquet, Vieaux’s virtuosity and soul would merely be an appetizer, whetting our palates for Richard Strauss’s Don Juan, Paul Hindemith’s Mathis der Maler symphony, and Ludwig van Beethoven’s Triple Concerto for violin, cello, and piano – with three more virtuosic guests, violinist Chee-Yun, cellist Amanda Forsyth, and pianist Marika Bournaki.
With all the many opportunities for headshot placement in print and in an epic digital program booklet, the spotlight was more than ample enough for all four artists to get at least one four-color nod in a key location. In what might be taken as a tiebreaker, EMF Board Chair, Al Stephens listed Forsyth along with Béla Fleck as the most stellar EMF guests for 2024 in his seasonal welcome inside the printed festival program. So, after what must have been extensive brainstorming, the cryptic “Symphonic Triptych” emerged in all caps as our concert title. At first blush, the reference seems to be an oblique nod to Beethoven’s Triple, but it more solidly evokes Hindemith’s symphonic distillation of his opera. Mathis der Maler, for which Hindemith also penned the libretto, chronicled the struggles of painter Matthias Grünewald for artistic freedom during the German Peasants’ War, more than four centuries before its 1938 premiere. By that time, Hindemith had escaped Nazi Germany with his partly Jewish wife and was living in Switzerland, so the Zurich premiere was actually played three years after the composition was complete.
From a symphonic standpoint, the Mathis symphony was the highlight of the evening, providing the most sensational musical moment. Schwarz seemed to have rehearsed the piece even more meticulously than the Don Juan, for the mammoth student/faculty EMF orchestra at Guilford College occasionally overwhelmed Dana Auditorium with its ebullient volume. When the third and final movement of the Mathis exploded, where Hindemith evokes the hellish onslaught depicted by Grünewald in his Saint Anthony Tormented by Demons, the detonation could hardly have been more impactful and delightful – powerful yet deftly controlled. The éclat of this final movement, which shuttles to Grünewald’s Visit of Saint Anthony to Saint Paul the Hermit before returning to turbulence, may have been too much for the Greensboro audience. The number of satisfied – or dissatisfied? – ticketholders who did not return after intermission was shocking.
Did they not know that that Beethoven’s Triple – with a visual triptych of Chee-Yun, Forsyth, and Bournaki – was still to come? Were they so delighted that they feared the Beethoven would mar the perfection? Or was the worry that Beethoven’s mighty Triple, which is actually shorter than most of his piano concertos, might keep them up past their bedtimes? It wasn’t a good look when the three ladies made their regal entrances.
All three were rather entrancing afterwards. One of the challenges Beethoven posed to himself when he started on this behemoth was allotting all three soloists with ample parts – and letting all three achieve parity in how they measured against the orchestra. This goal obliged Beethoven to make adjustments and accommodations for the cellist and his or her background accompaniment. The most noteworthy adjustment, playing the instrument in a higher register than usual, is a laudable last step that works beautifully in live performance as the cellist frequently introduces new melodies and themes that will be repeated by the pianist and the violinist. But this last graceful touch tends to disappear on recordings, where we often get the illusory impression that it’s the violin that’s leading the way.
Chee-Yun, violin with cellist Amanda Forsyth and pianist Marka Bournaki. Photo credit: Perry Tannenbaum
All of the volleying back and forth gets its beautiful balance restored when we enjoy the Beethoven Triple live. Alternately facing each other and the audience, Forsyth and Chee-Yun delivered the chief revelation of live performance with the chemistry between them. Facing away from the string soloists, Bournaki divided her attention between the keyboard and Schwarz’s baton. There were moments, especially during the epic outer movements of the Triple, when Bournaki and the orchestra were answering proclamations by both string players playing simultaneously, and there were moments when the whole trio was pitted against the full ensemble. These were most electric in the opening Allegro and in the closing Rondo alla Polacca, a finale that was absolute magic at the Dana. In between these two tidal waves was a pleasant paradise of a Largo, where the Forsyth/Chee-Yun chemistry took root almost immediately, preceding a gorgeous blossoming from Bournaki.
When you saw Forsyth leading the charge so frequently, that was only half of the revelation, for the agility of her cello became the equal of the violin while the sound invaded its range. Chee-Yun met these repeated challenges ruthlessly, passionately, emerging particularly triumphant in the whirlwinds of the Rondo, where her violin reached the highest peaks at the end of the thrilling, accelerating ascents.
Guitarist Jason Vieaux with Gerard Schwarz and the Eastern Music Festival Orchestra
Vieaux could never reach the decibel levels of the soloists who followed him, but he didn’t vie with nearly the same amount of heavy artillery behind him in the Vivaldi. Nor was there any type of boost in front of him like the mini-amp Sharon Isbin brought to her 2005 Zurich Chamber Orchestra concert in Charlotte. Here the outer Allegro movements, summoning scintillating technique from Vieaux, were not as memorable as the middle Largo, maybe the most beautiful flowering of melody that Vivaldi ever wrote. The mellow sounds Vieaux coaxed from his guitar were infused with glimmering sublimity.
While the Don Juan that ensued didn’t match Vieaux’s finesse, we weren’t looking for subtlety in Strauss’s heroic tone poem. Yet it was in the quiet, intimate passages where the faculty-student orchestra was most controlled. Even if it occasionally overflowed, the enthusiasm of this mammoth band was contagious, overpowering any quibbles one might have about discipline. This youthful enthusiasm and élan may be a prime reason why Schwarz might look forward to returning each summer to Greensboro, why the faculty revels in playing the old warhorses along with challenging outré pieces, smiling onstage with pride after long days of rehearsals and private lessons. Playing with the new generation is likely exhilarating and rejuvenating for the guest artists as well. Every one of them at this concert also hosted a masterclass in addition to their valuable rehearsal time. Just a few performances of the EMF’s 2024 program remain, rounded out by the Young Artist Orchestra Finale and the Festival Orchestra’s Finale. The full schedule is available here.
