South Florida Classical Review

Cellist Julian Schwarz and pianist Asiya Korepanova performed Tuesday night in Coral Gables for Friends of Chamber Music.

Some cellists make beautiful sounds. Others have less tonal charm but bring great musicality to their performances.

Julian Schwarz manages to fulfill both attributes and more. On Tuesday, Schwarz gave an outstanding recital for Friends of Chamber Music at Coral Gables Congregational United Church of Christ. He makes the instrument sing, almost like an operatic or lieder vocalist. His combination of impeccable technique, intelligent musicianship and artistic personality are special indeed.

Schwarz’s collaboration with pianist Asiya Korepanova was ideally balanced. Synchronized in projection and volume, they seemed to breathe the music together. That was even more remarkable because they had gotten together to prepare the program only one day prior to the performance.

Opening with Beethoven’s Cello Sonata No. 4 in C Major, Schwarz approached the slow introduction with rich tonal hues and elegance of phrase. His crisp attack and robust shaping of melodies fully captured the bucolic aura of the Allegro vivace. Despite Beethoven’s not always graceful writing for the instrument, Schwarz’s intonation remained true and secure. He projected the drama and darkness of Beethoven’s mood swings in the Adagio and displayed incisive articulation at a brisk clip in the final Allegro. Korepanova’s lightness of touch and sonority were well coordinated with her cello partner.

Richard Strauss’s Cello Sonata in F Major, Op. 6 is the work of a nineteen-year-old composer very much under the spell of Beethoven and Brahms. Yet already Strauss’s full-blown romanticism is at play. Schwarz drew an almost orchestral sonic panorama from his instrument in the initial Allegro con brio. Korepanova’s agility fully supported the cello’s sweeping lines. 

Her full-bodied pianism brought out the rhapsodic arc of Strauss’s noble melodic writing in the Andante. The scherzo-like figures of the Allegro vivo finale were given vigorous advocacy while the secondary subject was shaped spaciously. This was a worthy revival of a great composer’s early opus, a work that deserves more frequent performanc.

Rachmaninoff’s Cello Sonata in G minor is contemporaneous with his Piano Concerto No. 2. It proved to be the last of his scant chamber music creations. Rachmaninoff’s remaining compositional output would be devoted to keyboard and orchestral scores. Beyond the sonata’s historical significance, the score is a gem, deeply etched in Russian angst.

Korepanova is one of the finest Rachmaninoff pianists on the concert scene. (She previously performed the complete solo keyboard works of the composer for the Friends of Chamber Music series.) Her mastery of Rachmaninoff’s unabashedly romantic idiom alongside Schwarz’s depth of tone fully encapsulated the score.

In the secondary subject of the opening movement, Schwarz’s light bowing and Korepanova’s exquisite patterns perfectly articulated the music’s contrasting songfulness. Schwarz flawlessly dispatched the Allegro scherzando at almost devilish speed. His playing was never a mere pyrotechnical display but always kept the movement’s broad outlines firmly in view and gave the lyrical contrasts passionate emphasis. 

The sonata’s Andante brings one of Rachmaninoff’s most haunting melodies and the Schwarz-Korepanova duo cut to the music’s brooding heart. In the more overt showpiece of the closing Allegro mosso, Schwarz’s dashing bravura filled the sanctuary with gorgeous sound and brought a natural flow to the music’s nearly operatic fervor.

The cheering audience brought the artists back for an encore – the Largo from Chopin’s Cello Sonata in G minor, assayed with an astute blend of majesty and delicacy. The recital was a vivid demonstration of smart programming and interpretive insight.

Friends of Chamber Music presents pianist Zlota Chochieva playing works by Schumann, Brahms and Rachmaninoff 8 p.m. March 25 at Coral Gables Congregational United Church of Christ.   miamichambermusic.org

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