Review: North Shore Chamber Music Festival's Season of Anniversaries 2025
Music from another century - bursting with energy in real time - played live by world-class musicians in front of a packed audience - does it get better?
Such were my thoughts as I watched violinist Vadim Gluzman perform the Franck Violin Sonata with pianist William Wolfram in the opening concert of the North Shore Chamber Music Festival (NSCMF) at the Village Church of Northbrook in the Chicago suburb of Northbrook on Wednesday.
"Every emotion - and more - is in this piece," Gluzman had said in his introductory words before playing the sonata, which Franck wrote in 1886 as a wedding present to the then-28-year-old violinist Eugene Ysaÿe. "It celebrates love, which has so many sides and faces - nostalgia, deep passion..."
Indeed, the passion was on display from Gluzman's first notes - the gorgeous vibrato and remarkably beautiful tone he draws from the 1690 "ex-Leopold Auer" Stradivari, long on extended loan to him through the Stradivari Society of Chicago.
Violinist Vadim Gluzman and pianist William Wolfram Wednesday night at the North Shore Chamber Music Festival. Image courtesy NSCMF.
Franck himself was a gifted pianist and organist, and this sonata is notorious for its wicked-difficult piano part, which Wolfrom played masterfully, deftly elucidating the central melodies at the heart of the constant swirl of notes.
The restless second movement was powerful - with Gluzman's playing simultaneously articulate while also bursting with sound, somehow going right up to, yet never over the brink where the sound breaks.
The third-movement recitative was captivating and beautifully coordinated between the two musicians, and the fourth movement had the comfort of a warm loaf of bread. If this sonata is about love and marriage, here is the music that personifies a kind of contented coexistence - two voices each happily doing their own thing, echoing each other from time to time, together but independent, yet always in a dance. The triumphant ending was so fast and exciting - audience members immediately rose to their feet after the final note.
This year the NSCMF celebrates its 15th anniversary with the theme "Connecting Generations." To that end, the concert actually began with a performance featuring Wolfram and violinist Julian Rhee, who at age 24 has won numerous top-level competitions as well as a 2024 Avery Fisher Career Grant. Rhee has been connected with NSCMF for some time and was a 2020 recipient of their Arkady Fomin Scholarship.
Rhee and Wolfram performed "Poème élégiaque" in D minor, Op. 12 - written by Eugene Ysaÿe just a few years after that Franck Sonata that celebrated his wedding. It's a piece that unfolds in one free-form movement, inspired by Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet - specifically depicting the tragic couple's death and funeral. Before his performance Rhee quoted Ysaÿe's words about the idea of a musical "poem," that it "weeps and sings, it is shadow and light and has a changing prism; it is free and needs only its title to guide the composer and make him paint feelings, images, abstractions without a literary canvas; in a word, it is a picture painted without a model."
Violinist Julian Rhee Wednesday night at the North Shore Chamber Music Festival. Image courtesy NSCMF.
Interestingly it is written for a scordatura violin: the G string is tuned down to an F natural, giving the instrument "a darker, earthier texture," Rhee said. Indeed, the "F string" made the instrument resonate in new ways - enhancing the work's sorrowful character and giving off some nice viola vibes.
Rhee is quite a fine violinist - animating the music with his full energy and well-honed virtuoso technique (all those octaves!) This was a very romantic, heart-on-the-sleeve piece and he was all in - a fully committed performer.
The evening closed with Mikhail Glinka's "Grand Sextet" - an opportunity for all to play together - or, call it a party - a birthday party! Gluzman announced they were celebrating Wolfram's 70th birthday.
For the piece, Gluzman, Rhee (now playing viola) and Wolfram were joined by violinist Hina Khuong-Huu, cellist Ani Aznavoorian and double bassist Kurt Muroki.
L-R: Hina Khuong-Huu, Vadim Gluzman, William Wolfram, Ani Aznavoorian, Julian Rhee and Kurt Muroki. Image courtesy NSCMF.
The birthday boy was quite busy in this piece - what a piano part! Most remarkable, though, was the rapport between these musicians, so tuned in to each other and satisfying in their synchronicity.
A great start to the Festival!
EDITOR'S NOTE: I watched the livestream of this concert in real time - unfortunately I was unable to make the trip to Chicago to be there in person, as previously planned! There are two more concerts, at 7:30 p.m. CT on Friday and Saturday - watch the livestream here!
You might also like:
- Spotlight on Violin: North Shore Chamber Music Festival Begins June 4
- Supporting Young Musicians: The Story Behind the Arkady Fomin Scholarship Fund
- Betty Haag and a New Generation of Violinists - NSCMF 2024
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