Old Music is Still Alive

 I have never been a big fan of classical music but after my music teacher from last semester had us review classical music I became a fan. Zexun Shen is a cellist whose student recital I attended at the Mannes School of Music on Sunday.Shen’s first piece that he performed was Johannes Brahms Sonata in E minor op.38, in my opinion this performance started off a little bit slow but this may be because the first movement has a melody that gains and loses in intensity and dynamics. Shen’s second performance was Franz Joseph Haydn's Cello Concerto No.2 in D Major which I thought it was very good. In the first movement the sound was very pleasant. While the development section imposes a variety of technical demands on the cellist, whose left hand literally races up and down the fingerboard Shen handled it with ease. In the second movement the pianist Pei-Hsuan Tsai was out of key it  may be just me but I felt that the piano was out of place.The third movement is Allegro Rondo which was my favorite part of the piece. Shen showed showed great virtuosity and elicited expressive tones from his rich-sounding cello. 

After a brief intermission Shen then began to play Johann Sebastian Bach Suite No.4 in E-flat Major which by far was his longest and best piece in my opinion. The music that Shen played was so simple and pleasant that it made me close my eyes that I did not want to write anything down so that I won’t miss anything.One thing that caught my attention was that Shen was no longer using his sheet music which really impressed me, his cello solo in the end really showed that he is virtuoso. Zexun Shen’s final performance was Beethoven Sonata in A major which was really simplistic and I enjoyed so well. What really amazes me about Beethoven was that "Beethoven was a prodigiously talented musician from his earliest days and displayed flashes of the creative imagination that would eventually reach farther than any composer's before or since." (Beethoven).Overall Zexun Shen is a remarkable celloist he sounded more like an experienced professional than a student, he has his whole life ahead to make a mark on the world of classical cello playing. I became a huge fan of his and hope to watch more of his performances in the future. Old music is still alive.

Work Cited:

Ludwig Beethoven." 2014. The Biography Channel .n.p.n.d.website. Feb 19 2014