The Stamford Friends of Music present double bassist Nina Bernat and pianist Anthony Ratinov in recital on Sunday, November 16, at 3 p.m. in the First Presbyterian Church, 96 Main Street, Stamford.
“We have a really exciting program with a lot of different things,” Bernat says. “We have Janáček’s Pohádka, Beethoven’s Fifth Cello Sonata, a short Hebrew Melody by Joseph Achron, and Brahms’s E minor Cello Sonata. This is a program of entirely cello music. None of this was written for the bass, and I think it really explores the full range the bass has, which a lot of people aren’t totally familiar with.”
Two of the works, she adds, have a family connection. “A fun fact is that two of the pieces on the program were actually transcribed by my father, Mark Bernat, who’s also a bass player—that’s the Beethoven and the Hebrew Melody. And the Janáček was my own project.”
Bernat says she was captivated by Pohádka, whose title means “fairy tale.” “Janáček was really obsessed with Russian culture and literature,” she explains. “It’s based loosely on a folk tale about a Russian czar. It’s not totally programmatic music, but it really embodies this fairy-tale kind of character, with classic Janáček textures and really beautiful melodies.”
Achron’s Hebrew Melody, originally written for violin and famously performed by Jascha Heifetz, takes on new depth in her father’s transcription. “It starts with just the bare-bones melody, and then swirls into a whole fleshed-out piece with piano,” Bernat says. “I might be biased, but I think it actually sounds really good on the bass—it brings out a more human, singing quality that’s sometimes hard to achieve on the violin.”
Transcribing cello works for bass, she notes, requires creativity. “We’re tuned in fourths and the cello is tuned in fifths,” she explains. “That can pose challenges for chords and shifting, but I don’t try to replicate what it would sound like on the cello. I want to celebrate what the bass can do that the cello can’t.”
She finds Brahms’s E minor Sonata particularly well suited to her instrument. “It’s such a dark, richly colored piece,” she says. “The bass is just perfect for that. Perhaps if Brahms had known what the bass could do, he might have written for it.”
Bernat’s musical path was inspired at home. “My dad’s a bassist, so I grew up hearing him practice all the time,” she recalls. “Playing bass was a way for me to join in on the fun with my dad. Now we play together—it’s gone from a teacher-student relationship to something really special.”
Her duo partner, pianist Anthony Ratinov, is also a close collaborator. “Anthony is a really good friend of mine,” Bernat says. “He just came off a big run in the Chopin Competition in Warsaw. We met at Juilliard in the artist diploma program, and we’ve been doing quite a few recitals together. He’s just really a joy to play with.”
The Stamford Friends of Music present Nina Bernat, double bass, and Anthony Ratinov, piano, on Sunday, November 16, at 3 p.m. in the First Presbyterian Church, 96 Main Street, Stamford.
Tickets and additional information are available at friendsmusic.org