University of Virginia Library

MUSIC

Charming 'Cellist Excites Audience

By Teri Towe

Today, there are two major
schools of 'cello playing. Both of
them require technical excellence,
but one approach stresses the
personal involvement of the 'cellist
in the interpretation of the music
he is playing while the other
approach puts great stock in the
detached purity that comes from
allowing the music to speak for
itself. There are inherent dangers in
both of these points of view, and,
unfortunately, there is no
successful middle ground. The
unique and incomparable Pablo
Casals has been for nearly three
quarters of a century the major
exponent of the approach that
stresses the performer's personal
involvement. James Starker, who
gave a recital with Gyorgy Sebok
here on Tuesday evening, is a
member of the school that stresses
detached purity.

To try to determine which
approach is the better-Casals's or
Starker's- is somewhat akin to
trying to decide which tastes
better-peaches or oranges? One
can't say that one is better than the
other; one can only express a
preference. I personally prefer the
warmth and exuberance of Casals's
view of 'cello music and its
performance, but I can see and
appreciate the virtues of James
Starker's approach, and, whenever I
attend one of his recitals, I make a
point of putting Casals out of my
mind.

Mr. Starker's program on
Tuesday evening was made up of
four important but little known
and rarely played works in the
'cello repertoire. He and Mr. Sebok
opened this recital with Richard
Strauss's Sonata in F. Major, Opus
6, a youthful work almost totally
devoid of the acerbic qualities of
his mature work. The interpretation
was cool and rather
monochromatic, but the artists
captured beautifully the wittiness
of the final movement.

Next came a forceful,
declamatory reading of the Sonata
No. 2 in D Minor, Opus 58, by
Felix Mendelssoln-Bartholdy. Mr.
Starker chose to emphasize the
Classical elements of the work
rather than the Romantic ones, and
the overall reading was meaningful
and satisfying.

Mr. Starker really came into his
own, though, in the second half of
the concert. His reading of the
Debussy Sonata in D Minor is
undoubtedly the best since that of
Maurice Marechal who practically
owned the work. Starker has
succeeded, where many other
'cellists have failed, in bringing out
the fluidity inherent in the music
without allowing the rhythm to
deteriorate.

The last composition on the
program, The Variations on a
Theme of Rossini, by the 20th
century Czech composer Bohuslav
Martinu, is one of the most
extraordinary technical tour de
forces ever written for the 'cello,
Mr. Starker conquered every
difficulty he faced with supreme
case, and he "frosted the cake," so