RARITIES OF PIANO MUSIC AT SCHLOSS VOR HUSUM 2024: PATRICK HEMMERLÉ Piano Recital / Review

 

PATRICK HEMMERLÉ Piano Recital 

Rarities of Piano Music 

at Schloss vor Husum 2024 

Monday (19 August 2024)

7 pm (via live-stream) 

An August summer used to mean something special for me. Alas, that was in a past pre-pandemic life when a stretch of eight balmy evenings were spent in the company of piano music and similarly rabid pianophiles. 

I am referring to none other than the Rarities of Piano Music at Schloss vor Husum piano festival in the north German town of Husum (Schleswig-Holstein), the Mecca of arcane and rarely heard piano works. There is no other festival like it in the world. You won’t find the likes of Lang Lang or Yundi anywhere in sniffing distance, and someday Yunchan Lim and Yuja Wang might even have a chance to play here, if they get lucky. 

The opportunity to attend a Husum recital, even remotely and six time zones away, represents a privilege for me and there is no way I was going to miss a performance of the complete Java Suite by Leopold Godowsky. French pianist Patrick Hemmerlé, presently based in Cambridge, is a new name for me and I was astonished at his grasp of the idiom to be found in its twelve movements or phonoramas (musical journeys in Godowsky’s words). Conceived as four suites of three pieces each, this is the Indonesian answer to Isaac Albeniz’s Iberia. 

Hemmerlé did not play all 12 pieces in a single gulp, but wisely separated each suite with choice words in English (apparently his German was not strong enough) which helped break the ice between him and the audience. Each third piece was a loud and festive one, rewarded with the rightful applause that was proof he was getting his message across. 

Each suite and each piece had a distinct feel of its own, and it was a pleasure to hear these in succession. Although Godowsky did not compose with authentic Javanese / Indonesian idioms in mind, his were impressions of an exotic land with requisite pentatonicisms sprinkled here and there. Much like Abram Chasins’ Three Chinese Pieces or Richard Rodgers’ March of the Siamese Children (The King and I), which sound naive for today’s ears but were quaint during their time. 

Suite 1: Gamelan possessed the dizzying counterpoint that had so impressed Debussy. Wayang Purwa is a droll and retiring impression of a dalang (puppet master), while Hari Besaar, the only piece to quote a genuine Javanese melody, had the hustle-bustle of a major market day. 

Suite 2: Chattering Monkeys at the Sacred Lake of Wendit is a gamboling Mendelssohnian scherzo, while Borobudur By Moonlight resembled some Ravelian nocturne. The eructations of Bromo Volcano and Sand Sea at Daybreak were of a joyful kind, with no reference to natural disaster. Thus far, Hemmerlé was fully in control of the technical intricacies, while playing completely from memory. 

Even Sviatoslav Richter (bottom left)
was compelled to attend this recital.

Suite 3: Perhaps the least authentic were the Three Dances, short inconsequential diversions but did one notice that the third dance closes with the very phrase that opens the next number, Gardens of Buitenzorg? This was Godowsky’s most famous piano piece besides Alt Wien and his Chopin Etude conflations. Time stood still for three minutes of utter sensuousness, with Hemmerlé’s melting legato lines being something to savour, before another rousing romp in the Streets of Old Batavia. 

Suite 4: I am in total agreement with Hemmerlé that In the Kraton is the best piece of the dozen. A sense of mysticism and ancient ceremony is totally palpable and its melody one to die for. I was less enamoured of Ruined Water Castle at Djokja which caused my mind to drift a little before the awakening caused by Court Pageant in Solo, which brought the suite to a loud clangourous conclusion. 

This Husum premiere of the full set was truly a pleasure to behold. Until Hemmerlé makes a recording of this (he ought to!), one can still luxuriate in Esther Budiardjo’s miraculous recording on ProPiano. 

