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ARTS&LIFE
Glamourous piano-cello duo shines Stars dazzle with glittering showmanship REVIEW I
Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax
In concert for the Vancouver Recital Society
Chan Centre, UBC, Dec. IO
BY DAVID GORDON DUKE
Pianist Emanuel Ax and cel list Yo-Yo Ma form one of North America's most glamorous duos. Their superstar status notwithstanding, Ax and Ma have developed in the years since their first Vancouver per formance in 1986. Both have been influenced by and adapted to new performing directions: Ax with his "authentic piano" Chopin, Ma through his work with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra. Do es it matter in an all B e e t h o v e n p r o g r a m? Beethoven's cello sonatas were conceived in the tradition of accompanied piano sonatas and, given the sound of then con temporary instruments, the notion of beefing up the bass with cello made practical sense. Today's modern instrument performers have to think' long and hard about how to make the sonatas work. Friday's program, which start-
ed amiably enough, proved tough and demanding. The vari ations on Bin Miidchen oder Weibchen from Mozart's The Magic Flute, too inventive to be conventional, established the duo's expansive and ultra-styl ish delivery. A similar style held in the early Sonata in F major, Op.5, No. 1. Beautifully syn chronized playing in the impro visatory Adagio sostenuto fused into the frisky Allegro, with its showy c a d enza - l i k e c o d a (which fooled neophytes in the house into premature applause). Ax and Ma egged each other on, so that it was sometimes hard to know where extroverted charm ended and mannerisms began. Ax took the unexpected step of addressing the audience after the variations, and his shaggy, humorous comments about the first half's two sonatas made an important point. The first sonata is by a young composer with something to prove; the second is an entirely different matter. With the audience suit ably warned, the performers did nothing to sugar-coat Opus 102, No.I. The duo matched the edgy music with a range of sound which in most other con texts might have seemed forced or downright ugly, but their commitment to this almost exasperatingly intense work was total. After the interval came two further aspects of Beethoven. By the standards of Opus 102, the Variations on Bei Miinnern, welche Liebe filhlen from The Magic Flute are little more than
Superstar cellist Yo Yo Ma, who performed Beethoven sonatas for cello and piano with Emanuel Ax on Dec. 10 at the Chan Centre in Vancouver.
a cynical potboiler; yet Ma's cantabile in the penultimate variation was strangely reassur ing. The approachable A major Sonata, Op.69 provided a sure and clever conclusion, with a
performance that emphasized formal design in the opening movement, rhythm in the scherzo, and glittering show manship in the finale.
David Gordon Duke is a Vancouver writer and educator.