CODY ENGLANDER
Staff Writer
For Alexander Kobrin, performing Johannes Brahms is an exercise in performance meditation.
“Some composers I personally feel more stressed when performing their work on stage. This is for my therapist,” Kobrin joked. “But Brahms has always been a great friend; it’s really wonderful to play his music any time.”
At 4 p.m. today in Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall, Kobrin will perform Brahms Piano Sonata No. 3 in F minor and the Schubert Six Moments Musicaux. Kobrin, the Heintzelman Family Artistic Advisor for the Chautauqua piano program, has never played the same composition twice throughout his nine years on the grounds. However, having played Brahms from a young age, Kobrin noted this performance as a return to his younger self.
“Again, this is for my therapist. In all my life, since I first played Brahms when I was 16 or 17 years old, I really was very attached to it,” said Kobrin. “I believe we sometimes attach to composers using our own senses, something in our personality or in our own music taste.”
Brahms composed the Sonata No. 3 in F minor when he was just 20 years old. This brought a revolutionary change to traditional piano sonatas, which attracted Kobrin to the piece when he was younger, though the work still resonates with him today.
“These are absolutely symphonic works,” said Kobrin. “It’s like a mini-symphony for piano. Structure wise, it’s absolutely unique. It has five movements; no one ever wrote a five-movement piano sonata until Brahms.”
While having a deep familiarity with Brahms, performing Franz Schubert is relatively new territory for the Van Cliburn International piano competition winner.
“His piece is a very introspective one, written during a very difficult time of his life,” said Kobrin. “He wrote tons of gorgeous music. This particular piece is very intimate and quite intense.”
The Six Moments Musicaux is a series of six short pieces written by Schubert and published in 1828.
To Kobrin, the artistic legacy is an important part of what makes Chautauqua so important and why pieces like these should be performed. It keeps the audience engaged and brings people back for more.
The very first time he came to the grounds, he was here for just a recital and a masterclass. The very next year, he came back to teach for several weeks.
“It’s wonderful the audience is excited to see the students play and come to see the masterclasses,” Kobrin said. “The arts are cared for. It’s rare these days.”
