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Rachel Barton and Sibbi Bernhardsson to Perform Little-Known Works and Celebrated Masterpieces, Wednesday, March 1, 8 P.M., in Kulas Recital Hall
Story by Claire Chase
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Two former students of Almita and Roland Vamos - violinist Rachel Barton and Sibbi Berhardsson, visiting assistant instructor of violin - will perform their first-ever duo violin recital on Wednesday, March 1, 8 p.m., in Kulas Recital Hall. The program will feature a combination of little-known repertoire and celebrated masterpieces, including works for two violins by Schnittke, Ysaye, Telemann, Peter Jaffe, Mark O'Connor and Prokofiev. The performance is free and open to the public.
"This program runs through the entire emotional spectrum, from light to heavy and intensely dramatic to comical," remarks Bernhardsson. "We will begin with Schnittke's Praeludium, which was written as a memory of Shostakovich, and has a very dark, funeral march undertone. This work can be played by either two violins or by one violin with tape. For this reason the piece has a somewhat mechanical aspect, but it's very engaging.
"Eugene Ysaye was most famous for his six solo violin works, and this duo sonata is like the solo sonatas in its contrasts ranging from impressionistic Ravel-esque textures to intensely romantic, thick emotional qualities. It's a beautiful piece, very typical Ysaye, full of lyricism.
"As a contrast to the first half of the program, and in an effort not to play all twentieth-century works, we will also play a suite by Telemann, each movement of which has a reference to Swift's Gulliver's Travels. It's a charming, fun little piece, very programmatic in nature."
Bernhardsson adds, "Last year Rachel was playing a concerto with Peter Jaffe as conductor, and Jaffe gave her this little duo called "Canon at One Measure," which he wrote in 1974. Along with this duo we decided to add to the second half of the program another light set of works by Mark O'Connor. The first is a traditional Limerock, in the style of country fiddling, and the second is an Appalachian Waltz, beautiful and almost meditative.
"We will conclude the program with the largest and most well-known work for two violins, the duo by Prokofiev. This piece is absolutely typical Prokofiev, with its starkly contrasting sections and very rhythmic, effective writing. The two instruments hand one another melodies and motives through moments of purity and moments of violent harshness."
"This promises to be an incredible recital," says Roland Vamos. "The two of them are great players and phenomenal musicians, and though some of the music is difficult and rarely performed, they will - I am sure - more than rise to the challenge."
A Meeting of Minds - Two Former Vamos Students
Oberlin audiences will fondly remember Rachel Barton's acrobatic performance of Paganini's 24 Caprices during November 1998, and her four-hour marathon recital of solo violin sonatas by "Bach and his Contemporaries" earlier this school year. Barton, who began studies with Roland and Almita Vamos at an early age, has achieved great acclaim. She has won top prizes at the international violin competitions of Queen Elisabeth, Kreisler, J.S. Bach, Montreal and Paganini, and has soloed with major orchestras across the world. Through it all, she has found time to devote her talents to organizations such as Chicago's Big Shoulders Foundation, through which she has brought classical music, particularly works by African-American composers, to inner-city school children. At 25, her career is already bold and varied, and her personality is delightfully infectious.
"Rachel is an amazing and inspiring musician, and has been a role model for me, as well as for almost all the Vamos violinists I know," says Berhardsson. "She's inspiring in terms of her violinistic ability as well as her uniquely thorough way of preparing a program. Rachel never just sits down and plays something; she knows everything she can know about the piece, its history, its background."
Berhardsson, who graduated from Oberlin in 1995, also has his share of accolades. In the early nineties, the Vamoses heard Berhardsson play in his native Iceland, and immediately invited him to join their prestigious studio in America. Since his arrival in 1992, Berhardsson has given recitals throughout the United States, and has appeared on Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and 1998 MTV Music Awards with rock artist Bjork. Berhandsson joined the Oberlin faculty this spring as visiting assistant instructor of violin.
Although Wednesday's concert will be the first time Barton and Berhardsson have played together in concert, their history of collaboration has origins that date back to 1994, when the two Vamos students first met one another at the Weathersfield Music Festival in Vermont.
"I had heard about Rachel long before I even came to America to study with the Vamoses, as she was one of their prized students, but we didn't officially meet until Weathersfield. After all the great things I had heard about her, I felt we already knew one another!" says Berhardsson. "She's not only a great violinist but a wonderful person.
"When we started working on this program, I discovered the unique challenge of a recital of this type. It is very different from the larger chamber ensemble experience, and in some ways much harder, because you have only one person to react to. And a duo recital is, for the same reasons, more difficult than a solo violin recital. This is perhaps why such a combination--two violins--is not so common as a recital form."
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