Classical guitar thrives in the Far East -- at least that's the impression performers Liying Zhu & Ekachai Jearakul left us with after their participation in the November 6th's D'Addario Performance Series at Weill Recital Hall (in Carnegie Hall). Liying Zhu, a Chinese native who studied under Chen Zhi (the premiere guitar professor in China), made her U.S. debut at Weill Recital Hall and did so with a rigorous sampler of guitar tradition down through the ages. Jearakul, from Thailand (and now internationally renowned for his talents and his repertoire), fanned the flames of that same tradition with some strikingly modern works. In Weill Recital Hall, both Liying Zhu & Ekachai Jearakul exemplified the spirit of the composers whose instruments they share the same passion for.
As for the company hosting this special event, the D'Addario Foundation was established as a non-profit corporate foundation of D'Addario and Company, a namesake that extends back nearly 400 years to 17th century Italy where they began manufacturing instrument accessories and continue to do so today. Since 1981, the company's net profits have been filtered down to the D'Addario Foundation, which specializes in "funding instrument instruction programs to communities of need" and awarding "grants and product donations to assist in their growth and development." The D'Addario Performance Series is a world-class showcase for their achievements, and their mission on Friday was to pitch Liying Zhu & Ekachai Jearakul's talents to the insatiable music culture of New York.
With Liying Zhu opening the evening, her performances exhibited a whirlwind of styles and various angles from which the guitar has been approached over the centuries. From the playful "Sonata in A major" by Diabelli to the pivotal "Nocturnal after John Dowland" by Benjamin Britten, Zhu affected each piece with her own lilts and inflections. Often smirking uncontrollably at each of Diabelli's coquettish chords and ritardandos, Zhu eased the audience into the humorous capabilities of the instrument, gliding between a series of amusing phrases and paragraphs. This performance was followed by an excursion further back in time to J.S. Bach's "Violin partita No. 2 in D minor," arranged for guitar, which hosted a series of thrilling runs that bound together its more solemn passages.
The most fascinating pair, however, was the earliest piece on the program, "Praeludium" (by 16th Century English lutenist/composer John Dowland), which Zhu used, appropriately, as a prelude to the other piece in the pair: her enveloping rendition of Benjamin Britten's "Nocturnal after John Dowland." The latter, a highly modern and exploratory piece, twisted and contorted the melancholic Dowland song, "Come, Heavy Sleep" (on which it was based) until mere sadness gave way to what Britten's sheet music directions so pointedly define as: "Musingly, Very Agitated, restless, Uneasy, March-like, Dreaming, Gently Rocking, Passacaglia, and Slow and Quiet."
Benjamin Britten's "Nocturnal After John Dowland" begins with an uncanny slowness, seemingly impossible to follow, yet, in accordance with the "Musing" designation, feels trapped in thought, devoid of imminent purpose, and hesitant to indulge in complete chords. Instead, it favors suspensions and deceptions at every turn, all while setting up the terror that would emerge in "Very Agitated". Meanwhile, "Restless" feels more modern, and brimming with anxiety. It proceeds with a recurring pedal that reacts against a series of tonal clusters and self-defeating scales.
Despite this modernity, motifs of John Dowland's can be found at the root of Britten's harmonic choices. In "March-like", there seems to be elements of Dowland that Britten is openly mocking, before "Dreaming" and "Gently Rocking" whisk us away to a fanciful world of airiness and outward harmonics. The "Passacaglia," however, returns to a state of mockery (being that the dominant bass ostinato makes no attempt to be likable). Insistent on itself, it gradually increases speed, forcing its way into the foreground, before Zhu cools us off once again by a thoroughly Dowland-inspired "Slow and Quiet." Fascinating to witness, Liying Zhu's mastery of Britten's narrative arc was an ideal exhibition of the finer points of her art -- making her encore of Villa-Lobos's Etude #2 entirely unnecessary, but wholly satisfying nonetheless.
To follow, Ekachai Jearakul's set-list was more rooted in the Spanish tradition, with pieces by Leo Brouwer (Cuban composer) and Joaquin Turina of Spain. Leo Brouwer's "Rito de los Orishas" ushered in an exotic air to the evening. Unlike Britten, who prefers to avoid tonal centers when possible, Brouwer seems determined to immerse himself wholly into his own atmosphere. Complex chords, elaborate rolls and spine-tingling accents color a lively piece that seems more about setting than mood. Following this stirring opener, Jearakul livens the room with Luigi Legnani's "Fantasia Op. 19," before "tucking us in" with Joaquin Turina's "Sonata Op. 61." Although its core melody conveys an irresistably attractive sunset stroll, the Turina sonata is actually heaping with a great deal more wonder and heroism than it lets on.
Unquestionably, the most exciting performance of the evening (for the contemporary composers' community, that is) was Ekachai Jearakul's finale and world premiere of a piece by Welsh composer Stephen Goss, who, of course, was present for the event. The "Sonata Capriccioso," which was dedicated to Jerakul, was awash with familiarity, as if to ease the audience into the essence of what the classical acoustic guitar was designed to do. Goss's sonata was filled with tenderness, romance, tranquility --- or, frankly, any emotion one might care to ascribe to the very word Goss chose to title his second movement: "Idyll" (the purely picturesque scene). Surely, and without any trace of mockery, music has never come this close to embodying a Bob Ross painting.
With the premiere & this particular event of the D'Addario Performance Series at an end, and some final words of thanks uttered, the emotions of the night were met by a fond embrace of mutual admiration between composer and performer, amidst tearful applause.
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