By Jay Weitz, Program Annotator, Chamber Music Columbus
Listen to cellist David Finckel talk music for just a few moments and you can’t help but get caught up in his enthusiasm.
“Great music is the sound of life itself and, God knows, life is filled with everything. That’s what makes it interesting. That’s what makes it a human experience, and music is no different.” That’s Finckel in a phone interview in late December from his New York office, where he and his pianist wife Wu Han have served as artistic directors of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center since 2004.
On Saturday, January 28, 2012, at 8 p.m., Finckel, Wu Han, and clarinetist David Shifrin return to the Southern Theatre for the new year’s first Chamber Music Columbus concert. That all-volunteer organization has been presenting the best of the world’s chamber music to Central Ohio since 1948.
“To return to this organization and to this theatre, especially, in Columbus, is always a pleasure,” Finckel says. “I love coming there to play. I love the town. I love the theatre and the organization I think is one of the finest in America. We feel so fortunate to have been able to come so many times.” As cellist of the renowned Emerson String Quartet, Finckel has come to Columbus in 1980, 1982, 1984, and 1989. Finckel and Wu Han have performed as a duet under the auspices of Chamber Music Columbus in 2006 and 2010. “Yeah, I do have a lot of different little bands I can come with,” Finckel quips. Chamber Music Columbus brought clarinetist Shifrin here in 1987 with pianist Jeffrey Kahane and violinist Joseph Swensen.
On their January 28th concert, Wu Han, Finckel, and Shifrin will perform Ludwig van Beethoven’s Trio in B-flat major, for piano, clarinet, and cello, op. 11; Max Bruch’s Four pieces for piano, clarinet, and cello, from op. 83; and Johannes Brahms’ Trio in A minor for piano, clarinet, and cello, op. 114. WOSU classical music host Jennifer Hambrick will conduct a pre-concert interview with the performers at 7 p.m., onstage at the Southern Theatre.
In honor of their musical artistry, their administrative prowess, and their educational mission, Wu Han and Finckel were recently named “Musicians of the Year” as part of the 2012 Musical America Awards. As an educator, Finckel always insists that students become familiar with the personalities of the composers, suggesting that they know at least one “defining anecdote” to inform their performance.
In anticipation of bringing us Beethoven’s Trio, op. 11, Finckel recalled the composer’s reputation as a legendary piano improviser. At some formal occasion, Beethoven’s keyboard inventiveness had brought tears to the eyes of many in the audience. “He looked up and saw these people sitting there with tears running down their cheeks,” Finckel related. “All of a sudden without any warning he took both his arms, banged this huge loud chord on the piano. Everybody jumped. He stood up, laughed at all of them, and left the room. That somehow is very characteristic of his music where you often find him leading the listener to some quiet corner and then making a huge surprise. The element of the unexpected in Beethoven’s music is so important.”
For Finckel, one of the unexpected delights of performing with friend and colleague David Shifrin has been the different perspective introduced by the clarinet. As Finckel explains, “Playing with a clarinet in partnership is very different from playing with a violin because it has a very different sound. But it has a sound which is, for me, equally expressive and which presents certain challenges and opportunities in terms of timbral blend and dialogue, and it also leads a cellist, at least a cellist who’s listening, … to new ways, new avenues of expression.”
“There’s no instrument that can make a line so long and beautiful as a clarinet,” he continues. “The range — the tonal range and the dynamic range — of the clarinet is phenomenal. It can play softer and louder than just about any instrument. So you find ways to increase those possibilities as a string player and it’s been so good for my playing to have thrown myself into this program, this repertoire.”
About Shifrin himself, Finckel continues, “David … is one of the great artists, one of the great interpreters, one of the great musicians. … I swear, every time he plays this music, even in rehearsal, he sounds as though he’s rediscovering it for himself. … He’s always finding new ways of looking at a phrase. It’s a continual process of discovery and evolution working with him, and I have to say, in every way these are just some of the greatest musical experiences of my life.”
Introducing more people to the delights of chamber music is never far from Finckel’s thoughts. “Audiences have sensed that they have no less intense an experience going to a chamber music concert as opposed to when they go to a symphony concert,” he says, “but there’s also the feeling of inclusion. Without a conductor sort of between the orchestra and the audience, the musicians have an opportunity to connect directly. In a good chamber music performance where you’re in a good hall like the Southern Theatre, I think that the audience feels like they are part of the ensemble, … an essential component.”
Come and hear exactly why he’s so enthusiastic, when Chamber Music Columbus presents pianist Wu Han, cellist David Finckel, and clarinetist David Shifrin, performing music of Ludwig van Beethoven, Max Bruch, and Johannes Brahms, on Saturday, January 28, 2012, at 8 p.m., with pre-concert interview, 7 p.m., at the Southern Theatre, 21 East Main Street at South High Street, Columbus. Tickets $40 (Main Floor), $35 (Loge and First Balcony), $15 (Second Balcony), and those 25 and under and students half price. Tickets are available only through the CAPA Ticket Office (614-469-0939) and TicketMaster. For information, call Chamber Music Columbus at 614-267-2267 or check out the Chamber Music Columbus Web site at http://www.CMColumbus.org.
