Chamber Music Wilmington Hosts The Splendid Amit Peled

Cultural Voice of North Carolina
October 1, 2025
By Barry Salwen

Martin Labazevitch and Amit Peled at the Beckwith Recital Hall , Wilmington NC

WILMINGTON, NC – The Israeli-American cellist Amit Peled (Ah-MEET PE-led) returned for his third appearance on Chamber Music Wilmington‘s subscription series at UNCW’s Beckwith Recital Hall. There is good reason for his return invitations: he is a consummate artist who is a joy to hear. Peled has a thriving international career in the U.S. and Europe and has released over a dozen recordings on various labels. He teaches at Baltimore’s Peabody Conservatory, one of America’s most prestigious music institutions. An earlier appearance on Chamber Music Wilmington presented him with the conservatory’s Cello Gang, a group of his students who were already artists in their own right.

Peled performed with pianist Martin Labazevitch, an active soloist and first-rate chamber partner who has collaborated with many artists. Labazevitch has performed as a soloist in numerous countries and released a highly praised album of Chopin. He teaches in Washington, D.C. A native of Poland, he founded the Berkshire Piano Academyin Massachusetts and co-founded the Paderewski Academy based in Zurich, Switzerland.

In addition to these lustrous performers, the date was an event in itself, celebrating the 30-year anniversary of Chamber Music Wilmington’s founding. The series has become a leading artistic organization in Wilmington, bringing consistently high-quality concerts, quite a number of which have been reviewed by this writer. Prior to the performance, there was an onstage interview, with many wishes for another successful 30 years.

In this festive atmosphere, the concert began. Subtitled “In Folk Style,” it consisted of three pieces with a short introduction. The introductory work was by Robert Schumann (1810-1856), the second of his late 3-piece set Fünf Stücke im Volkston (“Five Pieces in Folk Style”).

This immediately showcased Peled’s rich, full sonority, a sound in which one can simply luxuriate. Long phrases were colored by beautiful rubato. This was finely supported by the piano, appropriately soft and gentle. There were times when inner lines could have been brought out more, giving fuller counterpoint to the cello melody. When the piano had an opportunity to lead, this was done beautifully.

The next piece was the second cello sonata of Mieczysław Weinberg (1919-1996), written in 1959. It had its world premiere with Weinberg himself at the piano, together with the great Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. This piece presented the second subtext to the concert, which could appropriately be described as “Scenes of Jewish life.” Born in Warsaw to Jewish parents active in the Yiddish theatre, Weinberg survived the Holocaust by escaping, through fortitude and luck, to the Soviet Union. There, he enjoyed a career that was at times extremely successful, composing over 150 works including 21 completed symphonies, 17 string quartets, operas, music for the theatre, and, famously, music for the Russian version of Winnie the Pooh that became iconic there. One of his closest friends was the great Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich.

Peled explained the sonata at some length. It is programmatic and at least partly autobiographical. According to the performer, the first movement evokes a Kaddish, a Jewish prayer. The opening of the second movement, played with muted strings, suggests sounds, perhaps shouts or screams that, with the mute, can barely be heard, if at all. (An Israeli film from 2024, Screams Before Silence, is eerily evoked by this sonic image). Later in the movement, there is also a staccato motive evoking the feared Nazis knocking on the door. The opening sound is evoked again briefly at the end of the movement. The third movement is a perpetuum mobile. Weinberg and his sister fled together towards the Russian border to escape the Nazis; this is their running. As mentioned above, Weinberg made it to Russia. His sister, however, turned back. Weinberg finally learned many years later that she and his entire family had been murdered in a Nazi concentration camp.

It is not surprising, then, that several of Weinberg’s compositions were dedicated to his family. In addition to the obliteration of the family in WWII, Weinberg’s grandparents and great-grandparents had been murdered before he was born, victims of the notorious Kishinev pogrom of 1903, in which as many as 50 Jews were killed in Russian state-sponsored violence.

The first movement of the sonata is an extended soulful meditation on its prayer-like theme. Peled shines in such music, calling for rich tone and long lines. There is much beautiful writing here and a range of emotions. The second movement is haunting in the open chords of its beginning, but then, even with the muted strings, the mood turns passionate, and once again, there are long lines in the melody. The language is primarily tonal, yet sharp dissonance is present as well. The third movement contrasts the other two. It is not always frantic, as in the suggestion of flight, but it reaches highly energetic climaxes. In Peled’s reading, replete with high-energy technique, the ending cut off with maximal abruptness.

The piece is emotionally and technically demanding. It deserves to be heard regularly. Interested readers can find performances of the entire work and of separate movements on YouTube. Peled gave the listener an experience to savor and was supported by his superb pianist in the finest synergy.

The first half ended with the much-loved Kol Nidrei by Max Bruch. The Kol Nidrei (Aramaic: all vows) is recited on the eve of Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement and the holiest day on the calendar. The timing was flawless, as the actual eve of Yom Kippur on the 2025 calendar was just three days after the concert. An irony for the reader: Bruch was Protestant, not Jewish, yet he wrote this iconic concert piece setting arguably the holiest melody in the Jewish liturgy.

The performance by both artists was achingly affecting. Labazevitch had standout moments at the piano. One was the evocative opening, setting the mood of awe for the famous pleading melody that was to follow. The other was the rapturous transition to D major later in the piece. This was a memorable section. Peled played the ensuing melody with great expressive beauty. The end was rapturous, too, with rubato that gave the melody a sense of spontaneity rendered with a transcendently ethereal tone. This was one of those places where the listener could admire the performers’ artistry and also the flawless acoustics of Beckwith Recital Hall. Everything is heard perfectly there, no matter how softly one plays – and Peled reached the heights in ppp.

There was probably nothing to do after intermission except to take the program in an entirely different direction. That is what the performers did, with the Concerto for Cello and Wind Band by the riotously talented Friedrich Gulda. This Austrian composer and pianist (1930-2000) was equally at home with Mozart and jazz; he performed and recorded both. He was the piano teacher of Martha Argerich, and he also played Birdland (the famous jazz club in New York named for the bebop saxophonist Charlie Parker).

Riotous is probably the best word to describe this five-movement piece. The piano is given the role of the band, and Labazevitch played with verve and tight rhythm. What the piano cannot do is capture the vibrant percussion of the original – but this piece is a high-spirited romp. Among the sections evoking jazz, rock, and spirituals come send-ups, if you will, of waltzes, marches, and Viennese Ländler. It is scarcely possible to be more entertaining than what Gulda does in this pastiche. One style elbows another irreverently. At the same time, the technique is no joking matter. Peled played with high energy and tight rhythm. He rollicked through rapid passagework with perfect clarity and bow arm. This is how it could be so much fun – by being able to toss off a joke with consummate technical mastery.

Who could resist an encore after that? The duo played the second movement of the Chopin cello sonata, an exquisite, long melody with Chopin’s trademark lyricism. Then the audience was ready to go home – but not before amply praising the artists at a generous buffet in the lobby. Chamber Music Wilmington’s 30th anniversary was a suitably wonderful occasion.