A HUSUM DIARY 2016 / Days Seven, Eight and Nine

Sightseeing: the harbour of Flensburg,
near the Danish border.

Thursday (25 August)

Recital 10: Martin Jones (7.30 pm)

The septuagenarian English pianist Martin Jones was re-invited to the festival on the strength of his recital on 26 August last year, and he did not disappoint. Like before, he began with some Czerny, his Souvenir de Peste, a set of variations on a very banal theme written for amateurs of the day. Despite Jones' ardent advocacy, one performance is enough for one lifetime. 

Next were the three Images Oubliées of Debussy, works that were only published as late as the 1970s. The 2^nd movement's Sarabande is identical to the one in Pour le piano, while the fast finale shares the same folk melody as that in Jardins sous la pluie. This set is regularly recorded in integrale sets of Debussy but seldom performed in concerts. Completing the first half was five Earl Wild transcriptions of Rachmaninov romances. Jones plays each with a beautiful tone, and summons all the resources available for Floods of Spring, which gets a truly thunderous performance.

Australian composer Graham Hair provided more technical fodder in three of his Transcendental Studies, which sound as fiendish as they are fun. Jean Francaix's Éloge de la dance is a play on the waltz rhythm and idiom, with some off kilter moments as if one had a glass of champagne too many. 

Fun defines Franz Reizenstein's Variations on the Lambeth Walk, which has the popular melody dressed in the styles of Chopin, Verdi, Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Wagner and Liszt. There was much mirth and giggles from the audience, and these turned into gasps for the encores by Grainger, Moszkowski, Arlen-Rachmaninov-Mann (Over The Rainbow), Pierne and Tchaikovsky-Wild. The little cygnets took a little tumble but like water off a swan's back, got back to the lake in a most graceful way.  

For his hard work, Martin Jones
gets a model Kowloon Motor Bus
which came all the way from Hong Kong

  

Sightseeing: a fantastic view of the Holstein Gate
and Salt Warehouses from the
Petrikirche (St Peter's Church) in Lübeck.

Friday (26 August 2016)

Recital 11: Zlata Chochieva (7.30 pm)

The name of young Russian Zlata Chochieva is familiar on the strength of her excellent recordings of Chopin and Rachmaninov Études on the Piano Classics label. Up live, she fully lives up to those lofty expectations. Her first half had a nice mix of Galuppi, C.P.E.Bach (which always unfamiliar but crisply minted such that one asks “why have we not heard that before?), hyphenated Bach, hyphenated Franck and Liszt.

One question that lingered was: wasn't that Bach Siciliano by Kempff rather than Friedmann as indicated in the notes. Trust the ever-trustworthy Ludwig Madlener to whip up his iPad with a pdf score and the mystery is solved. Chochieva did play the Kempff version after all. There was Liszt's blustery transcription of Bach's Fantasy and Fugue in G minor (BWV.542) and Friedman's transcription of the Franck's Prelude, Fugue & Variation, which does not sound too different from the Harold Bauer version. Liszt was represented by a Klavierstuck, the totally unfamiliar but beautiful Hymne de la nuit, contrasted with  the rather nastily percussive Csardas Macabre so to end the first half with a bang.

The second half opened with one of Medtner's Skazki and the lovely Canzonata Serenata, which unfolded with great ease and fluidity. That was merely the prelude to Rachmaninov's monumental 40-minute First Sonata in D minor, a Faustian symphony in three movements all but in name. Chochieva has recorded this too, and the live version is just as good. Her prodigious technique is equal to all its ferocious demands, including a Mefistophelean final ride to the abyss that had one on the edge of the seat.  

The amigos at Hartmann's:
with Satoru, Ludwig and French critic
Bertrand Boissard.

  

The restored Gatehouse of Schloss vor Husum.

Saturday (27 August 2016)

Earlier in the day, Jesper Buhl and Bryce Morrison
had a lively discussion and debate on who had a
greater impact on piano music: Schnabel or Horowitz?

Recital 12: Cyprien Katsaris & Helene Mercier (6 pm)

Cyprien Katsaris is back, after rescuing the festival last year when a scheduled pianist had cancelled at the eleventh hour. With him was the French-Canadian Helene Mercier (perhaps better known as Louis Lortie's partner in a number of Chandos piano duo recordings) in a programme which was a repeat of a recording of Schumann and Brahms on Katsaris' Piano 21 label. To begin were a selection of Schubert Ländler transcribed by Brahms for four hands on one piano. Pleasant, but neither vintage nor memorable Schubert, but nicely done.

