June 9-10, 2025 - Denver:

Monday evening marked the beginning of an interesting string of chamber music concerts part of the Denver Chamber Music Festival which runs through the end of the week at the University of Denver. Co-presented by Friends of Chamber Music and the Newman Center for the Performing Arts, the Festival started last weekend with a chamber music workshop for adult amateurs featuring festival performers as instructors. 

On Monday and Tuesday evenings, we had the rare opportunity to hear Beethoven’s complete works for cello and piano with the pieces divided out to four cellists and two pianists. One of the challenges of presenting the entire of anything is making a cohesive program from works not originally intended to be heard together. Separating the works into two separate programs and not simply setting the works in chronological order was quite effective and worked well in this case.

Part one began with a spirited performance of the Variations for cello and piano on "Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen" from Mozart's Die Zauberflöte in F major, Op. 66 performed by cellist David Requiro and pianist Julio Elizalde. The significant technical demands of this work were met with no small amount of technical prowess by both performers. Slower variations aside, one almost wished for a little break in the action. While not rushed, there was certainly a breathless, pushing quality to the music making. 

The second work on the program began in great contrast to the first with cellist Meta Weiss’ beautiful, singing opening to the Cello Sonata in G minor, Op. 5, No. 2. Weiss seems incapable of an unpleasant sound. Together with Elizalde’s rock-solid fingerwork, we heard a cohesive, musically sensitive interpretation of a work in places overwhelmed by its own difficulty.

The two Op. 5 sonatas are interesting in their length and compositional scope when compared to the first four of Beethoven’s sonatas for piano alone composed at nearly the same time. Had the cello part been left out of the Op. 5, we would be left with two among the longest of any of his sonatas for piano and perhaps the most forward-looking of his early period. Beethoven intended himself to serve as pianist, giving us a better glimpse into his pianism than the piano sonatas dedicated to his teacher or students. 

In the Cello Sonata, Op. 69 performed by Matthew Zalkind and which ended Monday’s program, Elizalde’s staggering technique paired with a solid conception of larger structure provided a sure footing for Zalkind’s confident playing. As the concluding piece, it was met warmly by an enthusiastic audience perhaps not yet ready for the evening to end.

The standout performance of this first night, however, was done by cellist Alice Yoo with pianist Ieva Jokubaviciute playing the 7 Variations on "Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen" from Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, WoO 46. The pair seemed in constant agreement on the slightest of details in the work. Jokubaviciute’s playing, while less muscular than Elizalde’s, was no less virtuosic while uniting with Yoo’s gorgeous and supple sound. Jokubaviciute’s sensitivity to the cello meant that she never overpowered Yoo, and there was never the sense that one or the other was placing their musical will above the other - an excellent example of the magic of chamber music when the performers sound as though playing one instrument.

The second evening continued with another well-matched collaboration between Meta Weiss and Ieva Jokubaviciute in the 12 Variations on a Theme from Handel's Judas Maccabaeus, WoO 45. Weiss displayed a huge variety of sounds expressing sometimes the drama and often the humor contained in this work. Jokubaviciute was again absolutely knit to the cello sound.

If one piece left the greatest impression of the two evenings, it was the Cello Sonata in F, Op. 5 No. 1 performed by Matthew Zalkind and Jokubaviciute. Zalkind’s ease with his instrument turned difficult passages not into a demonstration of his abilities but into clear articulations of Beethoven’s musical intent. This sonata in some ways resembles a concerto without an orchestra, complete with a (sort-of) cadenza. Jokubaviciute moved seamlessly between the more orchestral passages and those interacting with the cello as a soloist. This type of music making is attractive as it leaves this listener with a sense of the truth found in the music - more than the vague impressions of virtuosic note making.

The program wrapped up with the two Op. 102 cello sonatas - David Requiro and Julio Elizalde on the C major and Alice Yoo with Ieva Jokubaviciute on the D major. Another comparison can be made here to the piano (alone) sonatas of Beethoven - this time to his late period sonatas. Each one is an experiment in form, placing the narrative of human experience above the functional organization of classical tradition. Some performances of these sonatas can get a bit lost and begin to wander aimlessly. However, each on this evening was well-planned, paced moderately, and clearly engaged with Beethoven’s expressions of struggle but ultimate arrival at a serene joy; a testament to the world-class nature of these musicians. 

It is a treat to hear chamber music in the summer festival format. Only in this way can one hear the same performers two nights in a row with complimentary programs - especially performers of this calibre - without having to drive out of town. The two performances remaining in the Denver Chamber Music Festival series are highly recommended. Details are available on the DCMF website.