Musical pas de deux is poetry

DAVID FINCKEL, WU HAN, Libby Gardner Concert Hall, Tuesday.

Cellist David Finckel and his wife, pianist Wu Han, returned to Salt Lake City Tuesday after a three-year absence, with a program that took the near-capacity Libby Gardner audience on a magical tour through 200 years of music.

The recital, co-sponsored by the Chamber Music Society of Salt Lake City and the Virtuoso Series, was a concise survey of the cello/piano repertoire from J.S. Bach to Benjamin Britten, with a couple of works that are infrequently heard in concert.

Finckel and Wu Han are communicative musicians. They convey the character of a piece not only through their immaculate playing but also through their facial expressions and gestures. Nothing is superfluous, however; everything is integral to their interpretation.

Seeing the two play is like watching a graceful pas de deux — eloquent, articulate phrasings combined with a profoundly poetic expressiveness.

The largest and most demanding work on the program was Britten's Sonata in C, op. 65. Written in 1961 for Mstislav Rostropovich, the five-movement work is immensely difficult and challenging, not only for the cellist but also for the pianist. Its virtuosity, however, is intricately interwoven into the musical fabric — there are no empty displays of pyrotechnic prowess. Everything is essential to the musical thoughts that are expressed.

Finckel and Wu Han gave an exceptionally forceful and dynamic performance of this remarkable work. From the finely knit dialogue of the opening movement to the frenzied and fiendishly challenging perpetual-motion finale, the two played with a vibrancy that was astonishing in its potency.

The duo opened the program with one of Bach's sonatas for viola da gamba (in G major, BWV 1027). While the balance between the two instruments wasn't always ideal, with Wu Han's playing frequently overpowering that of her partner's, it was nevertheless a wonderfully luminous, nuanced and expressive reading.

The last time the couple appeared in Salt Lake City, they played the complete Beethoven cello sonatas. On Tuesday, they also included one of these on the program (the A major Sonata, op. 69). They played the work with deep-rooted feeling. It was vividly dramatic, yet also beautifully lyrical.