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Phillip T Young Recital Hall
July 24, 2008
"You don't want to take a goddamned risk to throw away your novice recording pianist career by choosing such an unfavorable, reluctant and intricate work."
The words were those of a Columbia Records executive to the young Glenn Gould, attempting to dissuade him from his intention of making his recording debut with Bach's Goldberg Variations.
Leaving aside the executive's odd use of the English language (mangled syntax, fair enough, but how can a piece of music be "reluctant" for heaven's sake?) it must be admitted that at the time there did seem to be logic in his argument. Even as late as 1955 only a single recording of the Goldbergs had ever been made - that of Wanda Landowska, in 1934. Clearly the music was a drug on the market.
Or was it? Gould insisted and was thoroughly justified by the astonishing success of his recording, which is still in the catalogue. Indeed, his success might better be measured by the fact that, since his pioneering recording there have been over 130 others made: versions for the piano, harpsichord, solo guitar (rather good), two guitars (dreadful), string orchestra and string trio.
These last two arrangements are both by the Russian violinist Dmitri Sitkovetsky and seem to have given the music new "legs".
Trio Accord closed their recital on Thursday evening with a superb performance of the Goldbergs. For a shade under an hour the audience was transported and transfixed by the genius of Bach and the playing of the trio.
The most contentious issues of any performance - assuming one accepts the transcription in the first place: and Bach himself would surely have approved, after all, to pick just one example, his own Concerto for Four Keyboards is a fairly straight transcription of Vivaldi's Concerto for Four Violins - are the tempos and the repeats.
As violist Andrew Brown explained in his spoken introduction, the trio omitted all the repeats save those in the opening aria - and its reprise - and the French Overture, the sixteenth variation and midpoint of the work.
To place their performance in context, Gould's 1955 account, which omitted all the repeats, took 38 minutes and a few seconds. Daniel Barenboim's, with all repeats included, over 82 minutes.
Although it would have required a stopwatch to be totally accurate, I imagine that had all the repeats been included Thursday's performance might well have beaten Barenboim into second place. And the reason is not that the trio shaded their tempos - some of the faster variations were quite dazzlingly virtuosic - but in the extremely slow tempos adopted for the aria and the slow variations.
In fact I've rarely heard the aria taken more slowly; but when it is played as exquisitely as this, I prefer to think in terms of "heavenly lengths" rather than ennui.
Having said which, and although I completely understand the reasoning - the concert was longer than usual as it was - the lack of repeats often hurt. The feeling wore off as the music progressed, but certainly as the musicians sailed through the repeat marks in the early variations, internally I was thinking "oh, no!"
This minor cavil aside, as the final notes faded away I was as reluctant as any other listener to break the silence with applause. An exceptional performance.
According to the works list in The New Grove, Haydn's piano sonatas Hob. XVI:40-42 are "also known in doubtful arr. for string trio".
It was the first of these, published by somebody as Haydn's Op.53, No.1, that opened Thursday's concert.
Doubtful the arrangement may be, but effective and enjoyable it most certainly is. Particularly when played this well; as regular readers will know, I consider a Haydn quartet to be an acid test for four string players and this music often sounds like a slightly restricted quartet.
The Trio Accord passed the test with flying colours; the opening movement, essentially a minuet with two trios, had a marvellous spring to its step and the minor-key trios were superbly shaded. The second (and final) movement was a true presto, with excellent dynamics.
Which leaves Ernö Dohnányi's Serenade as the only work of the evening actually composed for string trio.
Dohnányi, a slightly older contemporary of Bartók - and grandfather of conductor Christoph - is hardly a household name today, and the Serenade is one of a fairly small number of his works that still maintains a toehold on the repertoire.
It is no masterpiece, to be sure, but it is extremely well-constructed, uses its forces most effectively and contains some truly memorable music - such as the "bagpipe" effect in the opening march.
This was the third - or perhaps fourth - performance I've heard in Victoria in the last sixteen years; and the best. The music - very difficult in parts - clearly benefits from being performed by an ensemble who regularly play together.
The one downside was not in the performance itself but, presumably, the audience: a high-pitched whistling - by consensus probably a rogue hearing aid - made itself felt every time the music sank below mezzo forte.
Although a whistle-free evening would have been preferable, this one still lived up to its promise.
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