Category Archives: Small scale

Maurizio Pollini plays Schumann and Chopin

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© Cosimo Filippini / DG

Maurizio Pollini at Royal Festival Hall, 18 March 2015.

A solo piano recital at the Royal Festival Hall is always a special event, and if you haven’t tried it yet I thoroughly recommend the experience.

The sense of occasion such an event brings is enhanced as the soloist is hemmed in on all sides by the audience, with some on the stage and in the choir stalls behind – which is where I found myself for my first ever encounter with Maurizio Pollini.

The Italian, now in his seventies, has an illustrious recording and concert-playing career behind him. Two of the composers central to his repertoire are Schumann and Chopin, who formed one half each of this recital.

We heard Schumann first, with the brief but poetic Arabesque. This is a wonderfully romantic piece with a wistful main theme. Pollini was a bit stern with it, leaning more on the two short contrasting sections rather than indulging the main tune.

We moved on to the substantial Kreisleriana, a group of eight fantasy pieces dedicated to Chopin and inspired by the character Kreisler, in the creations of E.T.A. Hoffmann. Here Schumann alternates turbulent minor-key creations with softer, poetic major key ones. In Pollini’s hands the faster numbers threatened to disappear in a whirl of notes, the rhythms occasionally blurred, but there were moments of pure insight in the slower second and fourth pieces especially. The final piece, which to me sounds like a bird flying around in an increasingly irregular circle, was perfectly poised, leaving the audience with a sense of mystery.

For the second half Pollini brought out one of his concert staples, Chopin’s 24 Preludes – written around the same time as Kreisleriana. In just under forty minutes Chopin navigates a piece in each key, cleverly structured so that he effectively follows a ‘circle of fifths’. (In technical terms this means he moves from C major, and its relative key A minor, through G major (and its relative E minor) and so on, until travelling full circle.

This performance felt like one whole piece of 24 sections, brilliantly delivered and suitably dramatic. The centrepiece of the collection, the Raindrop prelude (no.15), epitomised Pollini’s approach by being relatively quick – while the faster preludes became thunderbolts from the blue.

Ending to a hero’s reception, Pollini generously fed us three encores, beginning with the waterfall of notes that is the Etude in C minor, Op.10/12, then moving to the relative calm of the D flat major Nocturne, Op.27/2. Then, as a handsome bonus, we had the Scherzo no.3 in C# minor, with its triumphant, Brahmsian chorale theme. After some nasty words were written about Pollini in the Spectator lately, this was the perfect riposte!

You can hear the music Maurizio Pollini played on a Spotify podcast, available here

The Schubert Ensemble – French piano quartets

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The Schubert Ensemble Milton Court, 11 March 2015.

An evening chamber music concert has the potential to take the sting and stress out of a busy day – as was the case here, with the Schubert Ensemble giving their first recital at the still relatively new Milton Court venue.

As an annex to the Barbican Centre in the City of London the hall is a desirable alternative to its larger cousin – which remains difficult to navigate even after two decades! Milton Court feels fresh and exciting, though it can get a bit claustrophobic around the bar area when the main hall is turning out.
Thankfully the Schubert Ensemble’s music making was airy enough to completely dispel any discomfort, though they had a few problems of their own to contend with in the shape of violinist Simon Blendis, who had fractured his arm.

Blendis, allocated the role of compère, praised his more than able stand-in, Krysia Osostowicz, one of the finest chamber musicians around – and she fitted seamlessly into the group’s music making here. Though unfortunately not credited in the program, William Howard (piano), Osostowicz, Douglas Paterson (viola) and Jane Salmon (cello) were all at the top of their game.

Unfortunately because of the injury we lost the Saint-Saëns Piano Quartet from the program, which was a shame as this not often performed, and the Schubert Ensemble doubtless have the energy and grace from which this work would benefit. Instead of that, however, we had the First Piano Quartet of Fauré – which was not exactly a hardship, for this is a lovely, tuneful work where emotion simmers just below the surface, breaking through in a passionate finale. Led by their superb pianist Howard, the group played with poise and control but clearly felt the music, and the resultant half-hour passed quickly!

After the interval a close musical relation of Fauré, Ernest Chausson, took his chance to shine in the form of a substantial Piano Quartet, a work he completed in 1897. There is an unexpected Eastern flavour to the opening of this piece – of Chinese origin, arguably – and Howard held back a bit on the tempo to give this plenty of air. Douglas Paterson found real depths of emotion in his viola solo from the slow movement, while the third movement waltz swung dolefully.

To begin with we had heard music from the composer after which the Schubert Ensemble are named – a movement for String Trio (violin, viola and cello) from 1816. This musical palette cleanser proved a suitable introduction to the two meatier works on the program.

A Spotify playlist containing the works heard can be accessed below. The Fauré is as recorded by the Schubert Ensemble themselves:

Britten Sinfonia at Lunch – Reinventing the piano trio

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Britten Sinfonia at Lunch – Wigmore Hall, 4 March 2015.

