When a pair of internationally renowned soloists like pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy and cellist Lynn Harrell work up a program of chamber music and take it on the road, as they did earlier this year, they easily fill the biggest concert room in town--both with their art and their audience.
Ashkenazy is a small, bespectacled, intense man with slightly graying hair. Ever since his much-publicized flight from his Russian homeland in 1963, he has been hailed as one of the world's great solo piano virtuosi.
Harrell, by contrast, is a great burly bear of a man, with a mop of strawberry blonde hair. An American by birth and an orchestra player by training and evolution, he is ranked among the world's leading cellists.
But when two performers of this magnitude pool their efforts, is the result invariably memorable? Do two stars always add up to two and a half when combined?
The answer to this question is not an automatic "of course they do." In symphonic music, the conductor is the undisputed leader; he inspires the orchestra to convey his interpretation of the piece. When a soloist is added, the conductor may choose to let the soloist lead to some degree, but this does not alter the essentially one-way nature of the orchestral experience.
Ensemble Rapport
Chamber music--whether played by two or three or several more individuals--is, however, a very different matter. There is no longer a single leader telling everyone else what to do. A performer who is accustomed to the solo role must relinquish that role in support of the ensemble, not easy to adjust to if one is in the habit of always being the "peacock."
Ashkenazy considers Harrell a supreme orchestra musician, one who understands how to play collegially when not cast as the soloist. The two men met when Ashkenazy soloed with the Cleveland Symphony, whose principal cellist Harrell became at the age of twenty-one. Ashkenazy recognized not only the younger man's unique solo skills, but also the all-important chemistry that would enable them to perform harmoniously together.
Harrell, for his part says of Ashkenazy, "Vov is such a sensitive performer that we could even play together with a curtain between us." To Harrell, Ashkenazy has the very rare quality of respecting the music more than his own skills. "Every time we go out to perform even the most familiar works together, we view them as brand-new challenges." Ashkenazy has moved from being only a soloist to conducting orchestras, and along the way, has absorbed the essence of ensemble playing like a sponge. Ensemble work is likewise essential for Harrell. "Practicing the orchestral literature has been 80 percent of my technical development as a mature solo artist," he says.
So, theoretically, we have at least half the ideal formula for a superb piano/cello duo: two superlative artists, each sensitive to the needs of ensemble playing. What of the other element--the music itself? The violincello, to give it its full name, has evolved during the last three centuries from its original role as basso continuo accompaniment to that of frequent
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