A thrilling – and free – recital last night at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, with Finnish composer and pianst Magnus Lindberg (the NY Phil's current composer-in-residence), violinist Jennifer Koh and cellist Anssi Karttunen. Lindberg's music was featured prominently throughout the program, starting off with his Sonatas for violin and piano (1979). Aggressive and atonal, Lindberg's muscular playing was matched by Koh's intensity, thrashing about as if she'd been struck by lightning.
Karttunen was next, performing selections from The Mystery Variations: a set of variations on the first-ever work for solo cello, Giuseppe Colombi's Chiacona, written in 1670. Karttunen commissioned the variations from various composers last year, some of which closely resembled the original while others were, as Karttunen put it, "quite distant." Kaija Saariaho's Dreaming Chaconne, for example, sounded like it came from another universe while Steven Stucky's Partite sopra un basso, per Anssi was far more conventional. Lindberg's contribution, Duello, sounded at times like the Gigue from Bach's 5th cello suite, while Tan Dun's Chiacona had Karttunen shouting "Chaconne! Chaconne! Chaconne!" throughout.
Koh came back onstage and joined Karttunen on the Duo for violin and cello by Erwin Schulhoff: a largely-forgotten Czech composer whose career was just taking off when he died in a Nazi concentration camp in 1942. Written in 1925, the duo was tonal but with elements of creepiness, mixing Shostakovichian rhythms with a Dvorak-like lyricism. Both Koh and Karttunen really went after the high-energy finish.
But, the real star of the program was the world premiere of Lindberg's Trio for violin, cello and piano, completed earlier thie year. The music was surprisingly lush and lyrical, almost Brahmsian in its romanticism. Towards the end of the piece, Lindberg – a genuinely gifted pianist – pounded away at the keyboard with Messiaen-like ferocity while Koh and Karttunen soared high above. When it was over, the crowd erupted in applause, a charge coursing through the room. About as thrilling an experience as I've ever had at a world premiere – take heed, young composers.