Review: Finckel, Han give standout recital

To call a concert challenging is often to damn it with faint praise, but not in the case of the recital given Sunday afternoon by cellist David Finckel and pianist Wu Han.

Finckel and Han, who are married to each other and run their own record company while they're not out touring, offered three substantial sonatas at the Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach, including a relatively new piece written for them in 2002 by the young pianist-composer Lera Auerbach.

Auerbach's Cello Sonata No. 1, Op. 69, proved to be a stimulating composition in every important sense. It is the work of a very talented, intensely serious artist with a deep grounding in tradition who also has her ears wide open to newer possibilities for rhythm and color. But there was also something curiously unfinished about it, something half-explored; I think I felt that way because much of her material sounded to me as though it begged for more elaboration.

The four-movement sonata is dark, powerful, and tragic, but this is not mourning that's content to stay in one place. The piece fairly burns with energy, even in the second movement, marked Lament. Here, huge dynamic contrasts alternated with long, sad melodies in the cello over Romantic-style figurations in the piano. The third movement, a toccata, opens with both instruments playing a charging, churning rhythm that evokes rock more than it does jazz, with an effect every bit as magnetic.

Good things were on display in the two outer movements, too, including a melancholy semi-waltz in five-four time in the first movement, and tightly buzzing, aggressive quarter-tone trills by the cello in the finale that differed markedly from the closing bars, in which the music simply evaporates. An impressive piece overall, though again, a lot of the material (such as the little motif that began the second movement) suggested other potentialities that weren't addressed.

Auerbach could hardly have hoped for better executants than Finckel and Han, who demonstrated superior musicianship throughout. Finckel has a penetrating yet velvety sound that seizes center stage, and Han's wonderful technique made short work of much of the sonata's treacherous difficulties.

The two were no less accomplished on the recital's other two Russian sonatas - the G minor, Op. 19, of Sergei Rachmaninov, and the C major Sonata, Op. 119, of Sergei Prokofiev. (Auerbach, now 32, hails from the Urals but left Mother Russia just before the Soviet Union collapsed.)

The Prokofiev sonata that opened the recital is a very late work, but unlike other pieces from the end of his career, this one shows little diminishment of the composer's powers. Its mix of strong melodies and interesting textures served Finckel and Han well; the cellist gave plenty of sweep to the major theme of the first movement, and Han played even the fragmentary tune in the sonata's earlier measures with a maximum of poetry.

That movement ends with a very slow, high trill in the cello over gentle closing chords in the piano. This gesture is heard three times, and the two players turned each repetition into something special.

The second half of the concert was devoted to the Rachmaninov sonata, a big, highly charged piece brimming with the kind of tunes that continue to endear this composer to audiences. The sonata has a huge, expansive piano part that requires virtuoso equipment, and Han delivered, snapping off the little minor-scale smirk that opens the second movement with admirable crispness, and saving plenty in reserve for the climbing chords that Rachmaninov is fond of writing at points of emotional climax.

Finckel gave no ground to his wife in playing the music with the grand gesture it requires, driving the melodies forward with all-out passion time and again. It was a performance that showed both artists absolutely united on a common conception of the piece. There was no sense that Han was simply accompanying her husband, or that Finckel was trying to get a word in edgewise as Han cranked up the volume.

Instead, you had two separate artists giving their all together and as individuals to give the most committed performance they could. It was stellar music-making, from the choice of program to its execution, and the kind of recital that encourages listeners to further investigate the riches of the chamber music repertoire.

Finckel and Han gave an encore: The Scherzo-pizzicato movement from Benjamin Britten's sonata, also in C major, dating from 1961. It's a short, witty piece that exploits the varied effects a cellist can get from an all-pizzicato approach; it's humorous and charming, and piqued interest in the rest of the sonata.