The recital’s second half opened with Nikolai Medtner’s Sonata in G minor (Op.22), not so much a rarity these days because of numerous recordings. However, how often does one encounter this in recitals? Said to have been “born with the sonata form”, Medtner crafted a single movement of 18 minutes with thematic ideas that reach their logical conclusions such that one is floored by its sheer cogency. Hemmerlé’s performance was one of overflowing passion, such a satisfying one that one need not miss the famous 1954 recording by Emil Gilels in antiquated sound. 

Hemmerlé concluded his recital with Czech composer Vitezslav Novak’s Variations on a Theme by Schumann (Op.4) from 1893, a true rarity by Husum’s lofty standards. Even its theme is little-known, taken from the Album for the Young (Op.68 No.34), a movement so forgettable that it makes a perfect subject for variations. By its end, you cannot get it out of the system, the literal ohrwurm or ear worm. 

It is a charming work with eight variations (each with titles like Feuillet de Album, Serenata, Scherzo, Elegia and Alla Schumann, of course) and an extended finale, clearly a tribute to Robert Schumann himself. Its inventiveness comes through very well in Hemmerlé’s hands, who appears to have made the only commercial recording available. When people come to Husum, it is for performances like this! 

Hemmerlé’s sole encore was a substantial one, his own arrangement of the opening aria from J.S.Bach’s cantata Ich Habe Genug (BWV.82) which was utterly beautiful and great way to end this varied and fascinating recital.

Many thanks to Nathalie Gerstle for linking me to the livestreamed performance, which may be viewed here:

(17) Raritäten der Klaviermusik - YouTube

TANYA GABRIELIAN Piano Recital / Rarities of Piano Music at Schloss vor Husum 2023 / Review

TANYA GABRIELIAN 

Piano Recital

Rarities of Piano Music 

at Schloss vor Husum 2023

Wednesday (23 August 2023)

 

Here I am in the northern German town of Husum (Schleswig-Holstein), attending another recital of seldom-heard piano pieces which the fabled festival is famous for, except that I am not. It is 1.00 am in Singapore, but I have been afforded an online-ticket by the Rarities of Piano Music at Schloss vor Husum festival to attend the recital by American pianist Tanya Gabrielian.

 

Tanya Gabrielian, not to be confused with Diana Gabrielyan or Tanya Bannister, presented a first half of familiar music in unfamiliar transcriptions. The Russian Alexander Siloti (1863-1945) was Liszt’s student and Rachmaninov’s first cousin, whose transcriptions represented a mostly undiscovered treasure trove. Everybody knows J.S.Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor (BWV.565) for organ, and the Busoni and Tausig piano transcriptions. Siloti’s take was more faithful to the original and far less fussy or florid than his rivals’. It repays further study, as is Siloti’s version of Gluck’s Melody from Orpheus. Cast in B flat minor instead of Sgambati’s D minor, it is also easier to play, with less risk of accidents caused by crossings of hands.

Alexander Siloti with Liszt,
and Rachmaninov.

 

Gabrielian brought out the music with simplicity and taste. Even rarer were the transcriptions of Ravel’s Kaddish (with a ravishing cantor’s singing line), Bizet’s Aragonaise from Carmen (just as rousing as those violin Carmen fantasies) and Rachmaninov’s Italian Polka. The last was originally conceived for four hands, so the version for two hands pales in comparison, not to mention Arcadi Volodos’s uproarious transcription. However, Gabrielian dressed it with some delicious rubatos.

 

The other transcriptions were Siloti’s own editions of already established transcriptions, such as Schubert-Liszt Valse-Caprice No.7 (from Soirees de Vienne), Glinka-Balakirev The Lark and Paganini-Liszt Etude No.6 in A minor (based on the famous Caprice No.24). Unless a score is handy, one might not notice the differences made by Siloti. However by listening alone, one will surmise that the Paganini Etude is even more virtuosic with Siloti’s tinkerings.

