For this resplendent concert, the first in the second season of his three-year Carnegie Hall Perspective series, the violinist Maxim Vengerov invited an extraordinary group of friends – violinist Vilde Frang, violist James Ehnes, cellist Daniel Müller-Schott, pianist Yefim Bronfman and clarinetist Anthony McGill – to join him in performing two jewels of the chamber music repertoire, both by Brahms.
First up was the composer’s youthful but fully realized Piano Quintet in F minor, an eloquent blend of dramatic intensity and song-like lyricism. The work has a complex history. Originally scored for two violins, viola and two cellos, Brahms later revised and adapted it into a sonata for two pianos. But when Clara Schumann saw the new version she wrote to him, saying the work was “so full of ideas” that it required an orchestra to do it justice, prompting his reworking the piece into its current masterful version for piano and strings.
Vengerov and his friends offered a brilliant, heart-stirring account, weaving phrases together with great precision and feeling. Never out of synch, the five musicians shaped a perfectly balanced sound world, alternately tempestuous and tender. With Bronfman’s uncommonly sensitive playing, the orchestral piano sound blended perfectly with the warm, expressively colored strings. The tender, gently swaying second movement Andante sounded especially glorious and the finale was nothing less than totally thrilling. With each phrase rendered with great precision and emotion, the performance came across as a dialogue between masters and friends, a perfect fusion of clarity and powerful emotion.
After intermission the mood changed into something more wistful and melancholic in Brahms’ Clarinet Quintet in B minor. For this piece, Vengerov and company were joined by McGill, the New York Philharmonic’s Principal Clarinet. McGill’s thoughtful, deeply felt playing was splendid throughout, his interplay with the other players producing many moments of sublime, nearly transcendent beauty, as he wove his instrument seamlessly into the string textures. The warmly lyrical outer movements were wonderfully positive and characterful, but it was the gentle Adagio – where the ruminative sounds of the clarinet wafting above the softly pulsating strings, producing an almost improvisatory feeling – that was most impressive and moving. In response to the vociferous standing ovation, the musicians offered an encore: a replay of the second movement Adagio, sounding even more magical and mellow than it did the first time around.
This event was Carnegie Hall’s annual Isaac Stern Memorial Concert, honoring the violinist who not only led the 1960s campaign to save the Hall from demolition, but was himself a notable chamber music player and widely celebrated for his performances of Brahms.
