Mention Yuri Bashmet, and the viola jokes quickly disappear.
The Russian violist resembles Paganini somewhat in appearance and plays with an intensity and technical virtuosity worthy of the great 19th Century Italian. A concert Sunday afternoon in Symphony Center brought us Bashmet in a somewhat less familiar role, as conductor leading the Moscow Soloists.
Founded by Bashmet in 1992, the 18-member string ensemble is made up of leading graduates from the celebrated Moscow Conservatory. Bashmet proved himself equally at home on the podium, and full-metal performances of Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky showcased the Moscow Soloists’ razor-sharp ensemble and remarkable unanimity of playing.
Shostakovich’s music is undergoing a healthy debate between those who find heroic opposition to the Soviet regime in most of his works and skeptics who see Shostakovich as a great composer but a flawed and decidedly unheroic man. The latter view regards the former as simplistic and believes it does a disservice to his music by reducing Shostakovich’s complex works to mere “secret” ideological statements against the Soviet commissars. As in most cultural debates, the truth likely lies somewhere between the extremes.
The impassioned Shostakovich performances by Bashmet and the Moscow Soloists rendered the dispute an interesting irrelevancy. In the “Chamber Symphony” (Rudolph Barshai’s arrangement for string orchestra of the Eighth String Quartet) especially, the driven and eloquent performance showed that this music requires no explicit anti-Soviet imprimatur to be powerful.
Rarely have the violently conflicted moods and brooding pessimism of this celebrated work been made as strikingly present. Snapped pizzicatos had a brutal intensity, and the whirlwind dervish of the second movement was dizzying in its speed and fury. Yet though Bashmet forcefully emphasized the dynamic contrasts, the refinement and quieter moments were just as notable, with remarkable delicacy in the violins.
If anything, the “Sinfonia” arrangement by Alexander Tchaikovsky (no relation to Peter Ilich) for viola and orchestra of the extended opening Adagio from Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 13 was even more visceral. Bashmet’s laser-like concentration in his viola solos elicited equally fervent playing by colleagues. More harrowing than the previous work in its desperation and despair, the performance had a shattering impact.
Intermission provided a chance to adjust frayed musical nerve endings, and an arrangement for viola and orchestra of the Andante Cantabile from the more famous Tchaikovsky’s String Quartet No. 1 was welcome balm. Shorn of sentimentality, Bashmet’s solo playing showed how fresh this music can sound minus lily-gilding.
More striking still was Tchaikovsky’s “Serenade for Strings.” The waltz movement was aptly lithe and balletic, but elsewhere Bashmet took a decidedly revisionist view emphasizing the restless counterpoint and eliciting an edgy, unsettled performance of this outwardly lyrical work.