 

There were no transcriptions in Gabrielian’s more varied second half. Aaron Copland’s Three Moods are titled Embittered, Wistful and Jazzy, revealing the American’s quite astonishing range. There are some interesting Scriabin and Messiaen-like harmonies in the first two (one imagines them titled Anguissemente and Ennui), while the last is a gay foxtrot (not referring to the modern usage of that word). Gabrielian conceded to choosing a less taxing Leopold Godowsky piece, but the Meditation in E flat major for left hand is really quite lovely, the thumb bringing out its lingering melodic line. He’s not called the “Disciple of the left hand” for nothing.

 

The final work demonstrated why Carl Maria von Weber’s sonatas are not so often heard. His Third Sonata in D minor Op.49 does not really capture the imagination, despite Gabrielian’s determined effort contrasting the first subject’s dotted rhythm (Allegro feroce) with the second subject’s lyricism (Tranquillo e lusingando). The obligatory note-spinning was balanced by the second movement’s Theme and Variations on a bel canto-like subject, with lots of nice touches, arguably the sonata’s best movement. The Rondo finale goes through its usual barnstorming, mercurial passages with big octave and chord moments which Gabrielian bravely weathered to its hectic close. Honestly, if Sviatoslav Richter cannot convince me that this was a great masterpiece, nobody can.

 

Gabrielian offered two encores, the first of Bartok’s Hungarian Folkdances from Csik District and Chopin’s Nocturne in C sharp minor Op.27 No.1, both being beautifully shaded. As Husum recitals go, this was par for the course. Oh, how I miss Husum, and cannot wait to return someday soon.

Memories of a balmy Husum summer,
and soon may I return.

RARITIES OF PIANO MUSIC AT SCHLOSS VOR HUSUM 2019 / CD Review

RARITIES OF PIANO MUSIC

AT SCHLOSS VOR HUSUM

2019 Festival Highlights

Danacord 849 / TT: 75’02”

 

For the first time in its incredible 33-year run, the prestigious Rarities of Piano Music Festival at Schloss vor Husum in Schleswig-Holstein, Northern Germany had to be cancelled this year, all thanks to the global Covid-19 pandemic. However, the annual highlights disc from the 2019 festival, just hot off the press and faithfully issued by the Danish label Danacord, is a consolation worth having.

 

The 2019 festival was special in several ways. First, it featured the most number of pianists – fifteen in total - within its nine-day duration. Secondly, it programmed the most number of young pianists, including five scholarship students and two Young Explorers. No less than five pianists were Asian, with Clarisse Teo being the first ever Singaporean to perform in the festival’s illustrious history.

 

Thirteen pianists were represented in the 2019 highlights, with 18 tracks in total. Dip into any part of the disc, and one will be severely challenged to identify the works or composers.  OK, the only concession is the final track: J.S.Bach’s Ich ruf’ zu dir played by German pianist Markus Becker. However, its not the familiar Busoni transcription, but rather Max Reger’s much less known version. Such is the nature of rarities.

 

Most of the tracks are short, occupied by itsy bitsy pieces (gems and baubles alike) or movements from longer pieces, but there was time for two generous 10-minute selections. Sigismond Thalberg’s Fantasy on Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia was bel canto meets early Romantic notespinning. This could have been a vulgar romp (remember the Thalberg vs Liszt pianistic duel of 1837) but not so from the prodigious British Alkan maven Mark Viner, who amply brought out its barnstorming glories with stunning aplomb. Gustave Samazeuilh’s Nocturne comes from the opposite end of the Romantic spectrum, its dusky and impressionist hues (one thinks of Debussy and Szymanowski) evocatively voiced by Swedish Husum veteran Roland Pöntinen.  

 

And there are lots of dances, songs, romances and transcriptions. A Grand Valse de concert by Bizet (from Kotaro Fukuma), Mazurkas by Chopin student Julian Fontana (Cyprien Katsaris) and Benjamin Godard (Kenji Miura), two Essays on Forgotten Rhythms by Anton Arensky (Marco Rapetti), a charming Ice-Skating Rink Waltz by Balys Dvarionas (Onute Grazinyte), a serene bagatelle and syncopated prelude by Richard Danielpour (Xiayin Wang) just illustrate the sheer eclecticism of the selections.  

