By PALA GARCIA

Nearly 30 years ago, cellist Joel Krosnick and pianist Gilbert Kalish performed the Beethoven Cello Sonata in A Major, Op. 69, at a benefit concert for the Greenwood Music Camp in western Massachusetts. Both Krosnick and Kalish had attended the camp as young musicians at different times, but they had never performed together until Ruth McGregor, a cellist and one of the founders of Greenwood, asked them to perform at the 1976 benefit. "She thought we would love playing together, and we did—and have, over all these 30-plus years," says Krosnick. Since then, he and Kalish have given a recital series in New York nearly every year for the past three decades, performing in all the major recital venues in the city. Together, they have recorded the complete sonatas and variations for cello and piano by Beethoven; the cello sonatas of Brahms; works of Poulenc, Hindemith, Debussy, and Janacek; and music by many American composers of the 20th century, including Elliott Carter, Ralph Shapey, Gunther Schuller, and Richard Wernick, among others. This month and next, Kalish and Krosnick (who is on the cello faculty, as well as a member of the Juilliard String Quartet) will perform two all-Beethoven recitals as a part of a series of Juilliard performances commemorating the School's centennial.

Cellist Joel Krosnick and pianist Gilbert Kalish. (Photo by Peter Schaaf)

The Krosnick-Kalish Duo has been widely acclaimed in all areas of their achievements, but one outstanding aspect of the duo's endeavors is their work in contemporary music. Long before their collaboration began, they had already developed extensive individual experience in contemporary music performance. Krosnick had formed and participated in a new music ensemble at Columbia University, the Group for Contemporary Music; through this ensemble, he collaborated with such composers as Charles Wuorinen, Harvey Sollberger, Ralph Shapey, Milton Babbitt, Mario Davidovsky, and Stefan Wolpe. Kalish had participated in the Aeolian Chamber Players, a new music group directed by Lewis Kaplan, as well as the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, directed by Arthur Weisberg. By the time the Krosnick/Kalish Duo had been formed, Krosnick had already joined the Juilliard String Quartet and, in this role, performed the new works of various composers. (In fact, at the quartet's inception, composer and then Juilliard president William Schuman declared that one major purpose of this young American ensemble was to treat contemporary music with the same reverence that had traditionally been reserved for classical music.) Therefore, when Krosnick and Kalish finally joined forces as a duo, they became quite active in performing and recording the pieces that their contemporaries were writing. This was music that was not yet in the repertoire of many cellists or pianists, but was later to become more commonly performed and recorded. "We stood for an adventurousness in music, in playing the music of our time," says Krosnick.

Many of the duo's recitals have revolved around specific musical themes: a retrospective of 20th-century music for cello and piano at the Juilliard Theater (recently renamed the Peter Jay Sharp Theater) and the Library of Congress, or a previous recital series at Paul Hall dedicated to the work of American composer Ralph Shapey. The upcoming Paul Hall recitals reflect this programming style, as the two performances will showcase Beethoven's complete sonatas and variations for cello and piano, in chronological order. The November 17 recital includes the three sets of variations based on themes from Handel's Judas Maccabeus and Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, as well as Beethoven's first two sonatas for cello and piano. In the following recital on December 2, Krosnick and Kalish will perform the later sonatas, Opus 69 and Opus 102, Nos. 1 and 2. This chronological format—as opposed to the typical, more "balanced" recital format—is meant to draw attention to Beethoven's development as a composer. "We wanted to show Beethoven's move from an early devotion to Mozart and Handel to his truly becoming Beethoven," explains Krosnick. The choice of composer also resulted from a conscious programming decision. There are numerous faculty performances throughout the year at Juilliard; each of these events presents an opportunity for students to hear the musical opinions of instructors with whom they have worked closely. Oftentimes, faculty will perform repertoire that the students themselves are in the process of learning, studying, and performing. A pair of all-Beethoven recitals is an opportunity for music students to hear some of the staples of their own repertoire as interpreted by Krosnick and Kalish. "This is Juilliard," points out Krosnick. "It's a chance to present a serious statement of this body of literature to an audience largely involved in [studying] the repertoire themselves."

Joel Krosnick/Gilbert Kalish Duo Recital Paul Hall Thursday, Nov. 17, and Friday, Dec. 2 For time and ticket information, please see the calendar.

Both musicians have had extensive, career-long experience with Beethoven's solo and chamber music. While Kalish has performed all the Beethoven piano sonatas, Krosnick has performed all of the string quartets many times over as a member of the Juilliard String Quartet. Together, Krosnick and Kalish have recorded all the works by Beethoven for piano and cello duo. But the duo also brings to these works their experience with contemporary music, which has lent individuality to their interpretation of the classical repertoire. Krosnick and Kalish have premiered many new works, both as a duo and in other ensembles; the sort of creativity that is needed to craft a first performance of a new composition with no existing performance history eventually influenced their performances of works that come with layers of tradition. "[Studying] a piece of music that you've never heard before and crafting a performance tradition for that piece affects the way you approach a piece that does have a tradition, a history," explains Krosnick. "It [engenders] a particular sort of exploration of [new] music that one brings back to music with a tradition; for example, imagining that the composer is really there … or playing a piece it as if it's the first time you've heard it."

The duo's three decades of success can be attributed not only to a very close friendship, but also to several parallels between their professional lives. "We're both very serious teachers, particularly of chamber music," observes Krosnick. "Both of us think and talk about music as teachers." Kalish currently serves on the faculty of Stony Brook University, and directed the chamber music program at the Tanglewood Music Festival from the mid-1980s to early '90s. Krosnick has coached chamber music extensively at Juilliard, where he has been on the faculty since 1974. As established musicians of the very highest level, Krosnick and Kalish also have a shared understanding of the necessity of maintaining this level over the course of their professional lives; Krosnick notes that "the seriousness with which we keep up our own playing" has been an important factor in the duo's continued success.

Though Joel Krosnick is perhaps best known for his role as the Juilliard String Quartet's cellist for nearly three decades, he believes it is vital to cultivate a fuller musical life: "To be in a quartet and just mindlessly do that—it's like being in a marriage and not taking care of your own life. I always tell young musicians who play in string quartets to keep giving recitals, to continue developing your own individual sound, color ... to cultivate your personal point of view about the music."

Pala Garcia is a fourth-year student in violin.