>> From the Library of
Congress in Washington DC.
[ Silence ]
>> Anne McLean: Good
evening, I'm Anne McLean
from the Libraries music division.
It's a great pleasure for us
to be presenting the
Claremont Trio here tonight
with the [inaudible] Misha
Amory as guest artist.
We are very fortunate to have
three of the artists here tonight
for this conversation,
let me introduce Emily
Bruskin the violinist.
Julia Bruskin, cellist
and of course Misha.
When you read about the Claremont
Trio you see that it's often hailed
as one of America's finest young
chamber music groups admired
for beautiful tone and
virtuosic technique,
exhilarating dramatic
performances and a powerful ability
to communicate with audiences.
These are qualities that have earned
the trio two very distinguished
awards in the chamber music
arena they are winners
of the Young Concert
Artist Auditions
and the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson
International Trio Award.
The Claremont are also noticed
for their enthusiastic championing
of contemporary music with a number
of high profile conventions already
and tonight with Fanny Mendelssohn
Hensel's brilliant piano trio
in D minor and the Brahms C minor
piano quartet [inaudible] the 60
we'll hear one of their commissions,
Helen Grimes three Whistler
Miniatures from 2011.
It's really great to hear them
tonight that's both a trio
and quartet thanks to Misha
who has performed here with us
with a very excellent Brentano
String Quartet and perhaps a few
of you have heard them
here in the past.
So I wanted to ask you a little
bit just the standard question,
I know you're trio
was formed quite early
but you yourselves began playing
at an extremely early age.
>> Emily Bruskin: Julia
and I started playing
when we were 4 years old,
we come from a very musical family
are parents are excellent amateur
musicians they are not professional,
they play violin and viola
so as soon as they found out they
were having twins they said well
if one plays and one plays cello
then we have a string quartet
which was their favorite
thing to do [inaudible].
They started us at four and as
soon as they could possibly drag us
through a multi-quartet
they were doing it.
>> Julia Bruskin: So I think that
was a great way to be introduced
to [inaudible] you know my
parents would have people
over to their house and play
through all kinds repertoire,
we would kind of sit in
the background and watch
and eventually we joined in it's
really just for the love of it.
>> Anne McLean: Then in 1999 you
met Donna your first pianist but was
that in Juilliard or at Taos?
>> Julia Bruskin: I originally met
Donna at a summer music festival
in Taos, New Mexico it is a very,
very beautiful special place
and we played together there and
we were all studying at Juilliard
at the time as was
Emily and she asked me
if I knew any good
violinist and I said yes I do.
>> Anne McLean: So 15 years
you've been going now?
>> Julia Bruskin: Yes
15 and a half now.
>> Anne McLean: Impressive,
impressive well I thought maybe
to start talking maybe we
could talk a little bit
about instruments how they affect
a musicians growth and development.
I ran into a young musician
Adrian Fung [phonetic]
at the [inaudible] quartet by chance
and he talked about the huge impact
that playing our Stradivari cello
had on him, he happened to be here
as a student group with
members of the Juilliard.
When he was introduced to the cello
which I know you played
earlier today and so the way
that he framed his
phrased his reaction
to the cello was interesting
to me he said I learned
that instruments teach and he said
that he had entirely been
playing this rather large cello
which has never been cut down, had
changed entirely his whole concept
and approach to playing the cello
and I was just so amazed by that.
So then to follow-up that
comment he said a couple of months
after he played it here he was
playing at a concert in New York
and his teacher Joel Krosnick
[phonetic] came up to him
and said I see that that experience
of playing the libraries
cello really influenced you.
So with that in mind
Julia can you talk
about your own cello a little bit?
>> Julia Bruskin: I play on a
wonderful French instrument,
a Vuillaume it was made in 1849 and
I've had it for about 13 years now
and it definitely has
shaped my playing very much
to have that instrument.
I'm very lucky to have it
but also certainly playing
on other instruments I've played
on some gorgeous instruments
and they do give you kind of a new
sense of the possibility of sound
and I think with most instruments
you feel some sense of boundaries,
things that are challenging
on instruments are things
that you know you feel like all
you can't push past this place
but with a really, really great
instrument like what you have
in your collection here that feeling
of boundaries goes away and you feel
like you can just play music,
it's kind of immensely freeing
and so you even when
you go back to your
as he probably did you still
have that memory of what it feels
like of playing without
worrying about the mechanics
of the instrument, it's a huge gift.