 

On a more sober side, Christian Nagel’s reading of Liszt’s Ave Maria (Chanson d’Arcadelt, not the Schubert song) from the festival’s first ever Late Night Recital was a refreshing balm of bell sounds after an exhausting evening of piano fireworks. By contrast, the finale of Anatoly Alexandrov’s Sonata No.4 proved to be the grittiest of all the selections, flying fearlessly from the hands of Singaporean Clarisse Teo (above).

 

If the arcane peripheries and less-trodden byways of the piano repertoire is your cup of tea, look no further. Try something very different!

RARITIES OF PIANO MUSIC AT SCHLOSS VOR HUSUM / Part 1

RARITIES OF PIANO MUSIC

AT SCHLOSS VOR HUSUM 2019

 

Alas, this year’s festival of Rarities of Piano Music at Northern Germany’s Schloss vor Husum has been cancelled due to the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic. Thus I have to console myself with great memories of last year’s festival. It has taken me a painfully long time to write this, but as they say, its better late than never.

 

Preamble

 

As with previous trips to the Rarities of Piano Music at Schloss vor Husum, my sojourn begins with piano music in Singapore like some preparatory piece of homework. Over the weekend, I heard four young pianists in a gala concert of the Singapore Youth International Piano Competition. These included winners of the Japan Steinway Competition (Momona), Ettlingen Youth Piano Competition (Yu Lei), Epinal International Piano Competition (Lin Hao-Wei, only 15) and the Piano Island Competition (Singapore’s Pung Rae Yue). They were all excellent, representing a bright future for piano playing in East Asia.

 

As a corollary, it is staggering to see that there will be five Asian pianists playing this year’s Husum festival, some kind of record. Two will perform at the Scholarship Recital, two at the Piano Explorers Series, and one at the main festival proper. And to think that only four Asian pianists had previously performed at the festival, beginning with the Philippines’ Cecile Licad in 2005, followed by Jenny Lin (Taiwan), Hiroaki Takenouchi and Etsuko Hirose (both Japan) over the years. This might point to a trend to come.   

The Nordsee Canal (Kiel Canal)
as seen at Fischhütte

Friday 23 August 2019

 

I arrive in Husum this year with absolutely no hitches. Gertrud Feldhusen, who befriended me at last year’s festival, met me at Hamburg Airport. Instead of risking the Deutsche Bahn (fraught with the usual delays), we take a road trip through the flat Schleswig-Holstein landscape and a climactic crossing by ferry over the Kiel Canal at Fischhutte.

 

At Husum, we are met by the television crew from NDR (Nord Deutscher Rundfunk, or North German Broadcasting) who are making a documentary on international visitors who venture to Schleswig-Holstein for whatever reasons. Apparently I appear to be a curious and somewhat interesting subject (exotic for certain, but interesting?), having travelled all the way from Southeast Asia to Schleswig-Holstein to listen to piano playing. Somewhat crazy, maybe. Anyway, we film at Hotel Wohlert (home away from home for the 5^th successive year), Hartmann’s Landküche (a favourite restaurant for country home-cooked fare), the Feldhusen farmhouse at Koldenbuttel and a dike on the North Sea coast. Varied and very nice locations, definitely.  

The Wattenmeer or North Sea coast
as seen from south of Husum. 

 

A documentary by Dörte Nielsen entitled Auf Weltreise nach Schleswig-Holstein (On a World Tour to Schleswig-Holstein) was released on 28 February 2020, and it may be viewed below for some laughs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9emG8OmQwLc 

 

PIANO RECITAL

by Husum Scholarship Holders (7.30 pm)

 

Last year, five young pianists from various German conservatories were awarded scholarships to attend the entire length of the festival. This year they repaid the faith thrusted upon them by playing a 20-minute recital each comprising piano rarities they have picked up along the way. Rarities are certainly not bread and butter in music schools, so it takes a certain adventurous spirit to indulge in them. The results are varied, variable but worth pursuing.

