Rachel Mercer made a lovely tawny sound on the 1696 Strad, when the pianist didn’t drown her out.
Rachel Mercer
- At Jane Mallett Theatre
- in Toronto on Thursday
Rachel Mercer is a petite Canadian cellist whose name became attached to a very big number this fall, when she won the use of the Canada Council's "Bonjour" Stradivarius cello, valued at $8-million. Mercer brought her precious timber, which she can use for three years, to the stage of the Jane Mallett Theatre on Thursday, for a Music Toronto recital with pianist Minsoo Sohn.
She said at the start of the show that the hall and Music Toronto had been an important part of her formation as a music student (she's now 30), and that a recital there realized one of her dreams. From that point of view, the concert was a success before it began.
There were many beautiful moments in her program of hefty sonatas by Beethoven, Shostakovich and Rachmaninoff. In some ways, she and Sohn seemed to share a real rapport, though in others, they had one of those relationships that seem ideal to those immersed in them, baffling to those on the outside.
Mercer strikes me as a very pure type of chamber musician. Her reading of many passages was quite personal, but did not assert the player's will as a distinct force working upon the music. She gave herself in perfect service to whatever she made of the score, and never once resorted to a grand gesture to get our attention.
Sohn may be a terrific partner in some chamber-music situations, but on this occasion he seemed like a more natural soloist. Much of what he did might have been glorious in a solo recital, or a performance with orchestra. But on Thursday he played at a scale that was consistently out of proportion with his partner. He regularly swamped her with his big Steinway grand, and crowded her often subtly expressed thoughts.
It could be that Mercer ought to have shown more presence. At times she made a lovely tawny sound on the 1696 Strad, with plenty of depth in quiet sections, but the instrument almost never seemed to bloom fully. It can be a study in itself to know how get the most from a fine old string instrument. Many are stubborn old beasts that demand special handling, and Mercer may still be learning how to provide it.
She said she was a fan of slow movements, and these turned out to be the most satisfying episodes in this overmatched partnership. The adagio in Beethoven's Sonata No. 5 in D major, Op. 102 , felt like a real-time exploration of an undiscovered place. The players peered deeply into the music's spookiest corners, without attempting to constrain our response. The agonized recurrent hush that marked the largo of Shostakovich's Sonata in D minor, Op. 40 , came across with all its tragic understatement, underlined at times by Sohn's insistence on the simple, pig-headed accompaniment figure that stubs away at the protagonist's pain.
I'd like to re-encounter Canadian Mark Nerenberg's recent I Thirst on some other program, more amenable to its sparse and spacious meditation on four descending chords. Its quietude was promptly erased by Rachmaninoff's massive Sonata in G Minor, Op. 19 , which brought the imbalance of these partners to a head. Sohn played much of this piano-heavy sonata with flair and skill, but overwhelmed Mercer far too often. By the middle of the piece, I wished I could magically reconfigure the scene, and have her alone on the stage, playing a solo piece by Bach or Kodaly. The encore, Rachmaninoff's silky Vocalise , restored her to a more prominent role, and hinted at further, half-hidden reserves of sound in the Strad.