>> Anne McLean: [Inaudible
section] I wanted to mention
that the headline of the article
about your cello was this 1849
Vuillaume cello is not a morning
person so I wonder if you could
elaborate on that a little.
>> Julia Bruskin: Honestly I don't
know where they came up with that,
I think I was saying that
when I start to play the cello
in the morning I usually start
very slowly, I like to start
at the very bottom of the
instrument start on the string
of the lowest notes so that kind of
helps me get into the sound of it
and into the feel of playing and so
that's probably where they got that.
It's a good headline I like it.
>> Anne McLean: Yeah and one of
the things that you mentioned
in that was the question of
how an instrument might hold
in its resonance or in his
physical memory so to speak sounds
and concepts from the many
players who performed on it
and I know this is kind of a
superstitious or mysterious
or little funky kind question
but what you think about that?
>> Julia Bruskin: I think there's
certainly a superstitious element
to it and just holding these
instruments today you have a sense
of history like you are holding
something that people held hundreds
and hundreds of years ago and
all these famous, amazing players
and there is that feeling to it
but I think just physically
speaking the instrument resonates,
the wood resonates and the
way that it, I don't know--
like instruments that have never
been played don't sound as good
as instruments that have been
played a lot and especially
by excellent players and I think
there is a physical element
to the way they're broken
in where if it resonates
at a certain pitch
often it's more likely
to sort of resonate there again.
If somebody played it
really in tune a lot,
I husband is a French horn
player and he says the same thing
that an instrument that has been
played really well especially
by a very powerful player feels
lived in like it wants to go right
to the note as opposed to sort
of any other note as opposed
to just sort of any other place,
any other note [inaudible].
>> Misha Amory: Yeah, I would say
that it is definitely a
two-way street I mean in terms
of what both Julia and Emily
have been saying you pick
up an instrument and you carve
away at the sound of the instrument
and it takes set in, it
receives what you're giving
to it whether it is a bad
treatment a good treatment,
it takes all of that and then when I
give my viola to someone else to try
and they play on it for just a
few minutes and they give it back
to me I can tell that
someone else has been playing
on it, it responds differently.
And I mean when you play on a
very good instrument you feel
as Julia said oh, I can do more
now this instrument allows me
to do more, when you play on a great
instrument the instrument shows you
stuff which is unexpected
and times little bit daunting
and you almost feel it since
the reins have been taken
out of your hands but also it's
very exciting and inspiring.
That, that-- suggestions seem
to be being made back to you
by the instrument and opening
up possibly your concept
of what you can do [inaudible].
>> Anne McLean: Emily your violin
is a Leopold is that what you said,
that's a name I don't know can
you tell us a little bit about it.
>> Emily Bruskin: Leopold
is a fabulous maker,
also French came a little bit before
Vuillaume and was actually sort
of one of his mentors and
teachers as an instrument maker
so they are definitely
the same sort of school.
He wasn't as nearly as prolific as
Vuillaume, so he's not as well known
but I think his instruments if
anything are more highly regarded,
he made fewer instruments but they
perhaps more consistently amazing
[inaudible] but it's a fabulous
instrument from 1795 [inaudible].
>> Anne McLean: This is an
amazing week or month rather
because by chance we have 3
really stunning viola concerts
and don't know if saw our
brochure but the audience is aware
of the concerts we have by
sheer chance we have you Misha,
tonight playing with the
Claremont and then we have
on March 7 Roberto
DeOes [phonetic] violist
of the old [inaudible] school
playing a new viola concerto
that Jennifer Higdon has written for
as the commission for the library.
And then the week after that Kim
[inaudible] so it's funny it's one
of those serendipitous things
we hadn't really planned this
but 3 things came together.
>> Misha Amory: Go viola.
>> Anne McLean: Go viola, yeah
and while we're on the topic
of that I wanted to say that
you were highlighted in Time
Out magazine I read and they
had a list of incredible violas
that were performing in recording
recently and you were mentioned
for recording George Benjamin's
piece with the violas who happens
to be your wife and do you want
us a little bit about that.
