An afternoon of shadowy Debussy in 92NY matinee with Ax and members of the NY Phil

Year after year, the robust Marshall Weinberg classical music programme at the 92NY continues to serve as a welcoming outpost for New York Philharmonic musicians eager to explore the chamber music repertoire. Since the Philharmonic will feature just one of Debussy’s symphonic works this season, the choice of three short yet poignant gems, all conceived during the composer’s final years, feels particularly significant.

The quality of the renditions was mixed. Flutist Mindy Kaufman encountered challenges capturing the transfiguration depicted in Debussy's brief Syrinx. The portrayal of Pan, playing pipes cut from the reeds, lacked the desired impact, resulting in a somewhat bland performance. Kaufman missed opportunities to bring out the rich chromatic transformations and sudden dynamic changes that are integral to conveying the mood.

Becoming more flexible in her approach, Kaufman fared better in the Sonata for flute, viola and harp, contributing to the establishment of a strong musical connection between the instruments featured in this trio, that Debussy crafted for a unique blend of timbres. In this collaboration, Nancy Allen’s harp sounded beautiful and eloquent while Cynthia Phelps’ viola was an efficient and involved go-between. The trio emphasised the special character of a score distinguished by a deliberately fluid and elastic approach to time and harmony, reminiscent of the early Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune. The disjointed melodic figments – some clearly Eastern sounding – drifting in and out of focus throughout the piece, from the pastoral beginning to the more exuberant finale, had appropriately undefined edges. Fluid rhythmical structures, in which the metrical pulse is both irregular and de-emphasised, were handled with a tentativeness that only increased the overall eeriness of the soundscape.

Another late Debussy sonata stood out as the afternoon’s highlight. Sheryl Staples, the New York Philharmonic’s Principal Associate Concertmaster for the last quarter century, and Emanuel Ax demonstrated that interpretive chemistry could exist between two musicians who haven’t played extensively as a duo. The performance was meticulously balanced, avoiding over-emphasis on the score’s autumnal shades and pervasive melancholia, on one side, and the edginess of all those short phrases with their abrupt shifts of tempo, on the other. Ax and Staples understood each other’s intentions particularly well in the Intermède, where impish impulses and tender moments alternated in quick order. From the dreamy beginning onwards, Staples delivered exquisite pianissimos filled with tension, while her appassionato moments were consistently informed by an acceptance of the transitory nature of joy.

Ax played a pivotal role in the performance of Schumann’s Piano Quintet in E flat major, presented in partnership with New York Philharmonic String Quartet, whose four members (Frank Huang, Qianqian Li, Cynthia Phelps and Carter Brey) are section leaders. The Piano Quintet, arguably the composer’s top output from 1842 – his chamber music annus mirabilis – received an honest performance, but not a truly memorable one. Despite Ax’s trademark lyrical and energetic, yet always unassuming approach to music-making and the generally smooth solo interventions of the string players, there were several unfortunate moments when the sonic balance tilted towards either the piano or the strings. While moments of exuberance and outbursts of dark feelings were well-justified, the exposure of the thematic material suffered from a lack of individualisation in several of the repeats. Nonetheless, the final fugato passage, with its surprising inclusion of the first movement’s main theme, was executed with such great conviction that doubts about the overall performance receded into the background.