On Sunday night, crowds of people poured into Slosberg Recital Hall to hear the Brandeis Music Department's opening concert of the season. Performing were Prof. Daniel Stepner (MUS) playing violin and Harvard University's Professor Robert Levin, on piano. The duo played a full program of Brahms and Mendelssohn on a Streicher piano-in the style of the 1800s-and delivered a masterful performance in an electrifying evening of music. The piano, owned by Levin and housed in the music department of Harvard, was specially moved to Brandeis for the concert.
They opened with Brahms' second violin sonata in A major, Op. 100 with a marked note of urgency and immediacy that set the tone for the entire concert. Both performances played with a vigor and resolve that truly animated the texturally-rich Brahms composition. From the outset, they delivered a visually engaging performance, each individually mimicking musical expression with their physical gestures, while also in constant dialogue with one another. The piano itself was a visual focal point, with its intricately carved music stand and elegantly designed legs. It pulled all of the parts of the performance onstage into a single unit that generated music whose force truly was greater than the sum of its parts, complementing and building upon the individual notes of each instrument. Simultaneously musically complex and indulgently passionate, the second sonata captured the essence of Brahms' writing and prepared the audience for the successive pieces.
To finish the first half, the duo continued onto Brahms' third and final violin sonata in D minor, Op. 108. Wholly different in character from the second sonata, this piece showcases both Brahms's stormier writing as well as his sad, evocative and perhaps contemplative folk-like melodies. Full of exciting rhythmic changes, the piece captivated the audience from the outset, and Stepner and Levin compressed the movements into one continual narrative full of riveting momentum and urgency that only found relief at the piece's end.
Stepner and Levin's exuberance was contagious, but the Steicher piano was an important musical star in its own right. Before he began the Mendelssohn, Levin shared an explanation and demonstration of the piano's unique features. Built in Vienna in 1869, this Streicher is virtually identical to the one Brahms kept in his living room and on which he composed. Its parallel stringing, explained Levin, affords a uniform aesthetic throughout the keyboard and showcases Brahms's rich orchestral writing without overwhelming the melody. Stepner and Levin used the piano's clarity to their advantage, playing freely and immediately without ever losing details in the overall sound.
Levin then sat down to play three selections from Mendelssohn's "Songs Without Words," the Andante espressivo, Op. 62, No. 1, Andante con moto, Op. 19b, No. 1 and Allegro vivace, Op. 102, No. 5. These three pieces, absolutely sweet and melodious in character, perfectly suited the piano's unique quality, and in their relative quiet and calm, complemented the rest of the program. The sparkling melodies shone above textural accompaniment, and Levin played each with earnest and grace that created moments of great musical intimacy in the hall.
The duo finished the program with Brahms's Sonata No. 1 in G Major, Op. 78, strategically placed after those that succeed it chronologically as if to provide a musical context for Brahms's earlier and perhaps seemingly simpler work. Stepner and Levin played the piece's broader, gliding melodies with flourish and finesse, while the piano's textural contributions propelled the music to its quiet and profound ending. As Stepner lowered his bow, he let the memory of the last measure resonate for an extra moment before formally ending the piece. He then resurfaced with Levin to receive rounds of enthusiastic applause and a well-deserved standing ovation.
They treated the audience to one last piece, a single movement Scherzo in C-minor that Brahms wrote as a birthday gift for a friend of his, which Stepner joked was Brahms' own perfect encore. Lively and spirited, it was a perfect ending to a night dedicated to this rich, unified musical aesthetic, and it was an inspired beginning to a new season of musical celebration and exploration at Brandeis.
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