>> Misha Amory: My wife Hsin-Yun
Huang is a wonderful violist
and I'm her biggest fan and
she recently made a [inaudible]
of pieces of contemporary music
for viola and one piece was
by the well-known British composer,
George Benjamin he wrote a piece
in 1998 called Viola
Viola and it's impossible,
and we worked on actually for
a long time for many years
and many performances and we finally
started to feel like we could kind
of play it and we recorded it.
We managed to work with him a little
bit on it to and he's kind of--
he's tough, he's tough and I would
say this is what he wrote lots
of unreasonable things, and I
would say you know this is really
so unbelievably hard and he
would say oh I'm so sorry
and then he would go on to the next
thing I knew what he was really
saying when he said I'm so sorry
I don't think he was sorry at all.
But it is an exciting
and very virtuosic piece
and Hsin-Yun also put in a number
of other pieces who were written
for her on that recording
which is entitled Viola Viola.
>> Anne McLean: We had the
pleasure of having her here,
some of you were here maybe in
December for our Stradivari concert
with St. Laurence so
that's Hsin-Yun.
>> Misha Amory: She says by
the way that the greatest viola
in the world resides
here at the Library
of Congress and she got to play it.
>> Anne McLean: What I heard is that
she, somebody I ran into in New York
at chamber music [inaudible] walking
up to me and said Hsin-Yun really,
really, really, really,
really like sure viola
and we understand we have two,
we have two of the existing 10,
they say there are 10 of
the world that are verified.
>> Misha Amory: Ten
Stradivari violas.
>> Anne McLean: Yeah,
right [inaudible].
And in this article it
talks about [inaudible]
with meso sopranos nowadays
including Joyce DiDonato
and Magdalena, Coshayna, [phonetic]
it says violas become the breakout
stars and marquee names.
So this is kind of exciting so with
that as a takeoff point
can you talk a little bit
about this burgeoning
interest in the viola
and about the great
violas you have known.
>> Misha Amory: Well,
the big question,
I don't know I think it may well be
that for a long time
violists were not necessarily
so good maybe I'm not sure.
For a long time, it was
said it was for the player
who is just a little bit too clumsy
to play the violin throw them
a viola and this was sort
of the line I think for centuries
and really it's been
a slow development
but over the last hundred years
or so I would say there's been
a rise may be in the quality
of players and a greater interest
in the instrument and more
of the composers writing
music for the instrument.
So that we have for example a
lot of good 20th-century music
for the viola as a solo instrument
and there was relatively
little of that before.
So it may be a sort
of a virtuous cycle
where the better the
player the more interest
in the music that's written, the
more students that got interested
in playing the instrument and
that level rises and so on.
But I myself have the great
good fortune of playing
on the [inaudible] viola,
it was purchased in my youth
by wonderful couple who are
big supporters of my quartet
and they actually purchased
instruments for each of us to plan
and we were allowed to
select those instruments,
which is almost unheard
of good fortune.
I mean one thing for example
for quartet to be lucky
to be handed a set of
matched Strad instruments
or a matched [inaudible]
to play on as a group.
But even then they weren't able
to hand select individually
the instrument
that they felt worked well in
the group and we were able to do
that so that's unbelievably
lucky for us.
The downside of that is if we're not
sounding good, we can't pass it off
and say well it's the instrument
if I had a really good instrument
I might be something really good
so we have to kind of walk the walk.
>> Anne McLean: And so I just
thought it would be interesting
to hear your perspective
on instruments
and if Andrea were here I was going
to ask her if she had played say
for example the Fanny Mendelssohn
Hensel Trio on a period piano
but we'll get to that in just a
moment about the period instruments.
But let's move to commissions
now which is something very,
very important to the
library and I know to you to,
I was hoping you talk little
bit about the Helen Grime piece
which is fascinating and
very impressionistic,
how did you meet her
how did this come about?
>> Julia Bruskin: Well, our trio
have a wonderful opportunity,
we were playing a series of concerts
at the Isabella Stewart
Gardner Museum
in Boston they opened a new concert
hall, designed by Rensa Pianos,
it's a very beautiful space
in 2012 and for the occasion
of that opening we were asked
to commission 3 trios so we got
to choose 3 different
composers to write for us
which was really incredible.
And we chose 3 wonderful people
Helen Grime is one of them.
Actually my father I have to
credit with hearing her music
and recommending her to us first,
he had heard her music at Tanglewood
where she has had a
few pieces performed.
She's had pieces done in the
states quite a bit but she lives
in London [inaudible] and we got to
know her music a bit from recordings
and things and had a couple
friends that knew her as well
and we are just really
excited to work with her.
Her piece, she was actually
inspired by a set of paintings,
a set of miniatures at this
Gardner Museum, she didn't see them
but they have a wonderful
online gallery of their work
so she saw them in London
from the website and love them
so then she came for the premier and
actually got to see them we all went
up and visited them
so it was very neat.
>> Anne McLean: You know I
wanted to take a moment and say
that our colleague Nick Brown put
the QR codes for the paintings
into the program tonight so if any
of you are holding a program
already you can hold it to show it
to your neighbor but anyway any
of you can put your phone on scan
and it will instantly
take you to the picture
of these paintings, isn't that cool?
So usually you know we don't
want to get into cell phones
and in the concert hall that's
a whole other discussion.
>> Julia Bruskin: Till the end of
our conversation and concert please.
>> Anne McLean: Exactly but you
can do before hand or something.
And you've also commissioned
Sean Shepherd [phonetic]
and who are some of
the other people?
>> Emily Bruskin: Jason Bates
is going to be in residence
at the Kennedy Center coming
up and Mico Mooley [phonetic]
who has just been commissioned
by the Met Opera in 2019
and Rob Patterson, Gabrielle
Linda Frank [phonetic] great
trooper [inaudible].
>> Julia Bruskin: Very
fortunate really a unique
and special experience to work
with the composer on a new piece
and it's really exciting, little bit
terrifying before the piece actually
shows up [inaudible] what's it going
to be like you know you're sort
of creating sound of it for the
first time and then when you sit
down with the composer and play it
for them [inaudible] this
all very emotional in a way
but can be really exciting
[inaudible]
and I think keep us fresh
you know thinking about music
and how it's created and what
makes it communicate in new ways.
>> Anne McLean: She is an oboist
right and it's a small world
that we all live in, her husband
is Hugh Watkins the pianist
and composer who was here with us
in the [inaudible] Oliver
Milton project that we had,
very fine pianist but I didn't
even realize he was a composer
as well until fairly recently.
>> Julia Bruskin: His brother
just joined the Emerson
Quartet [inaudible].
>> Anne McLean: These family
connections are amazing,
before we leave the Helen
Grime piece I was wondering
if you would talk to the audience
a little bit about the contrasting
of the panel with the
2 stringed instruments
and how the structure works.
>> Julia Bruskin: It is
very [inaudible] especially
in the first one in the last
one is very much about sound,
colors and kind of the
whole spectrum of cords
and sounds very unique and very
kind of mystical and very beautiful.
A lot of the sounds are very
soft and those movements
and then it was [inaudible]
it's almost like another world
and I think she does use the
piano extraordinarily beautifully
to create the kind of sound
[inaudible] fit into that.
The second movement is a very
rhythmic, propulsive, exciting,
wild movement so that
contrasts the other [inaudible]
but I think she uses a lot
of techniques moves and just
like [inaudible] cello to
create a very wide range
of feeling and sound.
>> Emily Bruskin: I think
she's also masterful
at writing complicated rhythms
that gives something it's slightly
like you can't quite pin it down
this like you're sort of floating
in space and it's a very unique
feel to it and it's kind of hard
to learn you sit there with
metronome to frighten try and figure
out how it's supposed to go
on when you finally do get it is
just got this sort of [inaudible]
like improvised and
breathing all the time.
>> Anne McLean: It's a very
nice program that you've chosen
and I was especially pleased
to see 2 women composers
and Fanny Hensel is still
far, far under recognized,
only in the past quarter-century
have people begun
to understand her stature as a
composer, it is still going on today
and I wanted to talk about that
a little bit because I know
that you participated in a symposium
in 2012 at Duke University focusing
on her music and specifically there
was peace performed their called the
Easter sonata which I understand
was known for many years
to be Felix Mendelson's
piece but it was not.
Yeah that's a fascinating story
if you could tell about that.
>> Julia Bruskin: Sure
so this is the piece
that the manuscript is missing for
a long time and people had assumed
that it was written
by Felix Mendelson,
he and Fanny they also came
from a very musical family,
she was Felix's older
sister and they used
to play together as a family a lot.
But she was very much encouraged to
live a different kind of lifestyle
and he was encouraged to pursue
competition and she not so much.
So anyway this piece had
been assumed to be Felix's
and then the manuscript was
found in a private collection
in France scholar at Duke
went to France and found it
and basically they did all of these
kind of handwriting studies on it
to like check the way the
notes looked against her scores
and his scores and they basically
decided definitively however they do
these things that was hers
and I think that's kind
of an exciting thing to
give her this recognition,
it's a very beautiful
piece the piano sonata.
Andrea performed it sort of for the
first time and correctly attributed
to Fanny Mendelson in the concert
and we played the trio and spoke
with the scholars about how it was
done on what this means [inaudible].
>> Anne McLean: And I know you've
commented on it in the context
of her writing for
chamber music that both she
and her brother really
developed the voice of the piano
into a more virtuosic style which of
course was going on in that period
in general with a lot of people
and a lot of composers and one
that offers more orchestral sound.
So I wanted to ask you to
elaborate on that a bit in terms
of you commented on not just
[inaudible] and so on and cascades
of notes but different figurations
that actually make the piano
into a more orchestral voice.
>> Emily Bruskin: It is
a spectacular piano part,
she I think was an amazing pianist
and was quite a legitimate showcase
for her, her own playing.
Certainly I think many things
about the Fanny Mendelson
trio I think are just
at the absolute highest
level of competition.
I think perhaps in some of the
orchestra, the way that she writes
for the strings and stuff
it is not as complex as some
of her other stuff but in terms
of the piano part itself it's
brilliantly done the way the
configuration works, the way that it
sort of the heartbeat and lifeblood
of it so that it runs through it
especially the outer movements
of this piece just has
unbelievable excitement and drama
and narrative flow to them and I
think that piano underneath kind
of just gets you all
excited urges it on.
>> Anne McLean: I know the third
movement has the title lead
which is unusual L-i-d-e for the
word [inaudible] and she wrote more
than 250 songs I believe and I
wanted to touch on the question
of her style and the context
of what her career was really
and they even did talk
about in terms
of a career is remarkable
for her time.
But she did develop her own style
and having played both the
Mendelson, Felix Mendelson trio
and hers what do you
see as her style,
virtuoso piano writing
definitely, what other kinds
of things some people
said freer writing.
>> Julia Bruskin: She had
kind of a very natural way
of writing melodies, very
personal and the inner movements
of this trio are really kind of
intimate they feel very close and--
>> Emily Bruskin: I think there's
kind of a wistfulness to her music
that feels very distinct to me
like when she writes beautiful
melodies the same way other
composers do but I feel like
there is a very sort of personal,
thoughtful, wistful-- [inaudible].
>> Julia Bruskin: Nostalgic.
>> Emily Bruskin: Also extremely
high drama she apparently had a
dramatic flair.
>> Anne McLean: The
thing that struck me
when I was reading a little about
her to talk with you tonight was
that I think she was a presenter
and we don't think of that.
One read said in Larry Todd's book,
the Mendelson scholar another books
about her that she gave musicales
at her home and you think
of that has perhaps a
family you know atmosphere
on the small-scale event,
these were actually remarkable.
They were presenting many very, very
fine musicians, she composed of lot
of her own work for these musicales,
her family was sufficiently wealthy,
very wealthy enough so
that they could afford
to hire very top-tier musicians
from the [inaudible] Trio,
sorry the theater there in Berlin.
So they had small orchestras, they
had a choir of up to 20 people
which is amazing, they did cantatas
they did Bach, Beethoven, Weber,
composers of the day and
of course her own music too
but also the audience was
extremely distinguished.
There were a lot of people who are
politicians and you know citizens
of the town and so
on but also people
like Heine [inaudible] the poet,
Claire Schumann and I was reading
at one point List came
to one of these with 8,
maybe he didn't have them in tow but
there were 8 princesses that evening
and I was thinking gosh how would
you get that many princesses.
But I guess in those days
Germany had a lot of small states.
But anyway that was a remarkable
environment that she created a place
in a time to have her
music performed
and she also conducted
that's extraordinary.
But she didn't have, as you
say should have the affirmation
for a long time and there was
dissension between her family
about whether she should
publish, it was an ongoing issue
and I was just going to tell you
for people who are interested in her
and her work I found an interesting
article which I can e-mail you
but it's quite long with many, many
quotes from her to her brother,
from her father to her and
about the issue of publishing
and whether she should publish.
Her husband was actually very
supporting and wanting her
to publish not her brother until
the very, very end of her life.
But I'll read you a couple quotes
about this he was saying,
this is from her father.
What you write to me about your
musical occupation with reference to
and in comparison with Felix was
rightly thought and expressed.
Music will perhaps become his
profession whilst for you a can
and must only be an ornament, never
the root of your being and doing.
We could go on here and
there, one other one,
she says later just before
she got married she wrote.
I am composing no more
songs at least not
by modern poets I know personally
I now comprehend what I've always
heard and what the true
speaking Jean-Paul has also said,
art is not for women only
for girls, and the threshold
of my new life I take
leave of this plaything.
But in spite of this and she didn't
that's exciting and wonderful,
remarkable thing she didn't.
So this amount of music that she
wrote is just incredible something
like over 450 pieces I believe, do
you play any other of her music?
>> Julia Bruskin: No I haven't
Andrea has done a bit, our pianist,
I should just say she's very
sorry not to join us but she's due
to have a baby in May and we
made her rehearse all day long
so she's taking a little rest
but she's looking forward
to the concert.
>> Anne McLean: maybe we can, just
before we have some questions I'd
like to ask you about the Brahms
quartet is exciting for us
to have had 3 of the
quartets this spring and very
so far you know good performances,
good players we're really excited
to have you guys perform
this and I notice
that Gerta [phonetic] is a thread
that runs through this program
in the sense that he was a
family friend of the Mendelson's
and he wrote a song for Fanny
Mendelson he praised her brother
and her has really stunning
musicians but tell us
about the Gerta connection
for this quartet.
>> Misha Amory: You stumped me.
>> Anne McLean: Oh, okay, so
this is hardball I guess sorry,
well let's just say in passing that
there is a connection there to her
and if you look in your
program notes tonight
at one point it was called
the Gerta quartet and because
of the popularity of
the book [inaudible].
Anyway we won't go up in that but
let's talk about the structure
of a little bit in this to, what
makes you choose this for tonight?
>> Julia Bruskin: It's just one
of my favorite pieces of music
of the world that's one
reason, I been certainly picking
up on what you're saying it has
[inaudible] it's a very stormy kind
of brooding piece of music
especially in the first
and last movements it has that
kind of romantic sensibility
in its fullest form I would say
and it's always kind of exciting
to find a piece that takes you
over so completely and that kind
of emotion you're feeling.
It is also I think for the 4
instruments I think it feels
like kind of intense and important
conversation amongst the instruments
and also the third movement is
one of my favorite things to play
in the world starts with a very
beautiful cello solo it's sort
of one of those things you
come back to like a friend,
it feels like always
something I'm looking to play.
>> Misha Amory: Yeah this is
a very unusual piece, intense
and stormy even by Brahms in his
darker moods standards I would say.
I mean he wrote lots of
music that was dramatic,
lots of music that was dark,
this piece at times I
would say even black.
If I'm not mistaken the first
edition came with an illustration
on the cover of a man with
a gun held to his own head
and I don't know if that was
[inaudible] idea I don't think it
was Brahms but is not necessarily
so far off the mark it's very,
especially I think the first
movement it has tragic force
and there's a sense-- to compare
another famous C minor piece his
first symphony that's traumatic and
dark and it's full of turbulence
but it doesn't, it doesn't
quite paint the world as black
as his first movement does,
in my way of looking at it.
In the last movement
it's interesting
but the last movement almost feels
like the most cerebral of the 4
which is unusual for the finale of
a piece but there's a feeling right
from the beginning of that movement
and that there is a lot of sort
of painful cogitation going on
and in that way it reminds me
of certain parts of his
C minor string Quartet,
C minor seems to have
this association for him.
But this piece, seems in
many ways to stand alone.
