Stella Chen, violin; Andrew Hsu, piano
Chaconne from the Partita in D minor – Bach
Fantasie in C major, D. 960 – Schubert
Abendlied, arr. Joachim – Schumann
Alas, another fine season has ended. These free, live concerts featuring students from The Juilliard School will resume in September. I’ll try to give a heads up for their return. Wednesday’s concert began with the Bach. Though there was no printed program, I was able to grab the listing from WQXR’s website. So even though my notes for the first piece referred to the slightly sad sounding, but lovely (Sarabande?) solo violin composition, it was indeed a Chaconne. The extended solo section—no chords or double stops—then added some of those and increased in intensity, volume and liveliness. It was quite lengthy and very impressive.
Ms. Chen was then joined by Mr. Hsu for the Schubert. After playing the first piece from memory, both played from scores here, old-fashioned for her and new-fashioned (tablet) for him. It began with a soft piano section joined by a simple violin tune that was very sweet, in a slightly haunting way, set against a rippling accompaniment. Next was a switch to a dance section, possibly folk tune based, that was fun to listen to, with a few humorous passages thrown in. There was a little bit of everything—a piano interlude leading into what seemed to be a song/vocalise with three little verses, a pizzicato variation set to a running accompaniment with lots of scales for both piano and violin—in short, lots and lots of musical ideas explored. A nice work nicely performed.
Schumann’s Abendlied was gentle and lovely, relatively simple and straightforward. And touching. It was the perfect send-off to a wonderful season. Thank you, Juilliard and WQXR.
ConcertMeister
Hmm, a double-posting. Which one do you like best?!?
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