Music preview: 'IU Summer Music Festival''
Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio also among IU festival’s offerings
By Peter Jacobi
June 15, 2007
Though the IU Summer Music Festival gets underway this evening with a departure from the norm — a visitation from the award-winning African American female vocal ensemble, Sweet Honey in the Rock — its usual chamber music focus will be very much in evidence as the opening week unfurls.
Six such events bring a variety of talents to the Auer Hall stage: visitors such as the Biava Quartet, pianist Logan Skelton and Brooklyn Chamber Music Society director and violinist Carmit Zori; Jacobs School alum and pianist Corey Smythe; and Jacobs faculty, including violist Atar Arad, pianist Chih-Yi Chen and still another pianist, the eminent Menahem Pressler, he appearing with “friends” in warm-up for his late June concert with the Beaux Arts Trio.
This first burst of musical activity culminates next Sunday afternoon when the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio makes a return appearance. The Kalichstein in this ensemble is Joseph Kalichstein, he of distinguished performance credentials and a long-held position at the esteemed Juilliard School. The Laredo is violinist and husband Jaime; the Robinson is cellist and wife Sharon. They, along with all their concert work, devote significantly to the training of future professionals through their endeavors as members of the Jacobs faculty.
For close to 32 years, these three musicians have come together to make music, gaining critical and public acclaim. For them, they’ll tell you, it’s a labor of love. “It’s a cause for wonderment and satisfaction,” Kalichstein said when I caught him by phone at his New Jersey home early this past week. “You’re aware it is not that common, and if one is asked to think about it, the reaction, I suppose, is to congratulate oneself for contributions made toward the success of such a relationship. But it’s been a wonderful part of our lives. What is better than to play music with friends and to share it with so many others?”
“We like each other. We enjoy ourselves,” was Laredo’s explanation. “Joe is such a wonderful colleague. We have fun together.”
He and Robinson were at their second home, in Vermont, getting a bit of rest while also practicing and preparing for a four-day Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson recording stint, to be finished in New York prior to the musicians’ arrival in Bloomington. The CD being recorded will contain four pieces commissioned by the trio, including Joan Tower’s “For Daniel,” which holds the center of next Sunday’s concert.
“It’s a powerful piece,” said Robinson. “Joan wrote it in memory of her dying nephew. There’s grieving and frustration in the music.”
“And anger,” Laredo interjected.
“And struggle,” added Kalichstein, “Joan Tower’s struggle to deal with the loss of this young man and the nephew’s struggle to breathe. I think the music describes his optimism, despite his condition, and her contrasting anger for the loss of someone so young. The music is effective, often lyrical.”
“We’re recording ‘For Daniel’ after a number of performances,” said Robinson. “Here is where those of us in classical music differ from those in other areas. They record first and promote the recording through live performances that follow. We try to perfect a piece first, then document it on record.”
“Working with Joan is always satisfying,” said Laredo. “She has contributed to our performances of ‘For Daniel,’ bringing to us her reflections but allowing us always to develop the interpretation.”
“She’s a wonderful musician,” said Kalichstein. “She plays the piece on the piano, and she contributed ideas, sometimes just by deciding, with us, to change a detail. Since I don’t compose, this is the closest thing for me to know what it’s like, and that’s a joy.”
Joy seems to sum up the trio’s approach to music. According to Laredo, “Rehearsals are very democratic. Everything we do is democratic. Each of us brings ideas. We’ve practiced alone and thought about the music. When we’re together, we share. We’re lucky. Ninety percent of the time, there’s agreement on tempo and approach. Occasionally, when one of us disagrees, what we do is we’ll try it two different ways, but not just in rehearsal. We play it both ways in concert. That usually leads us to agreement.”
“Rehearsals alone can’t solve the issue,” said Robinson. “In concert, we achieve accord.”
“We question,” added Laredo. “Why are we playing a passage so slow? Let’s try it another way. This keeps us fresh, musically alive. For us, making music is never routine.”
“There’s always a re-examination, a re-thinking,” said Kalichstein. “Music requires that. It deserves that. As we practice and as we perform, we’re always reacting. That leads us to change.”
To open their Bloomington concert, the three have chosen Beethoven’s Trio in B Flat, Opus 11, “a sunny piece,” according to Kalichstein. “We wanted something happy to start with, but, you know, the second movement is profound emotionally. Beethoven was never afraid to show feelings. Also, historically, for the first time in the Opus 11, the cello is dominant rather than subservient. Beethoven here has discovered the instrument’s singing qualities. He was always the revolutionary, wasn’t he?”
The program concludes with Tchaikovsky’s A Minor Trio, Opus 50, written, as was the Tower piece, upon the death of someone close, in Tchaikovsky’s case, his former teacher and longtime friend, pianist Nicholas Rubinstein.
“We love the Tchaikovsky,” said Laredo, “but we can’t play it too often. It’s physically and emotionally exhausting, draining.”
“The second movement,” added Kalichstein, “describes Rubinstein’s personality and expresses movingly how he will be missed as man and artist.”
Two memorial works and Beethoven (“at his cheeriest,” said Robinson): that’s in store for us to cap a busy week. It must be summer.
The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music would like
to thank the Herald Times for permission to republish this review.
