Tag: mesa

Tommy Mesa and Michelle Cann warm a cold evening with colorful recital

On By Sam JacobsonIn pittsburghLeave a comment

Tommy Mesa, cello
Michelle Cann, piano
PNC Theatre
Pittsburgh Playhouse
Pittsburgh, PA
January 20, 2025

Nadia Boulanger: Three Pieces for Cello and Piano
Debussy: Cello Sonata in D minor, L135
Kevin Day: Sonata for Cello and Piano
Casarrubios: Mensajes del agua
Shostakovich: Cello Sonata in D minor, Op. 40

Encore:
Rachmaninoff: Andante from Cello Sonata in G minor, Op. 19

If one longed for an escape from the presidential inauguration and the bitter cold temperatures, Chamber Music Pittsburgh offered a perfect solution the night of January 20 by way of a cello and piano recital. Cuban-American cellist Tommy Mesa was joined by Michelle Cann, and the duo offered a wide-ranging, diverse program, ripe with musical discovery.

Michelle Cann and Tommy Mesa at the PNC Theater, photo credit Chamber Music Pittsburgh

Better known as a pedagogue of enormous influence, Nadia Boulanger was also an accomplished composer in her own right (as was her far too short-lived sister, Lili). The first of her Three Pieces for Cello and Piano boasted an expressive cello melody, underpinned by rippling gestures in the piano’s upper register. The middle piece served as a gentle interlude before the fiery close which saw extrovert playing from both parties to round off these finely crafted gems.

Near the end of his life, Debussy embarked on a set of six sonatas for various instrumental combinations. Sadly, only three were completed, the first being a brief but impactful cello sonata. Introductory material in the piano evidenced a unique soundscape, even for Debussy. Rich tone in the cello and dramatic playing in the piano made for a captivating effect, and yielded a language markedly different from the German tradition (this sonata is worlds apart from the Brahms cello sonatas, for instance). The central Sérénade showed Debussy as the master of effect, with ample use of pizzicato, glissando, and most strikingly, flautando – bowing in such a way as to create a flute-like sound. An interlude that brought to mind the charm of Children’s Corner, ahead of a playful finale that brimmed with Gallic elegance.

A 2016 cello sonata from West Virginia composer Kevin Day closed the first half. Though Day’s first work for the medium, its skillful writing grabbed one in from the beginning with its piquant harmonies and energetic syncopations. The central Lento was especially lovely with a long melody high in the cello’s range, with the piano gently pulsing. The sonata reached a satisfying close with a vigorous, driving finale. Mesa and Cann included this work on their warmly recommended album Our Stories, featuring works by Black and Latinx composers.

Andrea Casarrubios is another composer included on the album, represented in the present program by her work Mensajes del agua (“Messages from water”). Meant to depict the perfection of frozen water, it was meditative in its glacial stillness, and though textures were sparse, it purveyed a deep lyricism. Nikolai Kapustin’s Elegy was originally slotted on the program but jettisoned Monday evening, for which Mesa offered apologies to the Kapustin fans in the audience — a population to which I emphatically identify!

Any disappointment was easily allayed by the masterful performance of Shostakovich’s great cello sonata which closed. The first movement saw pointed articulation and a directness of expression, with Mesa’s burnished tone well-suited to the work. Despite its seeming simplicity, subtleties beneath the surface abounded for both instruments, with Shostakovich ever the subversive. A Largo section was marked by ominous pizzicato figures.

The brief Allegro second movement was perhaps the most remarkable, filled with colorful, sardonic writing. There was somber tragedy in the slow movement, with the cello nearly matching the human voice, and Mesa’s ample vibrato yielded a pained lyricism. A finale was in equal parts playful and gritty, drawing comparison to the composer’s First Piano Concerto from the previous year.

As an encore, the duo offered the slow movement from another great Russian cello sonata: Rachmaninoff’s G minor work. A sumptuously gorgeous close to the evening.

Guest conductor, cellist feature in Columbus Symphony program

On By Sam JacobsonIn columbusLeave a comment

Columbus Symphony Orchestra
Kenneth Bean, conductor 
Tommy Mesa, cello
Ohio Theatre
Columbus, OH
May 17, 2024

Mendelssohn: The Hebrides, Op. 26
Montgomery: Divided
Tchaikovsky: Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op. 33
Beethoven: Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 36

The penultimate offering of the Columbus Symphony season saw a local podium debut from Kenneth Bean, currently an assistant conductor at the Princeton Symphony Orchestra (CSO music director Rossen Milanov’s other ensemble). The evening began with Mendelssohn’s Hebrides overture, a bit rushed here for my taste, not quite capturing the foggy mystery of the Scottish coast. Matters improved, however, with more measured drama, and fine solo passages from the clarinets.

Tommy Mesa and Kenneth Bean with the Columbus Symphony

Two works for cello and orchestra followed, bringing forth Cuban-American cellist Tommy Mesa. Both works fell short of a full-fledged cello concerto, but said much in the space of their more modest dimensions. Mesa himself gave the premiere of Jessie Montgomery’s Divided with the Sphinx Ensemble at Carnegie Hall in 2022. The work’s title refers to the divisions and inequalities rampant in American society, with the cello often at grating odds with the orchestra. A drone from the soloist in the manner of a lamentation opened. The orchestra joined as if in conflict with the soloist, but the cello part became more declamatory and impassioned, a lyricism that suggested tepid resolution.

Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations began with an elegant presentation of the alluring theme following a brief orchestral introduction. The variations that succeeded further elaborated on the theme, and displayed Mesa’s limber technique – though his intonation at times left something to be desired. A slow variation offered contrast, and Mesa was perhaps at his best in a pensive section ahead of the ebullient conclusion.

Though still an early work, Beethoven’s Second Symphony is very much recognizable as the composer’s own, an epoch-defining musical language that had already begun to crystallize. A weighty introduction was anchored by the timpani before the first movement proper took flight with a jovial theme interwoven with drama. It was in this work that Bean seemed to gel best with the CSO. An extended Larghetto was calm and bucolic, though not quite of the heart-wrenching depths Beethoven would aspire to in his slow movements to come. The Second is noted for using a scherzo in place of the time-honored minuet, something that would certainly become one of the composer’s hallmarks, and the jocular finale brought the work to a bold finish.