July 27, 2007
Promise Fulfilled in Perlman Protégés
When the 34 students of the Perlman Music Program summer school walked onstage on Saturday at a benefit concert at the Ross School, Itzhak Perlman joined them, dressed, as they were, in the program’s white T-shirt.
He was not in his expected role as conductor or soloist. Rather, he was joining their ranks in the chorus, as were Toby Perlman, the program’s founder, and six additional singers from the community.
Though the music students, ages 12 to 18, in the six-week residency program are string players, they also participate in a daily choir rehearsal. The first half of the concert showed how well they perform on their secondary “instrument,” and they delved right into the serious choral literature.
They sang two movements of J.S. Bach’s B Minor Mass, “Gloria” and “Dona Nobis Pacem” (“Grant Us Peace”), which, in an unusual but effective sequence of pieces, were separated by the first movement of Johannes Brahms’s Requiem, “Blessed They.”
Patrick Romano, a faculty member of the program and conductor of the chorus, has a vigorous, dynamic conducting style, which elicited clear, crisp, well-blended singing. At times he stepped away from the podium, making strong, sharp gestures, or signaled a hush with fingers to his mouth, or put a hand on his cheeks to remind them how to shape a vowel.
And it worked, from the animated “Gloria” to the sustained, reasurring “Blessed they that mourn, for they shall be comforted” to the glorious climax of the “Dona Nobis Pacem.” They were beautifully accompanied on piano by faculty member John Root.
After the intermission, the same young musicians reappeared, this time carrying their violins, violas, cellos, and basses. Mr. Perlman, now as conductor, explained that the following compositions were originally written for and usually performed by string quartet — which many consider to be the ideal form of chamber music — but would be heard in arrangements for full string orchestra.
Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Grosse Fugue” (“Great Fugue”) puts the highest technical demands on the instrumentalists, and seems musically unrelenting, probing, and unsettled, even for Beethoven, and at the same time perhaps more academic than is typical of him. (In fact, the fugue, written in 1826, when the composer was completely deaf, was highly criticized in his lifetime, and it wasn’t until the 20th century that it came to be regarded as a masterpiece.)
As they worked their way through the massive movement, at times with each section of the orchestra being exposed and playing the constantly evolving theme, the players fully met its challenges.
Next was the Lento from Bela Bartok’s Second String Quartet, in which, Mr. Perlman said, the composer “began to sound like Bartok”; in other words, be had found his own distinctive style, which includes the use of Hungarian folk tunes.
Mr. Perlman cautioned the audience not to listen primarily for melody, but rather to ask, “What do the sounds mean to you?” and said that if the music sounds “upsetting and dark, we’re doing a good job!” The orchestra seemed to especially enjoy this dissonant style, which is emotional in a brooding way.
More romantic and lyrical moments were heard in the Allegro Vivace from Franz Schubert’s String Quartet in D Minor. Especially fine were the subtle ritards and places where the sound swelled and then receded in a short time.
This group has an uncommon practice, which is to change chairs for different works, and even between movements. This way, they are challenged by being in different positions, and have to continually collaborate with others, which is a key to good musicianship. So here, instead of going directly into the Presto of the same quartet, the final piece on the program, the players moved to new places.
As they were moving, the conductor explained that the nickname of the quartet, “Death and the Maiden,” comes from the fact that the second movement takes its melody from Schubert’s song of the same name. Though it wasn’t on the program, we would hear “just a couple of measures” of the theme — which turned out to be the whole first section, elegantly played.
The Presto reflects Schubert’s state of mind, as it was written shortly after he became aware of his poor state of health. It is like a tarantella dance, with scurrying notes in triplet motion that tease the listener by building up in dynamic level only to cut back again.
The last moment of the piece, now even faster, hints at a major-chord resolution of what has been a minor theme; however, in keeping with the overall agitated and unsettled mood, the abrupt ending does not fulfill the promise.
The promise of the students of the Perlman summer music school, however, is another matter, as it is clearly being fulfilled. If one thinks of summer, the East End, and middle and high school students, one might not think of such a serious concert as the one Mr. Romano and Mr. Perlman chose.
But the instrumentalists demonstrated that they were up to it, with extraordinary talent and musicianship throughout that brought the full house to its feet with applause.
As, Mr. Perlman said after the concert, when you hear these young people, “you know classical music is alive”!
The Summer Music School continues with Works in Progress concerts tomorrow, Saturday, and Aug. 4 at 7:30 p.m., for which no tickets are required, and a benefit and concert on Friday, Aug. 3, at the Shelter Island campus. A Chamber Music Workshop for students from 18 to 30 begins on Aug. 9. More information is available at www.perlmanmusicprogram.org or by calling 212-877-5045.
