Kavakos, Ma, and Ax find power and subtlety in all-Beethoven Tanglewood recital

 

Photo: Hilary Scott

Looking to establish himself as an original voice, Beethoven poured his first significant effort into piano trios, a genre he felt his predecessors Mozart and Haydn had not taken seriously.

Of his Op. 1 set, the Piano Trio No. 3, cast in C minor, shows evidence of the Beethoven to come. Sudden shifts in dynamics and key create brooding tension, as if the composer was testing the very limits of high 18th-century style. (Haydn had criticized the score as unsuitable for contemporary Viennese audiences.)

 

Yet violinist Leonidas Kavakos, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and pianist Emanuel Ax explored all the work’s classical-era elegance when they rendered the trio at Tanglewood's Koussevitzky Shed Friday night. By turns graceful and dramatically understated, the performance revealed early Beethoven less as a transitional figure and more of a composer firmly rooted in the style he had absorbed in his youth.

 

From the opening bars of the Allegro con brio, Kavakos, Ma, and Ax struck a simpatico balance. Ma and Ax have been playing together for decades; their most recent partnership once again explores Beethoven's complete cello sonatas. With relative newcomer Kavakos to the group, the trio has traversed Brahms's complete numbered piano trios, works that showcase the musicians in sumptuous tonal blend.

 

A similar sensitivity marked Friday's performance as the musicians conveyed the wide emotional contrasts and Mozartian flourishes in the first movement. Ax handled his piano passages gracefully, while Ma and Kavakos, in rich tones that never upstaged the pianist, emphasized the sudden shifts in dynamics.

 

The second movement's variations showcased the trio in a more intimate setting. Ax unfolded the theme in a quick tempo, which flowered into the delicate figures of the first variation. Ma and Kavakos shaped the second variation in long, smooth lines, the ensemble, throughout, maintaining its superb balance.

 

On paper, the piano figures are the focal point of the third variation. But Ax’s gentle playing provided the backdrop for Ma and Kavakos, who traded pizzicato statements with humor and vigor. All found the mournful qualities of the fourth variation, where Ma's dark cello line complemented the bright phrases that found resolution in Kavakos's violin.

 

The Minuet took on terpsichorean flair. The strings provided lyrical contrast in the trio, soaring over Ax's cascading runs, a few finger slips apart. All found the stormy exuberance of the finale, which ultimately found resolution in the final C-major cadence.

Christian Horneman, Portrait of Ludwig van Beethoven (1803)

Kavakos, Ma, and Ax brought a more robust Beethovenian style in the concert's concluding curio, a transcription of Symphony No. 2 for piano trio.

 

Beethoven made this arrangement in 1803 for performances by amateur musicians, who may have not had the chance to hear the original symphony performed by an orchestra. The score is just as convincing in its chamber music form. Clear textures enable the harmonies in the thematic statements to resonate fully, and the ethereal passages so common to the outer movements in this symphony retain their mystery.

 

The slow introduction took on a searching expression in the musicians' hands, the players digging in and leaning into the phrases to capture the sense of adventure Beethoven may have felt as he expanded traditional forms. Ax and Ma charted the first theme with hushed intensity, the music growing to powerful heights when Kavakos entered the mix. The second movement was a scene of melting lyricism. Themes were passed gracefully between players, who navigated the subtle dynamic contrasts with almost symphonic depth.

 

The Scherzo--light and airy by turns--was a true diversion. And the musicians found both the furious energy and warm, songlike passages of the finale.

 

The encore, a piano trio reduction of the first movement of the Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, showcased the same power and grace the musicians had explored all evening.