"The Classic and the Romantic" - Eugenia Karni, Gilad Karni and Asaf Zohar perform Mozart and Brahms in the Mormon University's Sunday evening concert series

 Asaf Zohar (Courtesy A.Z.)

Eugenia and Gilad Karni (Courtesy G.K.)

 The title of "The Classic and the Romantic", a concert performed by Eugenia Karni-violin, Gilad Karni-viola and Asaf Zohar-piano at the Brigham Young Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies (Mormon University) on February 19th 2023, could not have been more accurate. 

 

The program opened with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Trio in E-flat major for violin, viola and piano K.498 "Kegelstatt", the work's curious sobriquet arising from an unconfirmed legend that Mozart composed this trio while attending an outdoor game of skittles. Originally composed for clarinet, viola and piano, the trio was published in 1788 transcribed – probably with Mozart's consent – for violin, viola and piano. (In the publication, the original clarinet part is referred to as an "alternative part".)  Wishing to assure the K.498's commercial success, the publisher advertised it as “a trio for harpsichord or pianoforte with violin and viola accompaniment”, a description that defies all accuracy! The work was composed for a private musical gathering with specific players in mind; Mozart himself played the viola part, the composer's favourite instrument by his own admission; indeed, the viola role attests to this, being a much stronger part than if the composer had scored it for the 'cello. Although not performing on period instruments, the Karnis and Zohar paid homage to the delicate timbres of Classical instruments, to the joys of house music, to the work's charming gestures and to its lyricism and sense of well-being, with just a splash of dramatic contrast, in playing that was fresh and exquisitely shaped. There are pianists who celebrate the power and fullness of the Mormon University auditorium's Steinway & Sons piano. Here, Asaf  Zohar, however, wielded it with crystalline grace. Listening to the trio, it was as if we had been transported into a Viennese salon to hear Classical chamber music at its best at the hands of Mozart and his confreres.

 

Remaining in E-flat major, the artists, however, took the listener into a very different style, creating the full-blooded sound world of Romantic chamber music for their performance of Johannes Brahms' Trio in E-flat major for violin, viola and piano Op. 40. Composed in 1865 for natural horn with violin and piano, it was revised in 1891 with alternative versions of the horn part for either 'cello or viola. Brahms  loved the sound of the natural horn, composing several of his most inspired melodies for the instrument. His father was a horn player and had taught his son to play the instrument, too. Indeed,  for many concert-goers, the work echoes a strong association with the sombre, melancholic sound qualities of the natural horn. Hearing it performed on the viola (rather than the horn) certainly did not rule out the work's nostalgic element. A highly expressive performance, it was rich in sweeping melodies, excitement and drama, scrupulous timing of gestures (and between gestures) and close communication with discerning balance among all three musicians. The 3rd movement, labelled by Brahms as "Adagio mesto" ("mesto" meaning “truly sad”), emerged as fragile, heartfelt and personal in expression, this to be followed by the Finale-Allegro con brio in playing that was unleashed, dramatic and brimming with earthy vitality. 

 

The Mormon University's Sunday evening concerts usually include some brief explanations of the pieces being performed. Eugenia Karni, Gilad Karni and Asaf Zohar invited the works themselves to do that. Here, words might have been superfluous. 

 

This was the first program in which the Karnis have performed with Asaf Zohar. For their encore, the artists played the 3rd piece of one of Robert Schumann's last works - the Märchenerzählungen, Op.132 (Fairy Tales), interestingly, (coincidentally or not?) originally scored for  unconventional combination of clarinet, viola and piano as was Mozart's Kegelstatt Trio! Marked "Ruhiges Tempo, mit zartem Ausdruck" ("reposeful tempo, with tender expression"), the artists' playing of the movement presented a poignant, intimate dialogue between violin and viola to the gently ever-flowing course of the piano. A fitting nightcap to an excellent evening of music.