United States Numerous: Andreas Ottensamer (clarinet), Kian Soltani (cello), Alessio Bax (piano). Stephen A. Schwarzman Auditorium, Frick Assortment, New York, 16.11.2025. (ES-S)
Beethoven – Trio in B-flat main, Op.11, ‘Gassenhauer’
Schubert – Sonata in A minor, D.821, ‘Arpeggione’
Mendelssohn – Picks from Lieder ohne Worte: Op.102, No.1; Op.62, No.6, ‘Spring Tune’; Op.67, No.5; Op.30, No.6, ‘Venetian Gondola Tune’ (arr. by Andreas Ottensamer)
Brahms – Clarinet Trio in A minor, Op.114
Encore: Rachmaninov – Romance for six Fingers in A serious
The Frick Assortment’s music collection continued with a thoughtfully conceived program carried out by Andreas Ottensamer, Kian Soltani and Alessio Bax. Shifting from the poised readability of early Beethoven by way of the extra intimate worlds of Schubert and Mendelssohn and on to the heightened introspection of late Brahms, the recital traced how nineteenth-century instrumental writing each brushes in opposition to and is knowledgeable by the expressive territory of the voice. What emerged was much less a sequence of contrasting items than a gradual shift from outward attraction to inward reflection, guided by the distinctive musical profiles of the three performers, all dedicated chamber musicians.
Andreas Ottensamer, who not too long ago stepped down as principal clarinet of the Berlin Philharmonic to broaden his profession as each soloist and conductor, introduced the soft-edged glow and immaculate management which have lengthy distinguished his taking part in. Kian Soltani, some of the distinguished cellists of his technology, contributed a clear, well-focused tone, with phrasing that emphasised line and coherence over dramatic accent. Alessio Bax, a pianist of refinement and refined rhythmic intuition, anchored the ensemble with quiet authority: clear in articulation, flippantly pedaled and attentive to coloristic element. Collectively, the three provided an strategy that, within the over-resonant acoustics of the Schwarzman Auditorium, aimed to favor finesse over exuberance and intimacy over projection.
Beethoven’s Trio in B-flat main, the so-called ‘Gassenhauer’, opened this system with genial precision. Written within the late 1790s and constructed round a well-liked avenue tune in its finale, the work achieved on this luminous studying an equilibrium between Haydnesque earthy humor and polished classicism. Bax set the tone with crisp rhythmic definition and an understated contact, permitting Ottensamer and Soltani to reflect and mood one another’s phrasing. Beethoven usually imagines the clarinet and cello in shut dialogue, and right here that relationship felt finely balanced – Soltani’s traces barely cushioned, Ottensamer’s delivered with rounded edges and suggestive dynamic nuance. Within the concluding variations, the trio emphasised class relatively than wit, an strategy that granted the motion a sure composure, even when it softened a few of its ludic edge.
Schubert’s ‘Arpeggione’ Sonata was written for a hybrid, briefly trendy instrument of the 1820s that quickly disappeared from use, leaving the work to be adopted by each woodwinds and strings. Heard right here in a cello model that introduced out the Lieder-like melancholy of its traces, the piece aligned naturally with this system’s said deal with instrumental writing that evokes vocal qualities. Soltani framed the opening motion by permitting phrases to unfold with out pressure, whereas Bax partnered with a lightweight however agency contact, retaining textures clear and the harmonic movement purposeful. The central Adagio – spun in lengthy, aria-like traces – proved the excessive level of their rendition, outstanding in its restraint and sustained sense of suspended time. Within the finale, the virtuosic writing remained tempered, its bursts of pleasure deliberately fleeting, and the efficiency as an entire felt much less like a show piece than a restrained continuation of this system’s lyric thread.
The second duo of the afternoon introduced Ottensamer and Bax collectively for a range from Mendelssohn’s Lieder ohne Worte, works written throughout greater than a decade and mendacity stylistically between Schubert’s introspective lyricism and the extra saturated expressivity of Brahms. Conceived for piano and heard right here in Ottensamer’s personal transcriptions, which entrust a lot of the ‘singing’ line to the clarinet, the items revealed a distilled type of Mendelssohn’s melodic reward, touched with the fairy-realm lightness harking back to A Midsummer Night time’s Dream, at a distance from Schubert’s usually tragic melancholy. In Op.102, No.1, Ottensamer paced the lengthy phrases with pure ease, whereas Bax gave the melody unobtrusive help. The well-known ‘Spring Tune’ (Op.62, No.6) unfolded with softened brightness: the clarinet’s timbre rounded off its sparkle, turning the melody into one thing extra airborne than exuberant. Op.67, No.5 launched a darker hue, its operatic turns shaded with discreet colour. The ‘Venetian Gondola Tune’ (Op.30, No.6) closed the set with a murmuring gentleness. Its lilting movement emerged not as picturesque scene-painting however as a quietly flowing line guided by understated rubato, recalling Soltani’s earlier feedback in regards to the pliant, subtly delayed inflections attribute of Viennese rhythm.
The recital concluded with Brahms’s Clarinet Trio in A minor, the ultimate cease in a day structured quasi-symmetrically as two trios framing a pair of duos. A century after the novelty of the clarinet’s sound in Beethoven’s time, the instrument had change into, by the tip of the nineteenth century, a car for the inward and autumnal expressivity Brahms sought. Ottensamer dropped at this late work – certainly one of a number of impressed by Brahms’s encounter with clarinetist Richard Mühlfeld – a heat, centered tone whose focus by no means wavered, even within the instrument’s darkest register. He traced the opening motion with measured breadth and prevented any trace of mannered rubato. Soltani’s entrance – that pressing, upward-arching cello line – introduced a mellow gravity with out heaviness, and the exchanges between the 2 retained a conversational fluidity relatively than any sense of contest for prominence. Bax, navigating the piano’s usually dense writing, stored textures clear and harmonic element audible, supplying the required weight with out disturbing the ensemble’s stability.
Within the Adagio, the clarinet’s long-spun phrases had been delivered with understated eloquence, Ottensamer trusting contour and concord to do a lot of the expressive work. Soltani matched this restraint with finely calibrated tone, whereas Bax supplied a supple, quietly supportive backdrop that allowed the melodic traces to interleave naturally. The third motion’s mild, waltz-like carry provided a short easing of texture earlier than the finale returned to extra grounded expressivity. Even in its extra turbulent passages, the trio maintained cohesion and proportion, tracing Brahms’s intricate, interwoven writing with poise and gravitas.
As a shocking encore – and one which, amusingly, nonetheless preserved this system’s symmetry – the three artists tried to share a single piano bench for Rachmaninov’s Romance for Six Fingers. Bax, ever the modest associate, occupied the decrease register, whereas Ottensamer took the higher one, his proper hand carrying the ‘vocal line’ with placing ease and heat, a becoming near a meritorious recital.
Edward Sava-Segal
Featured Picture: Andreas Ottensamer, Kian Soltani and Alessio Bax © The Frick Assortment/Cris Sunwoo
