Arm & Friends Perform At von der Mehden

Famed violinist and UConn violin professor Theodore Arm wowed audiences at von der Mehden Recital Hall Friday, with an impressive array of adagios, allegros and various other pieces. He performed pieces with pianist Minyoung Lee and cellist Kangho Lee (also UConn music professors), and provided musical accompaniment for a storytelling by accomplished entertainer Robert Cucuzza. Sonatas by J.S. Bach and Edward Elgar were performed, as well as a duo piece by Zoltan Kodaly.

The night began as Arm humbly introduced Minyoung Lee on piano, referring to her as "one of the most wonderful artists to come along at Storrs." He also explained why he chose Bach's "Sonata in E major" to begin the evening, stating his admiration of Bach's "brilliant technical skills." Without further ado, the performance began with the adagio section. It was a slow, heavy, meditative composition, which Arm referred to as a "real miracle of peace."

After that, the allegro section began, obviously in a notably different fashion than the previous section. It possessed a light, dancelike rhythm and the piano and violin harmonically responded.

Following that, the "adagio ma non troppo" began with another, slow, meditative composition. One last allegro completed Bach's "Sonata" on a wonderfully smooth note. This was not the only sonata of the night; another sonata, "Sonata in E minor," by Edward Elgar, was performed after intermission.

After Bach's piece, Kangho Lee came to the stage to provide cello accompaniment to "Duo Op. 7" by Zoltan Kodaly.

Arm once again glowed with praise for his colleague, saying, "We are so lucky to have him."

Arm was quickly proven correct, as Lee provided a masterful cello rendition of a very difficult piece; so difficult, in fact, that he broke more than a few bowstrings doing it.

First up was the "allegro serioso" section, a dramatic, yet resonant composition loaded with repeated phrases, discordant, staccato bursts and a dramatic finish at the end. Next was the adagio section, which was generally a somber, gently textured piece with progressive rhythm, but also accentuated with climaxes and aggressive codas to keep the listener's rapt attention.

Finally, there was the "Maestoso e largamente" section to bring a rather ambiguous ending to a fascinating classical work. There was a great amount of vibrato and pizzicato to shake things up, as well as lengthy solos abruptly truncated by radical tone switches at calculated areas.

Before intermission could begin, there was one more piece remaining and it was a very different one. It was the short fable titled "Ferdinand," read by Cucuzza, with solo violin accompaniment by Arm. The fable, simply put, is about a bull in Madrid named Ferdinand, who was different from all his bull friends growing up; as his friends ran, jumped, and butted heads, Ferdinand just sat quietly under a tree every day, smelling the flowers in the pasture, which greatly concerned his mother. However, when Ferdinand grew up, and five men came to Madrid one day to pick the toughest bulls for bullfighting, Ferdinand happened to sit on a bumblebee that day, and his reaction so impressed the five men that he was chosen to bullfight.

But it was of little surprise that Ferdinand ended up just sitting down in the middle of the bullring and smelling the wonderful smells, and ended up getting kicked out of the bullpen. This is basically the entire story, and was told one sentence at a time by Cucuzza, with short violin codas to punctuate them.

Fortunately, there was nothing ambiguous about the audience's reception to Friday night's show, as everyone in attendance seemed to enjoy it, if the sizeable applause was any indication.

Dan Stanley, a 2nd-semester music major, was dazzled.

"Having worked extensively under both Drs. Lee and Arm, I believe they have earned themselves names among the great performers of the 20th century [...] the performance was breathtaking. I enjoyed every moment," Stanley said.

"[The show was] heavenly [...] I died and went there," said Christian Grad, a 2nd-semester music major.

As to why it's important for UConn to have these kinds of shows, Grad's theory is, "How many things in life do you know that can touch you deep down [inside] your soul? Can rap and hip-hop do that? I don't think so."

Daniel Wyman, a 6th-semester music major, has an equally gushing opinion on the show.

"Tonight's performance was one of the best I've seen here so far," Wyman said. "The level of musicianship that our faculty has is amazing."