Arts & Events

Great Chamber Music by Renaud Capuçon and Khatia Buniatishvili

Reviewed by James Roy MacBean
Friday February 20, 2015 - 02:59:00 PM

On Sunday, February 15, 2015, Chamber Music San Francisco presented French violinist Renaud Capuçon and Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili in a concert at the Marines Memorial Theatre. Individually, these young artists – Capuçon is 39 and Buniatishvili is 28 – have carved out careers in major music venues around the world. Together, they have also carved out a wonderful chemistry in chamber music, beginning with their mutual love for César Franck’s immortal Sonata for Violin and Piano in A-Major. This was one of the works they played in San Francisco.  

Renaud Capuçon is fairly short in stature, perhaps 5’8” or 5’9.” Khatia Buniatishvili is tall and statuesque, perhaps three inches taller than her partner. She is also stunningly beautiful. She came on-stage wearing a low-cut, floor-length peach-colored gown which showed off her hourglass figure. Her pianistic demeanor is volcanic. She bends low over the keyboard in certain passages only to snap her head back suddenly in dramatic end notes. Capuçon’s demeanor, by contrast, is all business. Occasionally, he will bend low to bring out the nuances of a passage. That’s about it for mannerisms from this highly disciplined violinist. 

First on the program at the Marines Theatre was Antonín Dvořák’s Romantic Pieces, Op. 75. This work in four movements begins with a sighing motif played by the violin and supported by the piano. A second movement dramatically speeds up the tempo; and a third movement initially slows everything down with a poignant theme. Then everything accelerates again. The fourth and final movement is a piercingly sad larghetto filled with anguish. Capuçon’s timbre in this work was at times a bit thin at the top of his register; but this may in fact be called for in the score. 

Next on the program was the Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 3 in C-Minor by Edvard Grieg. This work’s first movement is marked Allegro molto ed appassionato; and our instrumentalists gave us all the passion we could hope for. Their handling of dynamics was particularly impressive. In the second movement, the piano introduces the theme, which is then taken up by the violin, which embarks on pizzicato passages to develop the theme. In the third and final movement, there is a bubbling ensemble theme, followed by pizzicato plucking by the violin, a sudden pause, then a slow and poignant ending. 

After intermission, Capuçon and Buniatishvili returned to play César Franck’s Sonata for Violin and Piano in A-Major, a work they have recorded together. This sublime piece always recalls for me Proust, for whom it was an inspiration for his fictional Vinteuil sonata in À la recherche du temps perdu. Having recently heard Pinchas Zukerman perform this work with Angela Chang in an interpretation that was refined and subtle, I was hardly prepared for the arresting, highly emotive interpretation offered by Capuçon and Buniatishvili.  

The first movement began innocently enough with a wistful four measures on piano, followed by a lilting violin melody that serves as the primary material for all four movements. However, never have I heard the attacks in the second movement as demonstrative as here. They were almost ferocious. Capuçon’s timbre seemed fuller and richer in this work than in the preceding Dvorák and Grieg pieces. As for Buniatishvili, she hammered away with all her might in Franck’s second movement, in which both instrumentalists emphasized the shifting dynamics, playing softly here and forcefully there. In the third movement, the violin opened with a dreamy theme that was developed by both instrumentalists prior to a long violin solo only sparsely and intermittently accompanied on piano. The final movement is full of joy, with the main theme recurring now in canon form. In the hands of Capuçon and Buniatishvili, this was committed musicianship at its finest. Renaud Capuçon and Khatia Buniatishvili are destined for great careers, individually and together.