In a solo recital, pianist Alexander Kobrin performs July 10, 2019, in the Amphitheater. Kobrin returns to the Amp stage at 8:15 p.m. tonight, with the full contingent of the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra.
Tonight — covering the expansive themes of death, love and life — the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra performs with distinguished pianist Alexander Kobrin under the baton of Maestro Rossen Milanov.
At 8:15 p.m. tonight in the Amphitheater, with the works of men Milanov described as the two quintessential German Romantic composers, the CSO will perform Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15, with Kobrin as soloist, and Robert Schumann’s Symphony No. 4 in D minor, Op. 120.
The two composers are inextricably linked; Schumann and his wife Clara — herself an accomplished composer — instantly recognized Brahms as a genius. Schumann, in addition to being one of the great composers of piano, was also the founder of a prominent music publication, which he used in 1853 to declare Brahms as heir apparent of the tradition including the likes of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven — making Brahms famous overnight.
Although Brahms’ talent was renowned at just 20 years old, he took a half-decade to complete his first orchestral work, his Concerto informed by his devastation for Schumann’s descent into insanity.
Schumann, who’d long struggled with his mental health and had attempted to take his own life, was admitted to an asylum, where he stayed until his death two years later. As Clara was pregnant with her seventh child, Brahms rushed to her aid; during their time together they grew very close and Clara became Brahms’ muse, but it was “probably in a platonic sense,” said Milanov.
Piano Concerto No. 1, Milanov said, was Brahms’ “big promise of what is yet to come later on,” an attempt to live up to the promise Schumann saw in him.
“Brahms is telling a story about death, love and life; I’m trying to be a good actor in that sense, to feel all those emotions,” Kobrin said. “The older you get, there are more chances to be personally involved. The process of acting is less and less because you can relate to the subject more and more — it’s a complex feeling.”
Brahms’ Concerto, he said, is one of his favorites to perform. To successfully embody a piece, Kobrin puts together what he calls a “psychological profile” of a composer to not only understand why they’re writing a piece, but also how they would play it. Taking a broad view means “not just practicing the notes;” it means pondering the composer’s technique and studying their manuscripts.
As an example, over the course of the past academic year, Kobrin undertook performing all 32 of Beethoven’s piano sonatas in chronological order, hosted by the Eastman School of Music where he is a professor. These sonatas were composed over several decades and are considered the cornerstone of the solo piano repertoire.
“It was absolutely an extremely powerful and spiritual experience. This was work that accumulated many years over my professional career; some sonatas I had to learn, some I’ve played before, and some I’ve played since I was a kid,” Kobrin said. “It definitely helped me understand Beethoven better, but it was also a really scary experience — exploring my own identity as a performer and a human being. Recording and performing all (32 pieces) helped me on my journey to understand myself.”
Through investigating Beethoven’s psyche through his music, Kobrin found that “you can see the complexity of the human soul, human mind — it’s really inspiring.”
Born in Moscow, Kobrin’s first piano teacher was his father, who taught him how to play at age 5. Even though his father was a professional, and the instrument was chosen for him, Kobrin never felt the pressure one might expect from such circumstances. By the end of high school, Kobrin realized piano was what he’d be doing for the rest of his life. It was like a light switch, he said, and “everything just started to make sense.”
As an esteemed guest soloist internationally, Kobrin has collected top prizes from many international piano competitions — including the gold medal at the 2005 Van Cliburn Competition, considered one of the most prestigious contests in classical music — and at Chautauqua, he’s Heintzelman Family Artistic Advisor for the School of Music.
Following the Brahms tonight comes Schumann’s Symphony No. 4 — a compact 20 minutes with inter-connected movements. Schumann had a dream of becoming a keyboard virtuoso, which turned out to be a pipe dream; in using a splint contraption to strengthen the hand, he caused himself irreparable damage. Fortunately, upon marrying Clara, he created his Symphony No. 4 in an air of celebration, and went back for revisions at the peak of his prowess.
“There’s something about that music that wants to transcend what is possible at the time in the orchestra,” Milanov said. “There’s a lot of excitement and visceral energy that just flows out of that piece.”
The connective tissue running through tonight’s program is one of love and legacy in the German Romantic tradition: the Brahms’ piece, written as a promise that he would fulfill Schumann’s expectations in taking up Beethoven’s mantle, performed by a pianist intimately familiar with Beethoven’s psyche, followed then with one of Schumman’s own work.
Music like this is affecting in a way that has not only led the trajectory of Kobrin’s career, but speaks a language that his examining soul understands.
“It does something to you on a biological level, you are changing,” he said. “If you are a person who is curious and always trying to find answers for many questions you have — music gives you those answers.”
