Arts & Culture
Art and Craft: Emmanuel Ax at Bailey Hall
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By TYRAN GRILLO
After dining on the well-balanced meal served by András Schiff at Carnegie Hall (see my review in last week’s Sun), sitting at the table of Emanuel Ax’s solo performance at Bailey Hall last Friday was like losing a Michelin star. The flavor was all there, but it lacked a certain aftertaste. In light of this, dear reader, take the following impressions with a proverbial grain of salt.
Hearing Ax play in an enthusiastically attended venue was theoretically exciting, but in practice was a mixed bag of tricks. I say “tricks” because so much of what went down on stage was impressive in craft yet otherwise inconsistent in art. The concert’s all-Beethoven first half went from day to night in this regard, shining with exuberance in the Piano Sonata No.