San Francisco Classical Voice

RECITAL REVIEW Sibling Rivalry at Hertz Hall

April 22, 2001

Gil and Orli Shaham

By Stuart Canin

The siblings Shaham gave a duel [sic] recital for Cal Performances Sunday at Hertz Hall in Berkeley. With a nine-foot Steinway grand fully opened, Orli Shaham seemed determined to push the splendid-sounding Stradivarius violin of brother Gil to the limits.

It was one of those "I can play louder than you can" afternoons, with the beautiful, perfumed Fauré A Major Sonata as the first victim of the concert. Camille Saint-Sa”ns, writing a review of this work in 1877, mentioned a "sort of unconscious naïveté with all that can delight the fastidious and a charm which envelops the entire work." The Shahams persisted, from the opening bars given to the pianist, in a hell-bent-for-leather approach that foretold Rachmaninov, unfortunately historically a bit too early.

No one can fault the Shahams' techniques, and Gil Shaham especially is a major violinist in every aspect of his craft. What made the afternoon uncomfortable for me was the almost complete absence, except for the opening Copland Sonata, of an attempt at a style fitted specifically to the music. The Copland, which opened the concert, was splendidly performed by both artists. It was written in the early 1940s, the time of Billy the Kid, Rodeo, Quiet City, etc. It is spacious and plain-spoken music, and it was quite affecting in this performance. I cannot imagine the music better played.

Heavy-Footed, Overproduced

The Fauré Sonata that followed began the afternoon's tribulations. After intermission, the Shahams trotted out some Brahms Hungarian Dances, Nos. 18, 13, 14, and 2, all keyed in D, with the opening dance in D Major, followed by minor, major, and minor. These tidbits proved that not all of the more than 20 Brahms Hungarian Dances are important music. The Shahams' heavy-footed rhythm and overproduced theatricality didn't help matters.

For their last offering, the duo chose one of the great sonatas of the literature, the Brahms D Minor, Op. 108. The less said about this performance, the better. From the opening lovely violin melody, played as though the team had a car waiting, nothing went right. With all kinds of ultrasoft and then ultraloud playing, which seemed to be all that the Shahams could offer stylistically, the piece had no musical direction. The lovely, poignant scherzo movement, which the score instructs should be played "con sentimento" (with feeling), was totally devoid of feeling, and the last movement was a slash-and-burn, headlong flight to the final D minor ending. The duo played one encore, the second piece from Dvorák's Four Romantic Pieces.

(Stuart Canin is former Concertmaster of the San Francisco Symphony and of Hollywood film orchestras and the former Music Director of the New Century Chamber Orchestra.)