Some soloists spend their lives shuttling around the world, trotting out standard works for the umpteenth time. Others often refresh their repertory and always seem to have some innovative project under way.
五島みどりの近況，活躍ぶり [音楽時評]
五島みどりがニューヨークの at the 92nd Street Y でコンサートを開いた音楽評が，The New York Times 紙に掲載されていました．
この評では，まず，Solo Violinist を大きく2分しています．
Some soloists spend their lives shuttling around the world, trotting out standard works for the umpteenth time. Others often refresh their repertory and always seem to have some innovative project under way.
一群は，スタンダードな曲を弾いて世界中を忙しく飛び回っている人たち，もう一群は，しばしばレパートリーを更新して，いつも新しいproject に取り組んでいる人たち，です．
Midori は後者に属するとして，彼女の活動を紹介しています．The violinist Midori falls into the latter category. She has balanced her career as a performer with public service projects and the four educational initiatives she has established, which include an orchestra residencies program in which she visits professional and youth ensembles across the country. と多忙な生活を送っているそうです．
そのMidoriが，多忙の合間を縫って，ニューヨークでトルコ出身のピアニスト，Ozgur Aydin と比較的スタンダードなリサイタルを開いて好演したようです．
プログラムは，
Mozart’s Sonata for Piano and Violin in E flat (K. 380)
Shostakovich’s Violin Sonata (Op. 134)
Schumann’s Violin Sonata No. 1 in A minor
Schubert’s Fantasy for Violin and Piano in C (D. 934)
As an encore, Midori and Mr. Aydin offered the gentle “Sea Shell” by Carl Engel, a salon piece originally written for voice and piano and performed here in a transcription by the violinist Efrem Zimbalist.
このなかで特記すべきことは，Midori が，Ozgur Aydin のことを考えて，楽譜の出版社が one of “six sonatas for piano with the accompaniment of a violin と呼んだ曲でリサイタルを始めたということです．それは，Midori が若手育成にかける思いを物語って余りあると考えるものです．
あとは，どうぞご自由に，ご渉猟下さい．
Music Review
A Busy Soloist, Working at Collaboration
By VIVIEN SCHWEITZER
Published: November 1, 2011
Karsten Moran for The New York Times
The violinist Midori was accompanied by the pianist Ozgur Aydin in a program of Mozart, Shostakovich and Schumann at the 92nd Street Y.
The violinist Midori falls into the latter category. She has balanced her career as a performer with public service projects and the four educational initiatives she has established, which include an orchestra residencies program in which she visits professional and youth ensembles across the country.
In recent years she has also turned her attention to playing contemporary repertory and commissioning works. But for her concert at the 92nd Street Y on Saturday evening, she programmed standard fare.
Not that there was anything standard about her performances, with the Turkish pianist Ozgur Aydin. A celebrity instrumentalist invariably headlines the event, but the talents of the pianist are equally important, especially in a work like Mozart’s Sonata for Piano and Violin in E flat (K. 380), which opened the program. Its publisher advertised the piece in 1781 as one of “six sonatas for piano with the accompaniment of a violin by the moderately well-known and famous Wolfgang Amadee Mozart.”
Mr. Aydin’s lithe, sparkling touch brought out the sunny qualities of the outer movements, and his poised reading of the Andante con moto beautifully complemented Midori’s penetrating playing.
That these two musicians are regular collaborators was evident in each of their finely wrought but free-spirited interpretations. The eerie musings of the first movement of Shostakovich’s Violin Sonata (Op. 134) unfolded here with plaintive intensity. The no-holds-barred ferocity of Midori and Mr. Aydin’s playing vividly illuminated the manic, almost deranged moods of the second-movement Allegretto and the solo cadenzas in the finale.
A more subdued agitation permeates Schumann’s Violin Sonata No. 1 in A minor, written a few years before the composer was admitted to a mental asylum. The musicians offered an intimate interpretation that conveyed the work’s restless energy and plumbed the searching dialogue between the two instruments.
The program concluded with a passionate rendition of Schubert’s Fantasy for Violin and Piano in C (D. 934), composed shortly before he died at 31. As an encore, Midori and Mr. Aydin offered the gentle “Sea Shell” by Carl Engel, a salon piece originally written for voice and piano and performed here in a transcription by the violinist Efrem Zimbalist.
【短信】Tokyo Quartet に残る2人の日本人引退 [音楽時評]
Julliard Quartet の惨状にがっかりしたばかりですが，今度は，日本人が設立して一世を風靡したTokyo Quartetから，2013年までにOriginal member が総て引退してしまう事態が報じられています．
The violist, Kazuhide Isomura, 65, helped start the quartet in 1969. Also leaving is the second violinist, Kikuei Ikeda, 64, who joined in 1974.
