Gerald Carpenter: Camerata Pacifica Features Tchaikovsky, Piazolla

Violinist Catherine Leonard, cellist Ani Aznavoorian and pianist Adam Neiman will perform twice Friday in Hahn Hall

By Gerald Carpenter, Noozhawk Contributor | Published on 12.03.2009

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Camerata Pacifica’s December concerts, having little or nothing to do with the American version of the Christmas holiday, have been wisely scheduled early in the month, at 1 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Friday in Hahn Hall on the campus of the Music Academy of the West.

Grief for the passing of his friend and mentor Nicolas Rubinstein inspired Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to write a masterpiece
Grief for the passing of his friend and mentor Nicolas Rubinstein inspired Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to write a masterpiece.

Three Camerata members — violinist Catherine Leonard, cellist Ani Aznavoorian and pianist Adam Neiman — will play two works: the Trio in A Minor for Violin, Cello and Piano, Opus 50 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and Argentine Astor Piazzolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires — scored, I would imagine, for the same instruments.

Those who attend the 1 p.m. concert will not hear the Piazolla piece. Chances are, that will not make a lot of difference. After hearing maybe a dozen of his works since the Piazolla boom began in U.S. concert halls, I remain unconvinced of his immortality. His music is pleasant, danceable and attractive, but so is that of the Bee Gees. The line between popular music and classical music is indistinct, but not imaginary; the line between classical music and jazz is just as vague, just as real. (Whether it is the same line is another question.)

In our country, George Gershwin and John Lewis crossed the line successfully in one direction; Leonard Bernstein crossed it successfully going the other way (except in the dreadful Mass), but that’s not much to show for 100 years of trying.

The fine, if mostly academic, “classical” composer Walter Piston wrote a gorgeous and completely original tango — a tango to swoon over — into his ballet, The Incredible Flautist, but you can practically hear the quotation marks. I’m just asking questions, by the way, not laying down a law. Yet, I believe that you won’t save classical music by pumping it full of pop; you’ll just give it gas.

The Tchaikovsky Trio, which lasts 41 and a half minutes, is that composer’s most nearly perfect work of art. I consider it his masterpiece. I first heard it a half-century ago, and it changed my whole relationship with, not just Tchaikovsky’s music, but chamber music altogether.

Here were three musicians — to be sure, I’m speaking of Jascha Heifetz, Gregor Piatigorsky and Arthur Rubinstein — who were weaving an emotional and aesthetic spell as powerful, binding and irresistible as anything by Mahler or Wagner — or even Beethoven.

For once, Tchaikovsky transcended his nearly solipsistic self-pity and heaved a vast sigh of sorrow for the whole human race. Quite apart from the emotional charge it carries, the A Minor Trio has had a tremendous impact and influence on the great Russian composers who followed: Rimsky-Korsakov, Rachmaninov, Shostakovich, even Stravinsky, have all drawn deeply from its well of feeling, its grace of expression.

It may well have been this Trio that caused Stravinsky to exclaim that Tchaikovsky was “the most Russian of us all.” If that be the reaction, make the most of it.

For tickets and other concert information, click here or call Camerata Pacifica at 805.884.8410.

— Gerald Carpenter covers the arts as a Noozhawk contributor. He can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

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