“The premier power couple of chamber music—pianist Wu Han and cellist David Finckel—[launched] an al fresco mini-festival of five Schubert Club concerts, featuring music by the organization’s namesake, Franz Schubert,” last Thursday, writes Rob Hubbard in Saturday’s (6/5) Star Tribune (Minneapolis). “The thrill of this concert was not only in the expert performances by the six musicians, but in the joy of 125 music lovers celebrating a mutual affection. Granted, the Schilling Amphitheater on the State Fairgrounds’ western edge is no Carnegie Hall, but it is an open-air venue in which a choir of sparrows lent voice to the hypnotic lullaby within Schubert’s First Piano Trio. And a pair of ducks found the spirited performance of Schubert’s ‘Trout’ Quintet intriguing enough to drop onto a neighboring roof for a listen. Wu Han and Finckel have been Schubert Club artists-in-residence this season, but they’ve mostly telecommuted until this week, presenting concerts from their New York home [where they head] New York’s Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and a couple of prominent festivals. And, as they would there, the couple invited some exceptional guests,” violinist Benjamin Beilman and tenor Paul Appleby.”
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