MiV Home
Phillip T Young Recital Hall
July 28, 2007
Uniquely, insofar as I am aware, the Swedish composer Franz Berwald's Piano Concerto has a note specifying that the orchestral accompaniment is optional.
I am certain that, over the decades, a number of orchestral musicians dutifully counting bars until their next handful of notes, have wished that Chopin had specified the same in his piano concertos.
Intriguingly he very nearly did: the early printed score of the Concerto No.1 in the Berlin State Library has three versions: for piano with orchestra, for piano with strings (two violins, viola, cello and doublebass) and for piano solo.
Moreover, there is only one version of the piano part, serving all three purposes.
Saturday's final VSMF concert closed with Chopin's "First" concerto in a 21st century arrangement for piano and string quartet. Catherine Ordronneau, Kai Gleusteen, Hiroko Kagawa, David Visentin and Paula Kiffner delivered a lively, spirited performance which, I am afraid, did little to ameliorate my basic dislike of the work.
Chopin may well have delved more deeply into the soul of the piano than any other composer; conversely, we might say that he delved more shallowly into the orchestra than any other. The chamber arrangements of the concertos may well seem preferable at least in part because the stage is not packed with nearly as many barely-employed musicians twiddling their thumbs.
This is music in which the correct balance between the soloist and the accompaniment is all but impossible to get right - as Saturday's performance aptly demonstrated: while the piano was playing the strings were almost inaudible - indeed, at the very close, when the soloist stops and the "orchestra" conclude the work, it came as almost a shock to realise that there were actually four other musicians involved.
Much of the blame must be laid squarely at the feet of Chopin himself, who often gives the soloist monumental passagework while the accompaniment struggles to be heard over it. And here I must say that pianist Catherine Ordronneau was also partly culpable, as she sometimes seemed to forget that she was not playing in a large hall and competing with a full sized orchestra. In addition, while she produced some truly ravishing tone colours in the quieter music, in the louder passages her tone occasionally hardened and became somewhat unlovely.
The highlight was undoubtedly the second movement Romanza, although once again the accompaniment was largely redundant - indeed in 1905 Mily Balakirev arranged the movement for solo piano.
Although, once again, I was in a clear minority, I found this a disappointing conclusion to the evening.
Mozart's String Quintets constitute some of his greatest chamber music - and there is plenty of competition.
The g minor quintet, K.516, has a good deal in common, emotionally speaking, with the symphony K.550 in the same key. Kai Gleusteen, Hiroko Kagawa, David Visentin, Mieka Kohut and Paula Kiffner gave the piece a splendidly-played and penetrating reading.
Tempos were well-chosen and dynamics were closely observed. I was particularly taken with the half-tones and degrees of light and (mostly) shade in the slow movement.
Unlike the symphony, in the quintet's finale, after a distinctly pregnant slow introduction, the sun comes out and the work closes with a smile.
The best music - and performance - of the evening.
According the the programme listing, Franz Schubert (1897-1828) [sic] was the only composer in history to live backwards. His Rondo for Violin and Strings has a rather Mozartean slow introduction followed by a very jolly allegro which tends to wander a little aimlessly, but does contain several distinctly Schubertian modulations.
Gleusteen was the excellent soloist - Schubert does not indulge in hyper-virtuosity - in a lively performance which held the interest to the end.
This may not have been the most consistently successful concert I've attended this year, but I remain grateful for the opportunity to hear unfamiliar music and the for standard of the performance of the familiar.
MiV Home