SOUNDTRACK: JAN VOGLER AND ALESSIO BAX-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #128 (December 16, 2020).
This is the third of three Tiny Desk Home Concerts to honor Beethoven’s 250th birth anniversary. This was my favorite. The first was just piano the second was a quartet of strings. But this one, a combination of the two, was the most exciting. I love the way the cello (Vogler) played off of the piano (Bax).
For this Tiny Desk (home) concert, we pay a visit to the doctor’s office. Actually, the venue is called Rare Violins of New York and it’s something of a second home to cellist Jan Vogler, who pops in frequently to have the experts give his 1708 Stradivarius cello a thorough checkup. If your multi-million-dollar fiddle has a cough or the sniffles, or even needs a full-blown restoration, Rare Violins, which sits just a block away from Carnegie Hall, can help. The firm also has a lovely music room, kitted out with a fine piano – something Vogler lacks at his place. With help from the fine pianist Alessio Bax, Vogler makes a convincing case for Beethoven as one of the great heroes of the cello. Beethoven, whose 250th birthday falls this week, wrote five cello sonatas, plus other works for the instrument, which, before his time, was primarily relegated to beefing up the bass line in various chamber music situations.
Beethoven, in essence, liberated the cello. Listen to how it dances and struts in the opening scherzo from the Sonata in A, Op. 69.
“Cello Sonata in A, Op. 69: II. Scherzo” starts with a piano and the cello quickly jumps back in. The song builds and swells and then quiets down to a pretty piano and cello melody.
Like Jonathan Biss, these two are very chatty. They are mostly chatty with each other, but they do direct their answers to the camera sometimes too.
Up next is a short piece from the beginning of his career “12 Variations on a Theme from Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus: Variation XI: Adagio.” In this piece the cello “sings sweetly.” Vogler says that Beethoven was friendly with a fantastic cellist and he may have inspired the composer to write more pieces for the cello.
Although the piece starts with a lovely piano intro and has several moments of just piano, the cello adds so much to it.
Before the final song the two talk about how the pandemic has changed them and what they are looking forward to doing when it is over.
And finally there’s the opening to Beethoven’s last cello sonata, which Bax — whose role is far more than just an accompanist here — says is compact with emotion, yet “stretches the boundaries” for the instrument.
“Cello Sonata in D, Op. 102: I. Allegro con brio” feels like a call and response–two instruments in conversation. And they had a lot to say.
[READ: December 20, 2020] The Disaster Tourist
In continuing with my around-the-world reading, I picked up this novel that was originally written in Korean (translated by Lizzie Buehler).
This story sounded really weird and interesting.
Yona works for a company called Jungle which specializes in offering vacations in areas that have suffered a disaster.
On a disaster trip, travellers reactions usually went through these stages
shock; sympathy and compassion, maybe discomfortable gratefulness at their own lives; a sense of responsibility that they’d learned a lesson and maybe a feeling of superiority for having survived where others didn’t.
For instance, a tsunami had hit Jinhae–in an instant everything was underwater. Yona travelled there because Jungle currently didn’t offer any tours there. But they would soon. Yona would give donations and offer condolences to the community. Then she would create a vacation package that involved viewing the aftermath along with volunteer work.
Yona had worked at Jungle for over ten years. She was something of a star. But apparently, her star was starting to fade because she had all of sudden been asked to handle some customer service phone calls–never a good sign.
Things got even worse when a supervisor named Kim got on the elevator with her. He said:
Johnson is asking me to send my greetings to you.
Who?
Johnson. My Johnson. Kim pointed to his crotch.
At this point I had to wonder. Is this level of harassment something that happens in Korea? Is this shocking incident for any reader? Is this a hyper real fiction in which everything is just a bit beyond reality? I don’t know.
Then Kim grabs her bottom and put his hand in her blouse. The gesture suggested that Kim didn’t care if he was caught.
Yona was upset, but not because of the sexual assault. Because Kim was known to only target has-beens. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 