On a drippy Wednesday evening, those who ventured to Williams Hall at NEC heard an imaginatively-programmed concert by the young and much lauded, Julian Rhee, winner of the 2024 Avery Fisher Career Grant. His sonorous poise enchanted and mesmerized listeners. And, further, the audience was fortunate to enjoy Rhee’s pairing with Chelsea Wang, an ascendent collaborative pianist as well as an accomplished soloist since childhood.
The night’s offerings began with an other-worldly touch. While described as mystical, mysterious and moving, not everyone will warm to Arvo Pärt’s Fratres, composed in a compelling style with features that beg religiousity and profundity. The work begins with violin alone, joined later by the piano. The piece is anchored by a drone-like A and E and tintinabuli features. I confess I was less than drawn to Pärt’s approach, yet the contemplative, repetitive constancy grew on me as Rhee and Wang performed. Fratres imparts a unique compositional style, blending minimalist techniques that manage to plumb spiritual depths. That, plus medieval influences, lured me into the timeless and moving aura Pärt created.
The four-movement first of Fauré’s two violin sonatas (Opus 13, written in 1875-6 represented a departure from what was an expected violin-piano sonata, while keeping the outline of tradition. However, the young composer infiltrated the form with challenging novelties. Opus 13 is tough to master. Pianist Wang was more than up to the demanding passages, particularly the solo start of the first Allegro molto, which builds until the violin (finally) enters lyrically, many bars into the movement. The turbulent yet approachable melodies reach emotions in a manner considered novel when the work was composed. The Andante second movement snuck in with its sensitive opening barcarolle, a movement offering more musical partnership than the first. Violinist Rhee’s soaringly sensitive phrasing imparted a special, nearly secret feeling. Wang rose to the scherzo’s pianistic challenge, which nearly steals the uniqueness of the violin’s folklike lines, and which Rhee delivered in character. And both partnered in equally in the Allegro quasi presto final movement with its many surprises–starting off quietly and lyrically, and then including much syncopation and force. In all, the duo provided a bravura performance.
The four Märchenbilder (Fairy Tale Pictures) by Robert Schumann fulfill their name, with darkly enchanting, winding phrases. Written in 1851, three years before his breakdown and ultimate collapse, these short pieces exude foreboding, though which fairy tales inspired them seems indeterminate. Heard together, these musical tales provide fodder for imagination. Rhee and Wang communicated the moods of each, enchanting the audience.
The concert concluded with Ravel’s Tzigane, a bold, entertaining, timeless and modern and, well, expectable pre-encore if you will. Rhee’s version commanded attention throughout.
After some audience coaxing, the evening concluded with a delectable bon-bon by the late Giya Kancheli, Miniature 1 for Violin and Piano. As with many of Kancheli’s miniatures, often taken from his extensive stage and film music, this one reached wide-ranging emotions. His melodies include those of his Georgian (Gruziyan) roots, along with jazz, resulting in an engaging hybrid. Miniature 1 made a perfect bookend to the concert, providing balance with Arvo Pärt’s Fratres.
Rhee has already garnered many awards and is in much demand as a soloist and chamber player, currently the newest addition as member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center CMS’s Bowers Program. Wang attended the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia as a student of Meng-Chieh Liu and Ignat Solzhenitsyn and received the coveted Sergei Rachmaninoff Award at graduation and subsequently a masters from Peabody. Currently, she is a doctoral student at the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern. One hopes these two exciting players will grace us with more concerts as a duo.
Finally, I would note that the Summer Concert Series of the Foundation for Chinese Performing Arts, which ends this weekend, has long provided community of Boston music lovers with a very special gift worthy of much thanks and support.
Julie Ingelfinger a classically-trained pianist who studied at the Hartt School of Music, Aspen Music Festival and School and at Harvard, enjoys her day jobs as professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, pediatric nephrologist at Mass General Hospital for Children and deputy editor at the New England Journal of Medicine.
This photo is from an NEC ad about the concert.