Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.life From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Perlman produces a string of pearls Date: Tue, 3 Nov 92 15:19:55 EST Message-ID: \SE E;LIFE;MUSIC \HD Perlman produces a string of pearls \BY Octavio Roca \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES Itzhak Perlman is one of the few classical musicians who can still pack the Kennedy Center Concert Hall in this economy. And for good reason: The Israeli violinist's return to Washington Sunday afternoon made for one of the year's most satisfying musical experiences. His articulation was anxious, impetuous in the rising phrases that open Schubert's Rondo brillante in B minor, D. 895. What followed was breathtaking, a plangent tone and seamless legato any singer would envy. Schubert's score stakes gentle claims to ground broken by Beethoven, and Mr. Perlman established both the Rondo's ties to Beethoven's "Spring" Sonata and its own wonderful atmosphere. As elsewhere in the program, it was the rhythmic life of the music that was most persuasively displayed. A lilt here, rubato there, and the mercurial spirit of Schubert's dance rhythms proved irresistible in Mr. Perlman's hands, gleefully supported by Samuel Sanders at the piano. Next came Prokofiev's long Violin Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 80. Given its rambling structure, it is not an easy piece to love. In Mr. Perlman's rendition, the spiraling emotions embedded in the first Andante's melodies rang true. The intricate filigree of what amounts to fiendish violin scales moved in and out of the piano's slow progress with gentle aplomb. The suddenly uncertain ending asked questions Prokofiev would answer only elsewhere, but the playing was never less than persuasive. Toru Takemitsu's 1951 "Distance de fee" can surprise music lovers who know the Japanese composer as a master of the avant-garde. In this early score, the perfume of Romanticism in its full decadent melancholy lingers in every note, lovingly played here. Next was Chausson's Poeme, Op. 25, best known in its original orchestral version as the music for Antony Tudor's ballet "The Lilac Garden." There is something both chaste and incomplete about the piano and violin reduction. Still, Mr. Perlman's almost unbearably beautiful playing did justice to the spirit of Chausson's score. Another piece taken out of its usual context closed the recital, Pablo Sarasate's "Carmen" Fantasy, Op. 25. As unabashedly trashy as it is difficult, this epic show stopper strings together nearly every hit from Bizet's hit-filled opera and adds bravura effects for the violin in almost every bar. It is one of the violin repertory's guilty pleasures, one that no one will begrudge Mr. Perlman. The Kennedy Center audience, politely appreciative from Schubert to Chausson, at this point went wild and stood applauding long and hard for Mr. Perlman. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM