Emanuel Ax brings poetic
temperament to the piano

By John Mark Rafacz

Emanuel Ax is one of the most versatile pianists in classical music, but he has a special fondness for the compositions of nineteenth-century Romantics. So when he teams with his friends violinist Itzhak Perlman and cellist Yo-Yo Ma to perform an evening’s worth of works by Felix Mendelssohn—one of the Romantic era’s leading composers—Ax is sure to feel right at home.

Home for the 7:30 p.m. Monday, March 30, concert is Eisenhower Auditorium, where Ax, Perlman, and Ma debut as a piano trio. As the pianist in that piano trio, Ax is the foundation for a performance featuring both of Mendelssohn’s trios.

“There’s nothing else original by Mendelssohn for trio, so I got the idea of arranging a few of the Songs Without Words,” says Ax, speaking by phone from his home in New York City. Perlman is scheduled to perform four and Ma three of the short instrumental works, but Ax is at the piano for all seven of them.  

Ax, known for his poetic temperament on the piano, has collaborated extensively with Ma for decades and performed a number of times with Perlman, so playing with the two as a trio should be a pleasure.

“I’ve played with both of them separately, so I think we all get along really well,” he says, “and it should be extremely comfortable—very pleasant in every way.”

Perlman and Ma bring more than virtuosity to the stage, he says. They also have charisma to spare.

“They’re amazing personalities,” Ax says. “They just jump out at you over the footlights. I think with both of them, the minute they step out on stage, before they’ve played a note, everyone feels like they’re at a special event,” he says. “And, of course, it’s also backed up by the incredible gift, the incredible playing. So it’s both. They seem to have the best of both worlds.”

Ma, who has known Ax and Perlman for decades, appreciates the musical prowess of his trio mates, but it’s their humor that keeps him truly entertained.

“Both Manny and Itzhak are unbelievably funny people,” says Ma, speaking via phone from a Caribbean island. “I think between Manny and Itzhak they probably know 95 percent of all jokes that have ever been told. And what’s so weird is that I keep hearing new ones. So it’s not like, okay, here comes the repertoire, which, at least, I can sort of remember the great ones. But it’s that they come up with new things, and it’s such a stitch to be able to be with them not only to play music but to actually to be in their company.”

Ax and Ma have earned three Grammy Awards for their duo recordings. They have also garnered a Grammy each for a recording with Richard Stoltzman and another with both Isaac Stern and Jaime Laredo. In addition, Ax has won two Grammys for his recordings of Haydn piano sonatas.

Each season Ax appears with major symphony orchestras, performs recitals in the most celebrated concert halls, engages in a variety of chamber music collaborations, commissions and performs new music, and records additions to his acclaimed discography on Sony Classical.

He captured public attention in 1974 when he won the first Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition.

Ax was born a few years after World War II in the Soviet Union, in what is now the Ukrainian city of Lvov. When he was 8, the family moved to Warsaw.

He began piano lessons at age 6. “My dad was a very good amateur singer, and he was the one who sort of started me going,” he remembers. “I had a first teacher, a very nice man in Lvov, and then a wonderful lady in Warsaw. She was a fantastic woman, just amazing.”

Both Lvov and Warsaw are cities renowned for their cultural riches. “I remember a little bit about Warsaw, of course, and very little about Lvov,” he says. “Certainly from Warsaw there was a lot of piano music I was already aware of when I was 8, 9, 10. The big hero at the time was [American] Van Cliburn. He won the 1958 competition in Russia, and he was an incredibly famous guy behind the Iron Curtain.”

When Ax was about 10, his family relocated to Winnipeg, Canada, where they lived for a couple of years before settling in New York City. Ax studied piano at The Juilliard School and earned a bachelor’s degree in French at Columbia University. In 1970, he became an American citizen.

In addition to traditional repertoire, Ax performs many works by today’s foremost composers.

“I have a project coming up next season. I haven’t gotten any of the music yet. But there will be three concerts celebrating Chopin and Schumann, and each concert will have a piece written for the occasion. One by John Adams, one by Peter Lieberson, and one by Osvaldo Golijov,” he says. “That’s what I will be working on just as soon as I get some music from them.”

The pianist’s concert as part of the piano trio is his first appearance at Penn State since 1988.

“That was a recital. … I recall very well actually,” he says. “I remember playing at Penn State because I was very impressed to be going where the big football team was. I’m a fan.”

Artistic Viewpoints, an informal moderated discussion featuring violinist James Lyon, professor of music at Penn State, is offered in Eisenhower Auditorium one hour before the performance and is free for ticket holders. Artistic Viewpoints regularly fills to capacity. Seating is available on a first-arrival basis.

TIAA-CREF has joined with the Center for the Performing Arts as the exclusive corporate partner in support of the debut performance by the Ax-Pearlman-Ma trio.

 

Pianist Emanuel Ax speaks with PreViews Editor John Mark Rafacz about the all-Mendelssohn program he’ll perform with violinist Itzhak Perlman and cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Ax also discusses his long friendship and frequent musical collaborations with the world’s most famous cellist. An excerpt from Ax’s recording of Chopin’s Étude in D-flat, from the CD Chopin: 4 Ballades, enhances the podcast. The music is used with permission of Sony BMG Music Entertainment © 2005.