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Muse Winery
June 27, 2015
At 30 degrees Celsius, it feels as if the brain is about to melt. When the temperature inside the Muse Winery concert hall rose above that threshold before the concert, the audience used their programmmes and whatever else came in handy to fan themselves back to sanity. Then David Gillham and Chiharu Iinuma opened with Ravel's Sonata for Violin and Piano No.1, and all these overheated minds were transported into a dream world of shimmering impressionism. Never has the reviewer's ability to focus on tempo, timbre and texture been more challenged; the music was simply too soothing.
The Sonata was written in 1897 but not published until 1975; hence the "posthumous" label. Ravel composed it for an exam while a student at the Paris Conservatoire, and then shelved it. As Gillham pointed out in his introduction, the composition borrows fairly heavily from Fauré and Franck and may therefore have been viewed as immature, but Ravel's unique musical syntax is already apparent. When his subsequent Sonata No. 2 won widespread acclaim, it eclipsed No.1 and, sadly, the latter is seldom performed.
Stravinsky's Suite Italienne for Cello and Piano is an adaptation of his ballet Pulcinella. Most in the audience would have recognized the first movement, yet may have associated it with someone like Brahms or Mendelssohn rather than with Stravinsky. The composer's vast musical versatility shines through in the five movements, ranging all the way from Bach in the Serenade and Rimsky-Korsakov in the Minuetto to...well...trademark Firebird Stravinsky in the Tarantella.
In 1880, Tchaikovsky's benefactress Nadezhda von Meck asked him to compose a piano trio. He declined, writing to her that "I simply cannot endure the combination of piano with violin or cello. To my mind the timbre of these instruments will not blend...it is torture for me to have to listen to a string trio or a sonata of any kind for piano and strings". This may seem strange, coming from someone who composed the mother of all piano concertos - a format which, almost by definition, features strings galore. Even more paradoxically, the following year Tchaikovsky acquiesced to von Meck's request by composing his one and only Piano Trio for violin, cello and piano. Moreover, it is arguably one of the most beautiful examples of its genre, especially the first movement.
The second movement of the Piano Trio is made up of a dozen distinct variations on a theme which is played piano solo up front. The theme might initially seem rather ordinary. However, Tchaikovsky had a knack for attaching a surprising melodic twist at the end of each phrase, so all is immediately forgiven. The variations purport to depict the life and death of Nikolai Rubinstein, the famous pianist, conductor and composer who was also a close friend of Tchaikovsky's. Palpable joy and sadness, hope and despair permeate the variations. At the end, the audience was left breathless with emotion and needed several seconds to muster the applause.
The hall used for concerts at Muse Winery is fairly small, with the audience fanning out within a radius of 5-12m from the performers. This makes for an intimate atmosphere. However, I am not keen on sitting so close, as the strings can sound slightly scratchy and the piano can be too loud. Ideally, the tones should have some room to blend together before reaching the listener's ears, as happens in a large concert hall, yet without going to the reverberating extremes often found in cathedrals. On this occasion, the piano tended to drown out the string instruments. It may be beneficial in such intimate settings to leave the lid half-way closed on the lower prop stick rather than wide open. That said, Iinuma's virtuosity was impressive, particularly in the Tchaikovsky "big piano" variations. According to the program notes and her website, she plays chiefly as a member of chamber orchestras. It would be a delight to also hear her play solo at recitals.
The body language of Gillham and Ariel Barnes let the audience share in their enjoyment of the music, despite the sweltering heat which forced them to frequently wipe their brows and instruments dry. The only advantage of sitting so close to the performers is the opportunity to be a participant in their internal musical dialogue.
The smallness of the concert hall aside, the Muse Winery is the perfect venue for EKSM concerts. Thanks to the exquisite cuisine on offer at the Winery's terrace restaurant located on the edge of a thriving vineyard, there is enough time and opportunity to satisfy both the palate and the soul. It is difficult to imagine a summer afternoon better spent.
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