Students Seeking Meaning Crack the Shell of Technique という難しい表題をかかげていますが，日本の音楽大学でこうした期待をかけても大丈夫でしょうか．
Juilliard School はこの長い冬期休暇に，a useful way to keep its music students busy and focused during the winter break を達成する方法として，the players who sign up for ChamberFest spend the weeks rehearsing and coaching in preparation for a week of free public concerts. というのです．
それも 67 full-time Juilliard students, along with three from the precollege division and a number of visitors from the Paris Conservatory and the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, とパリ，ウイーンの学生の参加を得て，20 ensembles を結成し，今週，8回の無料コンサートをやるというのですから，日本ではほとんど例を聞かない，たいへんな勉強ぶりですよね．
初日10日には， 1．Bartok’s “Contrasts.” Liam Burke, a clarinetist; Avigail Bushakevitz, a violinist; and Yale Work, a pianist, 2．Shostakovich’s Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor (Op. 67) — Lavinia Pavlish, violinist; Colin Stokes, cellist; and Nathaniel LaNasa, pianist —
3．Brahms Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor (Op. 25), Daniel Baer played the piano and the string players — Nikita Morozov, violinist; Megan Griffin, violist; and Kristen Wojcik, cellist —
の3曲が演奏されたそうで，それぞれに批評が付いていますが，表題とかかわる核心部分だけ紹介しますと，優れた演奏として3番目の曲を挙げ，This was a virtuosic performance, but it achieved the often elusive, typically Brahmsian goal of putting virtuosity at the service of bigger ideas, rather than celebrating it for its own sake.
とあります．
私は日本の芸術大学にはほとんど絶望していて，もっぱら，出来るだけ早い機会にヨーローッパに留学して研鑽するように奨めているのです．
最近活躍の著しい河村尚子も小菅優も庄司紗矢香も神尾真由子も，皆，海外在住，海外留学歴の長い人達です．もっと先輩を挙げれば，内田光子や五島みどりもそれぞれLondon, New York にほとんど永住していますね．
Music Review
Students Seeking Meaning Crack the Shell of Technique
Matthew Dine for The New York Times
Nikita Morozov on violin, Kristen Wojcik on cello, Daniel Baer on piano and Megan Griffin on viola, performing on Monday.
Published: January 11, 2011
The Juilliard School has found a useful way to keep its music students busy and focused during the winter break. Instead of taking a breather after exams, the players who sign up for ChamberFest spend the weeks rehearsing and coaching in preparation for a week of free public concerts.
This year 67 full-time Juilliard students, along with three from the precollege division and a number of visitors from the Paris Conservatory and the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, have been configured as 20 ensembles and are offering eight concerts this week. The repertory runs from Schubert and Brahms to Messiaen and Ligeti, and if the opener on Monday evening was any indication, it should be a hot ticket, as the Juilliard School’s free concerts usually are. Paul Hall was packed well before curtain time, with would-be concertgoers cruising the aisles in search of seats.
The program opened with a beautifully played but interpretively frustrating account of Bartok’s “Contrasts.” Liam Burke, a clarinetist; Avigail Bushakevitz, a violinist; and Yale Work, a pianist, played gracefully and fastidiously, and Mr. Burke’s phrasing embraced the bent notes and other jazz touches that Benny Goodman, for whom Bartok wrote the part, brought to the first performances. But fastidiousness is not really the order of the day here: you want the admirable textural transparency that these musicians brought to the score, but this music also needs a touch of on-the-edge brashness.
That said, an attraction of ChamberFest is hearing finely trained young players coming to terms with music that requires them to sacrifice polish for something deeper. The ensemble for the Bartok began to accomplish that in the work’s finale. And the group that played Shostakovich’s Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor (Op. 67) — Lavinia Pavlish, violinist; Colin Stokes, cellist; and Nathaniel LaNasa, pianist — also had to make adjustments along the way. Peculiar balances at the start were quickly sorted out, and though parts of the opening movement seemed prim and polite, the players quickly got in touch with the pained intensity that drives the piece.
The best and most consistent performance of the evening was the account of the Brahms Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor (Op. 25), which closed the program. Daniel Baer played the piano line with fluidity, warmth and sparkle, and the string players — Nikita Morozov, violinist; Megan Griffin, violist; and Kristen Wojcik, cellist — matched the richness and depth of his reading. This was a virtuosic performance, but it achieved the often elusive, typically Brahmsian goal of putting virtuosity at the service of bigger ideas, rather than celebrating it for its own sake.