残るアメリカ人，イギリス人メンバーが後任の募集を始めるようですが，私はJulliard の嘆かわしい状況からも，Tokyo String Quartet は，アメリカの議論の末大方の意見の一致を見たoriginal member がいなくなった時点でというRule of thumb に従って，きっぱりと歴史的存在に昇華させるべきだと考えます．
Tokyo String Quartet の大きな利点は，日本財団がストラディヴァリュース4丁を貸与していることにあります．その貸与の経緯は明確には知りませんが，個人に対する通常の貸与は，個人の1代限りが限度になっているはずです．Tokyo String Quartet は例外だったのでしょうが，常識的に考えれば，original member 1代限りと置き換えるべきものでしょう．
Julliard のような事態を招かないためにも，日本財団が確固たる決定を行われるように強く希望するモノです．
November 1, 2011, 3:57 pm
Tokyo String Quartet Losing Two Members
By DANIEL J. WAKINTwo members of the Tokyo String Quartet, including its founding violist, will retire from the group at the end of next season, in June 2013, the ensemble said in a statement from its public relations firm on Tuesday. The violist, Kazuhide Isomura, 65, helped start the quartet in 1969. Also leaving is the second violinist, Kikuei Ikeda, 64, who joined in 1974.
The other two members, the violinist Martin Beaver and the cellist Clive Greensmith, are trying out candidates to take over the other violin and the viola positions. The new members will be announced in the spring, the quartet said. Mr. Ikeda and Mr. Isomura will continue to perform and coach, according to the statement. The original members had studied at the Toho School of Music in Tokyo and went on to the Juilliard School, where they formed the quartet in 1969.
紀尾井ホール：Julliard の名に恥じる演奏のJulliard [音楽時評]
Julliard のHomepage に次のように書かれています．
The Juilliard String Quartet continues its vibrant tradition of music-making and education in the 2011/12 season, with Joseph Lin as its new first violinist and colleague on the faculty of The Juilliard School.
Julliard Quartet は第2次世界大戦後1946年にJulliard School によって創設された歴史ある楽団です
Quartet で創設以来66年目というのは，アメリカでも類例がないでしょう．
Since its inception in 1946, the Juilliard String Quartet has had the technical excellence, musicological knowledge, interpretive expressiveness and collegial communication to be able to perform virtually the complete repertory for string quartet in ways that thrill audiences as well as composers.
創設以来のメンバーを挙げますと，
First violin：1946，Robert Mann；1997，Joel Smirnoff（2ndに1986から）；2009，Nick Eanet；2011 Joseph Lin
Second violin:1946, Robert Koff; 1958, Isidore Cohen;1966, Earl Carlyss; 1986 Joel Smirnoff; 1997, Ronald Copes
Viola: 1946, Raphael Hillyer; 1969, Samuel Rhodes
Violoncello:1946, Arthur Winograd; 1955, Claus Adam; 1974, Joel Krosnickですから，創設時のメンバーは1997年に絶えているのです．
今の最古参はViolaの1969, Samuel Rhodes，次がCelloの1974, Joel Krosnick です．
Julliardの名称存続を巡っては，Robert Mannが1997年に辞めたときに大きな話題になり，大方の意見の一致を見たのが，創設メンバーが1人もいなくなったら名称は歴史に残すべきだという多数意見でした．しかし，Mann が辞めた時点では，１人が第2ヴァイオリンから第1に回りましたから，Mannが 辞めた時点では，旧メンバーは3人いましたから，第2ヴァイオリンの穴埋めだけで，なりふり構わず，Julliard の栄光にしがみつく形で存続してしまったのです．
しかし，2009年に第1ヴァイオリンのJoel Smirnoff が引退して，後任に招いたNick Eanetが，内圧に負けて，胃の疾患に陥り，1年で辞任を申し出ましたから，2011年から台湾系アメリカ人のJoseph Lin を穴埋めして再発足したばかりなのです．
最近，Homepage に次のような言い訳がましい強弁が掲載されて，Julliard の質的低下が言外に現れていました．
“At a recent performance,” Rhodes continues, “something intangible happened to the pacing that was subtly different from any of the other performances. One person delayed something just a little; another responded by recovering out of it in just the right way and almost instantaneously the whole group was in ‘sync’ with a pacing that took us in a very different direction. It was totally convincing to all four of us, and happened without any prior discussion. The possibility of a moment such as this occurring at any time keeps the music-making fresh no matter how many times you play the same piece.”
今夜のプログラムは，
ハイドン：弦楽四重奏曲第57番ト長調Op.54-1.Hob.III-58「第1トスト四重奏曲第1番」
マルティーノ：弦楽四重奏曲第5番（2004）
※※※※※※※
ベートーヴェン：弦楽四重奏曲第13番変ロ長調Op.130/133「大フーガ付」
でした．
演奏は，昨日世界最高クラスのエベーヌ・クァルテットを聴いたばかりだったので，どうにもいただけませんでした．まず，ステージ・マナーの悪さですが，，聴衆をないがしろにして，ヴィオラが自分の席につくのに，4つの椅子の裏を回らないで，ステージの聴衆側を通っていたのです．年配者でしたから近道を選んだのでしょうが，通常は考えられないことです．
演奏の前半は，まるで弦楽三重奏伴奏付きヴァイオリン・ソロの趣で，ヴァイオリンが勝ってしまって，アンサンブルがどうにも聴きづらかったのです．ヴァイオリンの故ばかりではなく，ヴィオラとチェロが音程は不安定だし，音量も斑模様だったからです．
後半は，第1ヴァイオリンが控えめになったのですが，それがかえって不安定なヴィオラとチェロを浮き上がらせてしまい，せっかくのベートーヴェンの名曲がほとんど台無しでした．
アメリカでは，年齢差別になるとして，高齢者の定年制が撤廃されていますから，これからも名門であればあるほど，こうした質的低下を招きやすい状況にあるといえます．
