Artists perform in Baker and Baker series Sunday 
When asked why they decided to learn and perform all of Ludwig van Beethoven’s violin and piano sonatas, violinist Aaron Berofsky and pianist Phillip Bush answered simply and immediately: “It’s Beethoven.”
That respectful and affectionate sentiment set the mood for their performances at the Columbia Museum of Art Friday through Sunday.
This weekend, Bush and Berofsky performed all of Beethoven’s violin and piano sonatas as a part of the Baker and Baker music series. The three-day program ran through three two-hour long concerts in the central atrium of the museum.
The sonatas encompass all the turbulent moods of Beethoven’s brilliant, and often rebellious, career. There are delicate slow movements, light quick jovial movements and stormy complex movements that have been called unplayable by some.
Bush and Berofsky’s collaboration on these sonatas took nearly five years. They were forced to work past time constraints, scheduling conflicts and logistical difficulties.
Berofsky lives and teaches in Michigan and, in 2004, Bush settled in Columbia and recently received a position at the University of South Carolina’s music school.
They’re many states apart, but the distance doesn’t affect their playing. They make playing Beethoven look easy.
Violinist Berofsky and pianist Bush sail through all 10 sonatas. Even in the hellishly difficult Kreutzer sonata, they manage to keep the audience’s attention on the music and not on their own technical acrobatics.
They are at their best in the slow lyrical middle movements of the sonata.
The piano and the violin sang through the middle movement of the second sonata on the first night, as well as through almost all of Sunday night. The third night was Berofsky and Bush’s pre-performance favorite, filled with the lush melodies of the “Spring” sonata, the third E-flat sonata and the underrated last sonata.
Berofsky and Bush cited this last concert as the one they were most looking forward to, with Bush referring in particular to the piano part of the last sonata.
The audience sat in a semicircle in the main foyer of the museum’s atrium. The arrangement allowed for a small intimate feeling which suited most of the pieces. The bigger works, such as the “Kreutzer” sonata and the seventh sonata, felt as if they needed a larger stage to be fully appreciated.
The audience was full of warm and enthusiastic classical music lovers. The venue offered a great informal and welcoming vibe, especially for anyone who is not a classical music aficionado.
Bush spoke to the audience between pieces, explaining why he and Berofsky picked the order of the performances and detailing the history of certain pieces. Berofsky, as well, was seen talking with the audience during the intermissions.
It was as much a celebration of the duo’s accomplishments as it was a display of their musical prowess.