Berman and López: Gifts to Cincinnati
The Cincinnati MacDowell Society shared an exquisite event
with local audiences Sunday afternoon at Mt. Auburn Presbyterian Church in Clifton.
Performing a concert simply too good to be kept private were members of Ensemble Vita, a chamber orchestra comprising musicians from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, led by their founder/conductor Antoine-François López, and international violinist Tatiana Berman.
López, a senior at CCM, led the 28-member orchestra in
strong, well-paced performances of Beethoven’s Overture to “Egmont” and “Siegfried
Idyll” by Wagner.
Violinist Berman, more of a well-kept secret in Cincinnati, I would guess, than to the outside world (though that is changing rapidly), was guest artist in a breath-taking performance of Tchaikovsky’s “Souvenir d’un lieu cher,” Op. 42.
MacDowell members and non-members alike (estimated at over 100) enjoyed the afternoon musicale in the warm, wood-and-stained-glass chancel of the historic church.
López, who led a fine performance of Ensemble Vita last fall
at Mt. Auburn Presbyterian, including Haydn’s Symphony No. 44 (“Trauer”),
encored handsomely on this occasion. An
impressive figure on the podium, standing tall, with precise, well-defined gestures, he
conducts entirely from memory -- the better for a young conductor to work with
an orchestra, he said -- and there was feeling and self-assurance in everything he
did. His transition in "Egmont" from the slow
introduction to the dramatic Allegro was effortless
and smooth, eliciting just the right unbroken surge of excitement. He shushed the brasses when they got too heavy,
and the heroic conclusion was as exciting as one could wish.
Berman is already familiar to Cincinnati music-lovers “in the know” for her performances with the cutting-edge chamber ensemble concert:nova (which she helped found), recitals at UC and Northern Kentucky University and guest appearances with organizations throughout Greater Cincinnati. She performs often for Classical Revolution in Northside, and she made a highly successful debut as prime mover and artistic director of the brand new Constella Festival of Music and Fine Arts last fall.
For Berman, however, administrative skills and other attainments are icing on the cake, for she is first and foremost a superb musician. The quality of her sound and the character of her expression give her a uniqueness that sets her apart, even, I daresay, on the international circuit, where she also performs.
Originally for violin and piano, Tchaikovsky’s “Souvenir d’un lieu cher” is dedicated to a place, not a person. He composed it at his patroness Nadezhda von Meck’s country estate in Ukraine, hence the title, “Memory of a cherished place.” It is in three movements, published together and separately, and was later orchestrated by Alexander Glazunov. Berman performed the lovely arrangement for violin and string orchestra by Romanian-Dutch composer Alexandru Lascae (1942-2009).
It was a divine fit, enhanced by López’ skillful accompaniment, and no one who was there will soon forget it. The opening “Méditation” (originally intended to be the slow movement of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto) transpires high on the violin’s lowest string, a task many violinists cannot handle without producing a heavy, “throaty” sound. Berman’s tone was even and satiny smooth, seemingly produced without effort. Her distinctive vibrato, rapid, but also variable, lent an indefinable sweetness to her tone across the range of her instrument. Her phrasing was nuanced and beautifully shaped, with rapid, precisely measured trills and swaths of bowing that yielded a taffeta sheen. She sealed the movement with an ethereal high D (more than an octave-and-a-half above the staff).
In the second movement “Scherzo,” a perpetual motion Presto with a lyrical mid-section, she moved like the wind, wielding a light, springing bow and interspersing pizzicato chords nimbly and clearly. The concluding “Mélodie,” most familiar of the three movements, was superbly musical, bringing the suite to a radiant end.
López and the orchestra got an early start on the upcoming Wagner bicentennial (2013) with “Siegfried Idyll” (a birthday present for Wagner’s second wife Cosima). This, too, was very well done, with fine solos by clarinetist Adam Butalewicz and hornist Aaron Bartos, and scrupulous attention to inner voices by López, bringing the concert to a happy, assertive end.
The crowd’s ovation was long and warm-hearted, and many listeners stayed afterward to congratulate the performers.
(Writer’s addendum: López is the son of Jesús López-Cobos, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra music director from 1986-2001. Berman is former wife of Paavo Järvi, CSO music director from 2001-2011.)