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CONCERT REVIEW Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman Saturday at Emory University's Schwartz Center for Performing Arts. arts.emory.edu.
Cuddly, charismatic and outrageously overpriced, Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman are the pandas of classical music.
Zoo Atlanta pays an exorbitant fee to rent a pair of giant pandas from the Chinese government, about $1 million per year. Although the furry critters drain the zoo's finances, they boost overall prestige and year-round attendance --- or so goes the reasoning.
Following the same logic, Emory University's Candler Concert Series paid handsomely for the honor of hosting Perlman and Zukerman, who typically split about $100,000 --- a grossly inflated sum in the classical recital world --- for a two-hour show.
Saturday night's concert sold out back in September, soon after tickets went on sale.
Through their mild programming and emotion-free delivery, however, the evening felt calculated and a bit cynical. You love us unconditionally, they seemed to be saying, so it doesn't matter what we play or how well we play it.
The two star virtuosos, each born in the 1940s and friends almost as long, share similar backgrounds and complementary playing styles.
Buttery warm in tone and elegantly romantic in phrasing, much of the playing Saturday night was lovely to hear.
Accompanied by unobtrusive pianist Rohan De Silva, they traversed sonatas and suites for two violins by Bach and Moszkowski and, as encores, duets by Shostakovich.
The violinists' coordination was less than ideal. Zukerman retains his machine-tooled precision while Perlman nowadays tends to approximate or blur rapid passages. And their interpretations tended to glide over the surface of the music.
But at their best, they evoked a lost epoch of old-world cafe music: sweet, humble and nostalgic.
Eight of Bartok's unaccompanied duos for two violins (from a set of 44) were not in the printed program but announced by Perlman from the stage.
All eight put together lasted just a few minutes, but they were the unassuming highlights of the evening.
Perlman, who sat on a small platform, and Zukerman, who stood, had their noses buried in their music stands, as if they were sight-reading Bartok's score.
Yet these eight miniatures seemed to push their formidable technique and, as a result, yielded the only spontaneity and musical zest of the evening. In numbers like the "Serbian Dance" and "Limping Dance" --- Perlman, who suffered childhood polio and walks with crutches, called it one of his favorites, to groans from the audience --- the violinists captured the folksy gusto inherent in Bartok's music.
Zukerman switched to viola for Mozart's "G Major Duo for Violin and Viola," a clean but bloodless reading that suggested the superstars would rather be someplace else.
Still, the appreciative audience seemed to think it got its money's worth. Likewise, it's always fun to see the pandas, even if they're only taking a nap.
Copyright 2006 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
