Elegant teamwork and virtuosity from Yo-Yo Ma and Kathryn Stott in a San Francisco recital – Seen and Heard Worldwide

United States Varied: Yo-Yo Ma (cello), Kathryn Stott (piano). Offered by San Francisco Symphony, Davies Symphony Corridor, San Francisco, 2.4.2024. (HS)

Fauré – ‘Berceuse’, Op.16; ‘Papillon’, Op.77
Dvořák – ‘Songs My Mom Taught Me’
Sérgio Assad – ‘Menino’
Nadia Boulanger – ‘Cantique’
Shostakovich – Cello Sonata in D minor, Op.40
Pärt – ‘Spiegel im Spiegel’
Franck – Violin Sonata in A significant (transcribed for cello)

Cellist Yo-Yo Ma and pianist Kathryn Stott have been taking part in recitals collectively for 4 many years. To say they had been on the identical web page of their recital in San Francisco was by no means shocking. What that unanimity created in music, from the non secular simplicity of Arvo Pärt to the dexterity required for sonatas by Dmitri Shostakovich and César Franck, was nothing wanting breathtaking.

The viewers in a packed Davies Corridor sat enthralled by the proceedings. It didn’t damage that Ma made some extent of noting that Stott plans to step away from performing on the finish of this 12 months. That this could be their final efficiency in San Francisco, a daily cease in earlier years, added a frisson of poignancy to a program already aimed on the heartstrings. It’s a assortment assembled by Stott of items they performed and recorded through the years.

This system, to be repeated on an April tour that takes them to Los Angeles, Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, touches on a shared historical past that traces again to earlier generations. Stott studied with famed instructor and composer Nadia Boulanger on the Menuhin College close to London, and Ma’s school professor had been taught by Luise Vosgerchian, who additionally studied with Boulanger.

This system opened with a collection that started with two songs with out phrases by French composer Gabriel Fauré, himself a mentor and buddy to Boulanger. The Fauré songs bracketed Boulanger’s beautiful ‘Cantique’, Dvořák’s ‘Songs My Mom Taught Me’ and the Brazilian guitarist Sergio Assad’s ‘Menino’, which Ma and Stott included of their 2003 album, Obrigado Brazil, in a piano-cello association. The suite sailed easily, a research in totally realized and detailed phrasing, steadiness and intent.

All that sweetness was adopted by a stunningly exact efficiency of Shostakovich’s Cello Sonata in D minor, which Ma launched as ‘talking fact to energy’. Though the piece debuted earlier than Stalin’s notorious condemnation of the composer over Girl Macbeth of Mtsensk, its candy lyricism does certainly step by step give strategy to one in all Shostakovich’s tough-minded marches and to tart dissonances because it develops.

Ma and Stott caught these emotional hooks deftly, the transitions occurring with a naturalness that sneaked up on a listener, because the composer had meant. Stott matched Ma’s skill to toss off the music with impeccable virtuosity, irrespective of how difficult the execution, making all of it really feel natural.

After the intermission got here Pärt’s ‘Spiegel im Spiegel’, in its authentic string soloist-and-piano model. Like his trendsetting ‘Fratres’, which debuted a 12 months earlier than, this experiment in early minimalism was distinctive for its ethereal features. The mirrors within the title apply to the whole-note solo line, which matches up the dimensions in opposition to a easy, broken-chord accompaniment, solely to descend on completely different notes as if on reflection. It is a effective instance of what made Pärt’s items magical for many people.

Pictures of Earth and outer house, taken by the Hubbell and Webb telescopes and projected on a display screen above the Gamers, added an additional dimension. Stott had launched the piece as a ‘second of peace’ after the energetic Shostakovich sonata. And certainly it was. Refined modifications in dynamics and tone from each musicians added depth to the music.

This system concluded with César Franck and the showy Violin Sonata in A significant. Franck himself sanctioned a model for cello credited to cellist Jules Delsart, a up to date of Franck’s, however Ma performed from the violin rating. Written for Eugene Ysaÿe, the piece doesn’t lack for technical challenges for violinists, and Ma’s accuracy on the prime of the cello’s vary made the music really feel completely pure. Every return of the principle themes – which pop up repeatedly by all 4 actions – managed to be concurrently acquainted and recent. Better of all, the wandering momentum modifications got here collectively step by step over the piece’s thirty minutes, gathering the music right into a rousing finale.

The 2 encores gave the impression to be spontaneous since Ma didn’t have the music and needed to slide his chair nearer to Stott’s bench to learn over her shoulder. They began with a heartfelt and idiomatic traversal of Ernest Bloch’s ‘Prayer’ from the suite ‘From Jewish Life’, which the duo recorded on their current album, Songs of Consolation. After that soulful second got here a dazzler, the Brazilian pianist and composer Cesar Camargo Mariano’s ‘Cristal’. If the steadiness between the 2 musicians muddied the cello’s melodic line infrequently, the sheer power was sufficient to ship the viewers out into the cool San Francisco night smiling.

Harvey Steiman