The serious business began with Clara Schumann's 1857 transcription of her late husband's famous Piano Quintet in E flat major Op.44. The duo's recording sounded richly sonorous but in reality, the live version on two pianos was a clangourous and banging affair, with no strings to cushion the blows. It also did not help that both pianists did not gel completely together. Its four movements started to sound percussive and it was almost a relief when it all ended.

Less problematic was Brahms' Sonata in F minor Op.34b, which has the same music as his familiar Piano Quintet. Here the duo worked better, and there was much passion and tenderness in its pages. The third movement's relentless march was very well held together, and the finale came as a tour de force. If only the last two bars had come with a true vehemence, it would have been close to a perfect reading. The duo’s encores were two lesser known Hungarian Dances by Brahms, and true to form for this festival, Katsaris said that they tried to avoid the familiar ones.

One week and two days had come to an end so quickly, and I was sorry to see the festival close. There was a usual round of speeches, a buffet dinner with drinks, but the post-festival gloom was only relieved by the thought that the Rarities of Piano Music at Schloss vor Husum would continue in a year's time. Come 19-26 August 2017, pianophiles and old friends would gather again to share in the sheer joy of experiencing live music at its finest. All thanks to Peter Froundjian and his wonderful team, and to quote a certain Arnie Schwarzenegger, “I'll be back!” 

Seeing double: Fritz from Switzerland,
and Norbert from Germany,
or is it the other way round?

Good things have to come to an end,
final drinks and dinner!

Bidding farewell to Husum:
Daniel Berman (who will perform in 2017),
Ludwig & Kathrin Homburg.

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, September 2016)

BRAHMS Sonata for 2 pianos

SCHUMANN Piano Quintet

CYPRIEN KATSARIS 
& HELENE MERCIER, 2 Pianos

Piano 21  044-N / *****

In the homes of 19^th century and fin de siécle bourgeoisie, before the advent of radio and gramophones, musical entertainment took the form of the pianoforte and arrangements for multiple hands on the keyboard. 

Here are two classics of chamber music, heard in versions for four hands or two pianos. Johannes Brahms' Sonata in F minor Op.34b for two pianos is the better known, because it has exactly the same music as his popular Piano Quintet. One simply does not miss the strings here, as Brahms' conception was more symphonic rather than texture-based.

The duo of French-Cypriot Cyprien Katsaris and French-Canadian Helene Mercier are totally musical throughout, yet able to summon the forces of passion for the tempestuous Scherzo and the 4^th movement's final showdown. 

A true rarity based on another popular work is Robert Schumann's Piano Quintet in E flat major Op.44 in a transcription for piano four hands by his wife Clara Schumann. She was the bona fide piano virtuoso of the couple, and the result is so idiomatic such that one wonders why this is not played more often. Here is a gem of a disc that deserves many listens.     

SIBELIUS The Symphonies

Lahti Symphony / OKKO KAMU

BIS 2076 (3 CDS) / *****

Longing for a symphony cycle by Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) from the Singapore Symphony Orchestra? This is the closest thing to it. SSO's Finnish Principal Guest Conductor Okko Kamu has recorded all seven symphonies in his homeland with the Lahti Symphony, where he is Principal Conductor. It is a magnificent set that truly captures Sibelius' heroic and often rough-hewn music.

A way of listening is to follow his progression from first-time symphonist to that of a visionary. Symphony No.1 (1900) on Disc 1 follows from Tchaikovsky's model, then cut off to Disc 2 for the popular Symphony No.2 (1902) as he is established as Finland's patriot. 

This is followed by Symphony No.5 (1919) which shares its bluster and rhetoric. Disc 3 brings together the lightly-textured Symphony No.3 (1907), Symphony No.6 (1923) and the compact Symphony No.7 (1924), which is the shortest symphony comprising his longest single movement.

Then return to Disc 1 to conclude with the enigmatic Symphony No.4 (1911), the bleakest of utterances that ponders the future, as if staring into an abyss. Sibelius' conception revolutionised the 20^th century symphony form, in the manner that Beethoven did a century before.    

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, August 2016)

LISZT Mephisto Waltzes etc

CYPRIEN KATSARIS, Piano

Apex 2564 67410-2 / ****1/2

The piano music of Franz Liszt (1811-1886) has been celebrated for its Janus-like qualities. Juxtaposing the diabolical with the sacred in music paralleled his personal life of sinner-turned-penitent, a self-styled “pop star” virtuoso in his youth who spent his later years as an Abbe and sage. 

This recording by French-Cypriot pianist Cyprien Katsaris eloquently illustrates these diametrically opposed views, opening with the sublime Benediction de Dieu dans la solitude (Blessing of God in Solitude), where the spiritually serene and rapturous come together as never before.

Then follows the four Mephisto Waltzes, of which the First is the most often performed. Here the “evil” interval of the tritone (once referred to as “diabolus in musicus” and banned by the Vatican) is flaunted with wild abandon in a series of unbridled and frenzied dances. 

The rarely-heard Mephisto Polka and near-atonal Bagatelle Sans Tonalite are inserted as sinister miniatures, but the palate is cleansed with the Variations on Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen, a grand treatise on the passacaglia form which concludes with the reassuring strains of a Bach chorale. Katsaris' pianistic journey from Hades to Paradise is absorbing and exhausting, and one to be savoured.  

CYPRIEN KATSARIS Piano Recital / Rarities of Piano Music at Schloss vor Husum

RARITIES OF PIANO MUSIC

AT SCHLOSS VOR HUSUM

CYPRIEN KATSARIS Piano Recital

Friday (28 August 2015) 

Big shock and wonderful surprise of the week: the Chinese pianist Wang Xiayin had cancelled on doctor's orders at the eleventh hour. To replace her was the French-Cypriot pianist Cyprien Katsaris! Some might even consider this an upgrade! No programme was planned, but one would always rely on Katsaris to provide some impromptu prizes, which he would announce on the spur of the moment.

He opened with his own improvisations on popular 19^th and early 20^th century melodies, citing that improvisation had already become a lost art among classical pianists. In his 15-minute montage, he brilliantly linked themes from Saint-Saens's Samson et Dalila, Verdi's La Traviata, Wagner's Tannhauser, a waltz of his own device, Tarrega's Memories of the Alhambra (his repeated note technique imitating the guitar uncannily well), Tchaikovsky's Pathetique, Khachaturian's Spartacus, Rachmaninov's 3^rd and 2^nd Piano Concertos and Liszt's Les Preludes. This was better than any of those Three Tenor medleys!

Late Liszt followed, the little-known Trauervorspiel & Trauermarsch and Katsaris's own version of the obsessive Csardas Obstinee, festooned with his own cadenzas and more repeated-note mayhem.  Katsaris then did a Liszt by transcribing an aria from Liszt's early opera Don Sanche, in the manner of the great master himself. The piece de resistance was surely Katsaris's own arrangement combining both solo and orchestral parts of Liszt's Second Piano Concerto, a blinder of a showpiece which has all the tricks and treats of the ultimate virtuoso. Is Katsaris a reincarnation of the great Hungarian? His generous and oversized spirit suggests the affirmative.

A strange reversal of programming saw the second half open with Haydn's little Sonata in C major, a breezily conceived reading marred by a jarring metallic sound whenever he hit the low C note. Apparently, a small object had fallen into the piano while shifting score stand and lamp, rendering the Haydn an unscripted edition by Henry Cowell or John Cage! 

Schubert's second of Three Piano Pieces (D.946) showed Katsaris an absolute master of cantabile, while Henry Purcell's Suite in D major was a model of restraint and good taste. There was even time for a quiz, winners of which got a Katsaris CD recording as a prize. A prelude of Louis Vierne and a short song by  Friedrich Nietzsche were correctly identified by two young Germans. He closed the programme with Louis Brassin's transcription of Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries (Walkürenritt), of course with the usual Katsaris modifications.

His sole encore was a nocturne that was so famous that it is hardly ever played in recital, Chopin's ubiquitous Nocturne in E flat major Op.9 No.2. A true rarity indeed, to be heard with Katsaris discrete ornamentation and unfailing beauty of tone.