(Duo Zappa-Mainolfi: M Mainolfi and Mattia Zappa)High quality and interesting programme from Russian duo. (Review by Michael Green)
We have had plenty of cello in Durban recently, three successive concerts with this noble instrument dominant in all of them. The latest exponent to display his skills was the Swiss cellist Mattia Zappa who, in partnership with the Italian pianist Massimiliano Mainolfi, presented an interesting programme to a large Friends of Music audience at the Durban Jewish Centre.
A week before we had heard two Russians, the cellist Georgi Anichenko and the pianist Anastasya Terenkova, playing mainly modern music at the same venue. Comparisons are invidious and I do not intend to make them here. Suffice it to say that Durban is fortunate to have heard two cellists and two pianists of such quality in rapid succession.
Matta Zappa and Massimiliano Mainolfi formed their duo in 1994, when they were students at the Juilliard School in New York, and since then they have achieved high distinction internationally. For the Friends of Music they played some unusual music from well-known composers, beginning with a sonata by the great Johann Sebastian Bach, one written originally for viola da gamba. The viola da gamba is an instrument with six strings dating back to the 15th century and played like a cello (the name means literally “leg viol”). Music written for it is often played these days on the cello. The Duo Zappa-Mainolfi turned their expert attention to one of the three gamba sonatas by Bach, No, 3 in G minor, BMV 1029, composed in 1723.
This turned out to be a typically lively, vigorous composition, with a first movement reminiscent at times of one of the Brandenburg concertos, a stately Adagio, and a most entertaining final Allegro alternating between major and minor keys. The playing was first-rate, and the audience obviously enjoyed it.
Jean Sibelius is a famous and popular composer, but his Malinconia for cello and piano is a rarity in the concert hall. The name means Melancholy and the piece was written in 1900 after the composer’s 15-month-old daughter Kirsti had died of typhus. Sibelius is not often thought of as a piano composer, but the piano part here has a sort of dark virtuosity, with many rapid arpeggios, and the cello is deep-toned and, well, melancholy. It is an extended work, perhaps a little too extended, but it is impressive, and advanced for its time.
Then came the Rondo in G minor, Op. 94, by Dvorak. A friend sitting near me said beforehand “I don’t know it, but if it’s by Dvorak I’ll like it”. Exactly. This rondo is graceful, clear, melodious, Bohemian in flavour, lyrical with a touch of sadness. Lovely music, and it brought out the best in both performers.
Finally, we moved to more familiar territory with the big work of the evening, Brahms’s Sonata in F major, Op. 99. The players thrived in the broad, bold patterns of Brahms’s music. The beautiful Adagio brought forth some exceptional playing from the cellist, and the pianist showed great skill, technically and interpretatively, in the complex and somewhat diffuse outer movements.
A most successful concert, much appreciated by the audience.
The prelude performer of the evening, funded by the National Lottery, was the soprano Gabrielle Wills who, apart from her singing, has acquired degrees in economics and business science Accompanied by Rosalie Conrad, she sang numbers from musicals by Kurt Weill, Harold Arlen and George and Ira Gershwin. - Michael Green
Posts