>> Julia Bruskin: There's something
very stable about it and kind
of to quote another C minor piece I
think the last one you may recognize
a rhythmic figure [inaudible]
him from Beethoven's 5 symphony,
I think he must have
intentionally been using that
but it gives the feeling of the kind
of inevitable fatefulness to it.
It's used in a very
different context but it kind
of drives that movement, so.
>> Emily Bruskin: It also uses this
wonderful contrast between this sort
of very grand and epic and then as
you mentioned the very personal,
neurotic almost inner workings
of your mind kind of tragedy.
And like the piece starts with
these just huge kind of like pillars
and some gigantic architecture and
thing kind of cords of the piano
and then the strings come in with a
very sort of personal surging kind
of a line and you get this dichotomy
between the epic and the personal.
>> Anne McLean: I'm
looking forward--
I know you guys need a bit of
a break before we have a chance
to hear you but before we
let you go is there anyone
that have a couple questions
for the artist for tonight?
>> Speaker 3: Did Felix Mendelson
ever do anything in D minor or was
that a clue that this
might not have been his?
>> Emily Bruskin: No he wrote
one of the great piano trios
of all time in D minor, yeah.
>> Julia Bruskin: The piece that was
actually attributed was actually a
solo piano sonata, so that was--
I don't know if he ever wrote
anything similar to that.
I mean he wrote piano sonatas also
but that piece is fairly
unique in its structure.
>> Speaker 4: I have a
question, you said something
about the cello here was
not downsized or something.
>> Anne McLean: It was never
cut down to the modern size
of people use so it's a good
I don't know several inches,
you're the expert on how big.
>> Julia Bruskin: So yeah
a lot of very old cellos
from the 1600's the bottom you
know that has kind of a S-curve
to the side of it the bottom
part of it is much wider.
>> Emily Bruskin: I think it just
took some time for the sizing
to be standardized, some of them
are bigger some of them are smaller
than what we see in
modern times a lot
of people play the instruments
they were cut down to be the size
which we consider normal.
Violas are actually are the
example that there's more variation
in sizes, modern violas
than in any [inaudible].
>> Misha Amory: Nobody can figure
out what size a viola
is supposed to be.
Actually it's funny because my
viola is going to be 400 next year
and it started out not as a viola
but as a [inaudible] probably
and it was cut back by
the Hill Shop in London
which was a well-known expert
shop in the nineteenth century
and some dimensions they
left original and some
of them they cut back which gives
it a very ungraceful kind of pear
like shape which you'll see and
is very white and some places
and actually quite conventionally
narrow in other places
so that was their version of
the solution for this one.
But people continue
to try to [inaudible].
>> Speaker 5: What is the
size of the viola here?
>> Misha Amory: Do
you know that of hand?
>> Anne McLean: It's a bit
larger the Tuscan is a bit larger
than most modern violas but I
don't know actually but I can find
out we can talk to us afterwards
and will get our curator
on to you and will get dimensions.
>> Misha Amory: It was
something that my wife is able
to play comfortably and she is
not big so it's probably close
to what many modern [inaudible]
consider an ideal size is my guess.
>> Anne McLean: Anyone
else over here?
>> Speaker 6: Of the 3 pieces
that you're playing tonight
which one do you find the most
challenging just in technical terms?
>> Julia Bruskin: That's a very
difficult question they all have
their own challenges and yeah no I
couldn't choose I think the Brahms
is probably the most difficult
interpretively to kind
of make all the pieces come
together and speak in the right way.
I think Grime is technically the
most challenging but actually
for Andrea of the Fanny Mendelson
is technically very virtuosic
and I don't know they each
have their challenges.
I think each piece of music is
hard to compare them in that way.
>> Emily Bruskin: I think
it also has to do sometimes
with how familiar you
are with the piece,
whether we first [inaudible]
actually with my parents
because my mom also played piano
so we could do string
quartet then piano quartet,
so we have been playing that one
for close to 30 years and obviously
that Helen Grime piece is much
newer to us, it's only been
around a couple of years, we've
only played it a few times
so whether things are difficult
or easy it feels different
if it is familiar problems
versus new problems.
>> Anne McLean: Anyone else
[inaudible] I think we are finishing
up then, thank you so
much for [inaudible].
>> Julia Bruskin: Thank
you very much Anne.
[ Applause ]
>> This has been a
presentation of the Library
of Congress visit us at loc.gov.