If chamber music is not your forte, then I cannot imagine a better way into it than by the Britten Sinfonia’s ‘At Lunch’ concert series, held in London, Cambridge and Norwich.

Each program explores works written for a particular instrumental combination, but always includes a world premiere from a living composer. The informal atmosphere is both performer and audience friendly, and as a diversion from work or a pause in the middle of the day, the experience is ideal.

This second concert of the 2015 season chose to look at the piano trio, a misleading label since the standard combination of instruments for the trio is piano, violin and cello. Yet, as the program observed, the form is less often used by contemporary composers, and has a heritage of works running from Haydn in the mid-18th century through to 20th century composers such as Shostakovich, who featured here.

What the Britten Sinfonia did really well was to present possible solutions to the form, which here included adding percussion. To begin we heard Lou Harrison’s Varied Trio, for violin, piano and percussion. Harrison, an American composer who lived from 1917-2003, took as his inspiration the music of a number of different countries including China and Indonesia, and his original approach here included a set of rice bowls played with chopsticks. The resultant sounds were often soothing and rather wonderful, drifting as though on the breeze from percussionist Owen Gunnell, but with pianist Huw Watkins also reaching around inside the instrument to produce some unusual sounds. Completing the trio was violinist Thomas Gould, whose sweetly toned Elegy formed the third of the Varied Trio’s five movements and made it the emotional centre.

The new piece was from 22-year old composer Joey Roukens, who described his Lost in a surreal trip as ‘a psychedelic, kaleidoscopic 12-minute piece’. It was vividly coloured and brilliantly realised by the players, adding cellist Caroline Dearnley to their number. Early on the music cast spells of dappled light through harmonics on the strings and intriguing percussion sounds, but then a more mechanical energy took hold as though we were being transported by train to a place without a firm surface. With bags of reverberation and some enchanting sounds from the marimbas, this piece was consistently inventive and will be well worth hearing.

From the conventional piano trio legacy came one of its finest works in the 20th century, the Piano Trio no.2 by Shostakovich. This concentrated wartime work from 1944 is packed full of anguish, marking the death of the composer’s close friend Ivan Sollertinsky but also expressing outright anger at conflict and war. Gould, Dearnley and Watkins had no need for percussion here, not with the rhythmic profile Shostakovich establishes, but theirs was a keenly felt performance that left the listener in no doubt of the composer’s feelings and concerns.

A Spotify playlist containing the Varied trio and the Shostakovich Piano Trio no.2 can be accessed here:

Signum Quartet – Late Beethoven

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The Signum Quartet take on Beethoven’s massive B flat major string quartet Op.130, complete with Grosse Fuge

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Louis Schwizgebel – Wigmore Hall, live on BBC Radio 3, 23 February 2015

Listening link (opens in a new window):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b053zy7y

on the iPlayer until 31 March

Spotify:

For those unable to hear the broadcast I have put together a Spotify playlist. The Signum Quartet have not recorded this repertoire, so I have chosen an alternative version by the Artemis Quartet:

What’s the music?

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Beethoven – String Quartet in B flat major, Op.130 – including Grosse Fuge (1825) (47 minutes)

What about the music?

If this is your first venture into listening to a Beethoven string quartet, then prepare to be overwhelmed! I mean that in the best possible way, because this is one of Beethoven’s very biggest works, especially when performed with the massive final movement Grosse Fuge at the end.

Even now, nearly 200 years on from when he wrote them, Beethoven’s late string quartets are forward-looking works of wonder. This B flat quartet, one of five such works published towards the end of the composer’s life, is a remarkable work that still gets musicologists hot under the collar with debate, especially when the Grosse Fuge is taken into account.

Beethoven wrote the quartet in 1825 for Prince Nikolai Galitzin of Russia, an amateur cellist. His publisher suggested a slighter finish than the Grosse Fuge, and Beethoven obliged with a shorter and more amicable substitute. This was because the great finale was so substantial and so unusual in its musical language that it inflated the work to a daunting 50 minutes, out of the range of audiences and players alike, and presented them with an incredibly challenging finish. Today’s audiences are different, of course (not necessarily better!) and often warm to the thrill of a work that has not just this at the end, but also the tiny second movement Presto, a helter-skelter piece of music that is done in just over two minutes, and the heart-melting Cavatina, the fifth movement.

This part of string quartet has been sent into space, a recording from the Budapest String Quartet part of a record loaded onto both Voyager space probes. So any alien that happens to possess a record player will be able to hear the Cavatina, presumably as their first experience of Beethoven!

Performance verdict

The Signum Quartet give a keenly thought performance here, though I did wonder on occasion if they could have played a little closer to the edge, sacrificing a little control for out-and-out roughness, so as to catch Beethoven’s invention and daring.

That said there are many fine things here – the Cavatina especially, lovingly played as though it is the slow movement of an early 20th century symphony. The third movement is lovely too, given an affectionate reading. The Grosse Fuge is very clearly played, but arguably needs more rough-hewn passion. That said, nobody attending the Wigmore Hall on this occasion would have been disappointed with the standard of performance!

