NeuralTones Foundation and Shar Music Company present Boundless Horizons in Review
Chenyi Avsharian, violin; Rohan De Silva, piano; Simon Hagopian-Rogers, violin
Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, New York, NY
October 5, 2024
This weekend at Zankel Hall violinist Chenyi Avsharian performed a program entitled “Boundless Horizons,” presenting some of the most well-loved showpieces ever composed or arranged for violin, with pianist Rohan De Silva collaborating and young violinist Simon Hagopian-Rogersjoining for three duets. There was, as the first half, Stephen Foster’s Old Folks at Home (arr. Jascha Heifetz), Sarasate’s Zapateado, Op. 23, No. 2, Mendelssohn’s Auf Flügeln des Gesanges, Op. 34, No. 2 (“On Wings of Song” arr. Jascha Heifetz), and Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst’s Fantasie Brillante sur la Marche et La Romance d’Otello de Rossini. After intermission, we heard three selections (I, III, and V) from Five Pieces for Two Violins by Shostakovich (arr. Levon Atovmyan), the Brahms Scherzo in C Minor (Sonatensatz), selections from Gershwin’s Porgy And Bess (tr. Jascha Heifetz), Piazzolla’s Le Grand Tango, “Mo Li Hua” (traditional Chinese folksong, tr. by Chenyi Avsharian), and Franz Waxman’s Carmen Fantasie to close.
Looking at the selections in advance was like seeing a delightful menu of mostly desserts for the listener – though some mountainous challenges for the violinist. It could almost have been presented as a Jascha Heifetz tribute, given most of the works’ histories with a few exceptions, but in any case, it all demanded Heifetzian virtuosity. Ms. Avsharian, whose credits include winning the Gold Medal in the China International Violin Competition in 2008, was as fit for it as anyone could be. Beneath her modest demeanor onstage, she is a force – a powerhouse performer.
All of the works required masterful technique, but the Ernst and Waxman opera fantasies are replete with so many over-the-top demands that generally just one such piece might crown a program – so Ms. Avsharian is to be congratulated for conquering two of these with such aplomb. More musically memorable moments included the nostalgic phrases of the Foster opening (sometimes called “Swanee River”), the feather-light Zapateado, which had just the right danceable feel all through its pyrotechnics, the intensely bracing Brahms Sonatensatz, and two of the three Shostakovich duets, Prelude and Elegy, introducing talented young violinist Simon Hagopian-Rogers. All of these were well-chosen for audience accessibility, including the three Shostakovich movements, about which Itzhak Perlman once quipped before a performance, “This is Shostakovich without the bitterness or the cynicism, just sweet Shostakovich … maybe he was four years old.” Ha! Of course, there is great depth to be found in them, and Ms. Avsharian and her duo partner relayed it beautifully.
Also of note was the traditional Chinese folk song “Mo Li Hua” (“Jasmine Flower” – estimated to be from the early 1700s, though some say centuries earlier). It has been adapted by many since its discovery, including by Puccini and Tan Dun, and it was played here in a transcription by Ms. Avsharian herself, as a piece she describes as very dear to her personally. It was played with melting beauty. It is so famous among Chinese audiences that some in the hall took the liberty of singing along with it, though with such a heartfelt rendering, one half-wished to hear the violin unaccompanied!
Beyond Ms. Avsharian’s performing gifts, she is a leader at Shar Music and NeuralTones, the latter being a non-profit that, according to the promotional materials, “is committed to exploring the connection between music and brain function and enhancing music education for underserved children.” We had been informed that the event would be “combining live performance with artist commentary and multimedia projections to illustrate how our brains process and respond to music” – so one expected an alternation between music and commentary, with some multimedia additions where appropriate. Admittedly, that would have been a tall order extending the length of the program, but the decision for them to be simultaneous created a different challenge.
Instead of intermittent spoken commentary, there were images projected on a large screen behind the performers all through their performances, some including text about the music and composers, and some showing fleeting brain images (AI-enhanced?) with colors pulsating according to neural responses to music as demonstrated in various electroencephalograms (EEGs). Understandably, these were meant to help grasp the mission of NeuralTones, but this listener found such “meta-musical” additions to be doing a disservice to the live music, which warrants our complete attention. It has been well-documented that music stimulates the brain, but music deserves to be valued and savored on its own. Does it enhance the experience of haute cuisine to watch slides of the food pyramid or lingual papillae – while dining?
In addition, some neural images labeled “happy” and “sad” and cartoons with thought balloons intruded, striking one as uncomfortably limiting compared to what a free listener can notice and feel. It seemed even to contradict the advertising of the Boundless Horizons program, which professes to be “Embodying freedom and limitlessness.” Though projected images pertaining to the libretti behind the transcriptions seemed generally more justified – i.e., Carmen and Otello – program notes would have sufficed less distractingly. While printed program notes can often be superficial as well (and having one’s head in program notes can detract from a concert experience too) at least printed notes can be ignored, while projected images necessarily become part of the experience. This listener, for one, having been assigned to review the concert as a whole, could not ignore them.
There were moments when even the performers seemed to be distracted. The generally superb Ms. Avsharian suffered some moments of iffy intonation in the Brahms, and the languor of Gershwin’s “Summertime” felt lost. Even the generally expert playing of Mr. De Silva seemed a bit rushed in the Piazzolla (was he trying to keep up with visual projections?), and all was less than focused at the start of the Carmen Fantasy.
Alas, we have now become a multitasking world. Though of course good teachers offer stories and artworks to bring life and context to music for the uninitiated and the young, those are ideally part of readiness prior to unfettered listening. Ultimately, great music is enough, in and of itself. On a side note, if we are showcasing neuroscience, it should also be considered that there is mounting evidence supporting a causal relationship between multitasking and anxiety, depression, and a host of other woes – and it would be sad to see concerts adding to that. Undoubtedly, that was not intended, but hopefully, with sensitivity, NeuralTones’ dual missions of research and education will bear fruit in the world without diminishing returns in the concert hall.
The impulse to bridge gaps, regardless of method, was nonetheless appreciated – and the audience applauded with great fervor at the concert’s end.
