December 11, 2024
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth
Houston, TX – USA
“Time’s Echo”
Jeremy Eichler, guest author; Sarah Rothenberg, director and pianist; Astrid Nakamura, violin; Chris Ellis, cello.
Dmitri SHOSTAKOVICH: Piano Trio No. 2 (1943-44)
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART: String Quintet No.2 in C minor, K.406/516b
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN: String Quintet in C major, Op. 29 (“Storm”)
Lawrence Wheeler | 13 DEC 2024
Wednesday evening, Houston’s DACAMERA, in conjunction with The Menil Collection, presented a program combining literature and music. The featured book was “Time’s Echo,” written by Jeremy Eichler, for 18 years the chief classical music critic of the Boston Globe. The featured work was Dmitri Shostakovich’s Piano Trio No. 2, written in 1943-44. Pianist Sarah Rothenberg was joined by two DACAMERA Young Artists, violinist Astrid Nakamura and cellist Chris Ellis. The program was free of charge.
A respected music critic, Eichler is also an accomplished student of history. Drawing on these two knowledge bases, he has written a book contextualizing works by four composers in reaction to the Second World War and the Holocaust. Eichler spoke to the audience in a warmly informative manner, simply and intelligently. He explained how music serves as culture’s memory and how music might gesture toward the semantic void. His book, Time’s Echo, is a highly researched and detailed account of the music of remembrance. It has justifiably received widespread acclaim, earning a place among must-read books about classical music.
Shostakovich the man was notoriously taciturn for his own protection, but his music speaks volumes, even if in code. Eichler said the trio was dedicated to Shostakovich’s close friend Ivan Sollertinsky, whose unexpected passing virtually incapacitated his composing. By giving context to the Shostakovich, Eichler brought relevance and immediacy to the notes. As Sarah Rothenberg said, “Certain pieces of music take on a different life in performance. Having the context changes it.” The result was a performance that would ably serve any stage in the world. Closing one’s eyes would hide the fact that two musicians are quite young, but then you would miss their musically based expressions and gestures.
Cellist Ellis began the trio with notoriously difficult artificial harmonics, played to perfection. Violinist Nakamura answered with expressively sweet and colorful sounds. Pianist Rothenberg completed the canon with perfectly balanced legato octaves. The faster “Moderato” section begins with ostinato eighth notes, which morph into emphatic quarter notes. The performers conveyed the passages’ underlying angst, even anger, changing their sound to accommodate the musical expression. The strings’ intonation was excellent, as is required for the many dissonances.
The second movement, “Scherzo,” began with explosive energy by Nakamura, her heavy spiccato notes flying across the strings. Rothenberg countered with virtuosic legato eighth notes gliding across the keyboard. Ellis joined the fray before taking the lead in the connected trio section. The notated quick crescendos by the strings implied a purging effect, perhaps reflecting the composer’s feelings.
Eichler spoke briefly between the second and third movements, providing more historical and musical context.
The third movement begins with the piano outlining, in eight forte chords, the dissonant harmonic progression that provides the foundation for the movement’s passacaglia form. These were firmly delivered with careful voicing by Rothenberg. The violin and cello trade somber eight-bar melodies, with Ellis matching Nakamura’s beautiful sound. The movement goes directly into the fourth, which begins with eighth notes, as heard in the first movement. The melody, called a “Dance of Death,” begins with pizzicato on the violin, played with great character by Nakamura. That goes into a Jewish-style melody, stylistically played by Rothenberg. (Shostakovich used the same melody sixteen years later in his String Quartet No. 8.) The ensemble effectively portrayed the changing characters and emotions, bringing the past into the present.
That same goal is accomplished by Eichler’s book, although on a much broader scale. Eloquently written, it is an invaluable tool for acquiring knowledge and insight into four major composers’ inspiration and motivation to express one of the darkest periods in history. Time’s Echo is a significant stone placed on the grave of German culture. ■
EXTERNAL LINKS:
- DACAMERA: dacamera.com
- Sarah Rothenberg: dacamera.com/about/meet-the-artistic-director
- Astrid Nakamura: paulhuangviolin.com
- Chris Ellis: yellowbarn.org/artist/chris-ellis
- The Menil Collection: menil.org
Read more by Lawrence Wheeler.