What should I listen out for?

First movement (marked Adagio, ma non troppo – Allegro (Slow but not too much – fast))

3:24 – a softly voiced slow introduction leads to a stop-start fast movement from 4:24, with some excitable faster passages contrasted by pauses for thought. The music is often busy, Beethoven passing ideas between instruments. The first section is repeated at 7:16.

9:40 – the music alights in the remote key of D flat major, led by the chromatic line of the cello. This is not what is supposed to happen, but Beethoven was never one to follow rules. It sounds so inevitable here!

Second movement (marked Presto (very quick))

16:41 – this is one of Beethoven’s ultra-quick, no-nonsense pieces. A bit too much ‘forward and back’ in this performance, the movement doesn’t quite feel fully formed. There is a remarkable series of motifs from the first violin (beginning at 17:54) which could easily have been written by a composer one hundred years later, so striking is its musical language.

Third movement (Andante con moto, ma non troppo. Poco scherzoso) (At a walking pace, not too fast, with humour)

18:58 – a calmer atmosphere for this movement, with a steadier foundation.

Fourth movement (Alla danza tedesca. Allegro assai)(German dance. Faster)

25:56 – music of grace and poise for the fourth movement, its triple time used by Beethoven as a stately Minuet.

Fifth movement (Cavatina)(a short and simple song)

29:28 – the Cavatina, Beethoven said, moved him more than any other single piece of his own music. It is played here with a reverential hush, and as the concert note from Paul Griffiths says, the music approaches the Romanticism of Mahler in the depth and richness of its harmonic workings. It is beautifully and tenderly played here.

33:04 – the Cavatina moves into a more thoughtful section, the first violin seemingly talking to itself while the other three chug sympathetically in accompaniment. Beethoven quickly moves back from this to the home key, however.

Sixth movement (Grosse Fuge)(Grand fugue)

35:58 – music of remarkable tension and bite to begin the massive Grosse fuge, which starts with an angular introduction from the whole quartet before we hear the music for the fugue itself (36:47). After the serenity of the Cavatina the sheer drama of this music is remarkable.

What is also remarkable is that Beethoven is executing all manner of clever musical tricks, all relating to the main theme and different variants / transcriptions of it – but as a listener you don’t necessarily need to note that, and can appreciate the unfolding drama with the string players pushed to the limit, both technically and emotionally. Towards the end it really feels as though the music is breaking up under its own weight and strain, before Beethoven brings it together to force an ending of togetherness and ultimately conviction.

Want to hear more?

How about some more Beethoven…that isn’t quite so much of an intense experience for the brain?

It can be possible…so here are the Artemis Quartet again in three more Beethoven String Quartets – two early and one very late. The early ones, two of the set of six that were published as the composer’s Op.18, are full of good natured humour and energy, while Beethoven’s last published quartet, Op.135, is also a lighter piece of work. Here they are:

For more concerts click here

BBT – Wednesdays at Wilton’s

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(Wilton’s front door photo James Perry; Wilton’s interior photo Mike Twigg)

The Borletti-Buitoni Trust and a new residency at one of London’s buried treasures

A week ago, Wilton’s Music Hall was home to an intimate Duran Duran charity gig. This week the grand old venue, one of East London’s little-known charms, looked down on young classical musicians starting out, recipients of a fellowship from the Borletti-Buitoni Trust given their chance to shine.

The hall is a wonderful performing space, a former 18th century ale house converted to a music room and concert hall, and now in the throes of a renovation that looks set to preserve its character while offering new, vibrant performance opportunities. The hall itself, with a high roof and balcony supported by what looks like parts from an old pile-driver, has acoustic properties ideal for piano or guitar – which was illustrated in an hour-long concert to launch the BBT‘s Wednesday’s at Wilton’s series.

Composer-pianist Kate Whitley made a strong impression – and as co-founder and artistic director of Multi-Story, which gave a performance of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring in a disused car park in Peckham, she is clearly an imaginative force. Whitley writes direct, unflinching music that can hit you between the eyes (two of her 5 Piano Pieces, for instance) or expose a melting heart (the song This is my love poem for you, from the poetry of Sabrina Mahfouz).

Her Three pieces for violin and piano, meanwhile, stood next to an equivalent set by the György Kurtág – a brave move that, it not entirely successful, illustrated the grand old Hungarian composer and his extraordinary musical compression, writing in one note what others could hardly manage with one hundred!

Performers and audience are treated as equals on these nights, and it was helpful that Whitley gave good context and musical examples to her pieces beforehand. We also had a sneak preview of the second concert in the series from guitarist Sean Shibe, who took on the tragic tale of Spanish composer Antonio José, executed by firing squad in his early thirties. Shibe played two movements, a winsome Pavane Triste and vigorous Finale from his Sonata for Guitar.

With concertgoers, performers and building ideally matched, this looks like the start of a meaningful friendship in East London – and you would be firmly advised to take the chance to see the musicians of the future in such a friendly and inspiring environment.