An Assured but Subtle Farewell
By ALLAN KOZINN
NYTimes 27 November 2002
The Spanish pianist Alicia de Larrocha, a revered presence in
the New York concert world since the mid-1960's, appeared with
the Tokyo String Quartet on Monday evening at Carnegie Hall in
a program that a spokeswoman for her management company said
would be her last public performance. She has been associated
particularly closely with two parts of the literature: Mozart's
work and the music of the Spanish nationalist composers, who
have been figuring prominently in her repertory in recent years.
But for her performance on Monday, she returned to Mozart.
As departures go, Ms. de Larrocha's appearance was unusually
low-key. Not much had been made of it publicly, although her
retirement at 79 was not entirely unexpected. A note in the
program book described the concert only as her Carnegie Hall
farewell, although she has no further engagements on her calendar.
When she came out to play the Piano Concerto No. 12 in A (K.
414) in its version for piano and string quartet midway through
the first half of the program, she neither looked nor sounded
her age. As always, she played with quiet assurance rather than
flashiness. And although she came out for perhaps half a dozen
curtain calls, she offered no encores.
Ms. de Larrocha played the solo line of the A major Concerto
with sparkling, transparent textures that were perfectly weighted
for this version of the work: essentially the familiar score
stripped of its oboe and horn parts, and with the string body
reduced to one player to a part.
She seemed to find this chamber setting invigorating. Like
any musician who has enjoyed a long career, Ms. de Larrocha has
seen performance style, and the tastes that drive it, move through
cycles of change and reconsideration. In the Spanish works in
her repertory she has remained peerless, but in Mozart, the
expansion of the early-music world and the expectations it has
created have been challenges for her. During the 1980's and
into the 90's, her Mozart sometimes seemed to have an old-fashioned
breadth.
On Monday, though, everything seemed to be right. The small
details - the trills and turns that adorn the score - as well
as the more expansive pianism in the cadenzas and the glowing
Andante, had considerable energy behind them. Her performance
had the bright, light quality that she brought to her playing
in the 70's, when her appearances at the Mostly Mozart Festival
were among the highlights of New York summers. If anything, her
approach to Mozart on Monday was more fluid, more carefully
nuanced than it was then.
This was also a night for the Tokyo String Quartet, which, after
all, had the stage to itself for two-thirds of the program.
Having undergone several personnel changes in the last five
years, it has taken some time to find its sound. But this
ensemble's longtime admirers who have found its unsettled
performances worrisome in recent seasons can breathe easier now.
In Schubert's Quartet in E flat (D. 87), which opened the
program, and Beethoven's Quartet in F (Op. 59, No. 1), which
closed it, these musicians played with a far richer tone and
greater unity than they have produced in a long time.
The greatly improved sound was apparent immediately, with the
first notes of the Schubert. This is an early score, composed
when Schubert was 16, but it was given such warmth and depth by
the Tokyo players - Martin Beaver and Kikuei Ikeda, violinists;
Kazuhide Isomura, violist; and Clive Greensmith, cellist - that
it could have passed as a more mature work.
The Beethoven, too, benefited from a beautifully burnished sound,
impeccable ensemble and delicately modulated balances. In its
best moments - the return of the principal theme at the end of
the first movement, for example - the performance bristled with
energy.
Scott Morrison
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