 

From Lithuanian pianist Onute Grazinyte, we got pleasant Lithuanian music (Dvarionas, Vitols and Remesa) and some Handel. From Japanese pianist Mari Namara came Toshio Hosokawa’s Mai (vigorous Japanese dance music) and a very spirited performance of Scriabin’s Seventh Sonata. Should Scriabin’s 7^th be considered a rarity? The last time I’ve heard it was at the 2016 Sydney International Piano Competition, and much further back in 2004 in Hong Kong, by a certain M-A.Hamelin. Three performances in 15 years - that makes it a rarity indeed.

 

Stephen Hough’s My Favourite Things and Poulence’s Novelettes are no longer rarities, but Japan’s Kenji Miura (who later won 1^st prize at the Marguerite Long International Piano Competition) offered two Mazurkas by Benjamin Godard. The best performances come from Elias Projahn and Jorma Marggraf, both Germans. From Projahn, his Liszt Fantasia and Fugue on BACH is suitably thunderous alongside two R.Strauss-Gieseking transcriptions. Leaving the best for the last, Marggraf’s reading of Szymanowski’s Third Sonata – brooding yet ecstatic – was most impressive. He feels this elusive idiom, allied with mind and fingers fully in service to this dissonant and suffocating piece.   

RARITIES OF PIANO MUSIC AT SCHLOSS VOR HUSUM 2019 / Part 2

Saturday 24 August 2019

CLARISSE TEO 

Piano Recital (4.30 pm)

 

Nothing fills me with greater pride than witnessing a first ever-recital by a Singaporean pianist at  Husum. For me, Clarisse Teo’s hour-long recital is a Joseph Schooling moment, an artistic equivalent of Singapore’s first Olympic gold in 2016. This law-graduate turned concert pianist had me near speechless by her confidence and authority in her made-for-Husum programme of music by Xavier Montsalvatge, Vincent D’Indy and Anatoly Alexandrov. Who? Exactly. Even by Husum’s lofty standards, her programme was a rarity.

 

She took a little time to prepare herself at the keyboard, but when she set her fingers down, it was a non-stop roller-coaster ride of hair-raising notes. Montsalvatge’s Sonatina pour Yvette entranced with its quirky rhythms and piquant harmonies, and smiles were raised in the 3^rd movement’s cheeky quotes of Ah, vous dirai-je Maman! Obviously this was written for a child, but there was nothing childlike in its delivery.

 

Then we entered hardcore Husum territory with D’Indy’s Theme varie, Fugue et Chanson, a work far removed from the world of his Symphony on a Mountain Air. No folksy melodies, but a theme which did not sound memorable at first but soon grew with each variation. The fugue was complex enough (every composer had to prove himself with this obligatory exercise) but the final chanson was a happy return home. The ante was upped for the Russian Alexandrov Fourth Sonata, as thorny as any post-Scriabin essay would prove. Even if the ears soon wearied with its litany of dissonances, nothing suggested that Clarisse was tired. Her responses remained hyperacute all through to its climactic close.

 

Her sole encore came like a pleasant after-dinner mint, Carlos Guastavino’s Cantos Popolares No.4, a delightful palate-cleanser to soothe the gall and brimstone that came before. If I sounded somewhat over-enthusiastic, that ought to be the case. I’ll probably never visit the Olympic Games or football World Cup with Singapore to support, but this would be one of Singapore’s proudest musical moments. By the way, I’m also happy to report that the Singaporean population in Husum had increased by by 800% on this weekend!

The Teo family comes to Husum.

Pianophile celeb alert:
Bulgarian pianist Nadezhda Vlaeva,
her husband Farhan Malik and
daughter were spotted at the festival.

 

KOTARO FUKUMA Piano Recital (7.30 pm)

 

The programme offered by the 2003 first prizewinner of the Cleveland International Piano Competition had to be the most eclectic programme I have witnessed in five years of visiting Husum. That’s a far cry from the usual piano competition fodder served up ad nauseum, which means the young Japanese Kotaro Fukuma has progressed beyond the mainstream. His programme began with Minako Tokuyama’s To No Mai, with echoes of Takemitsu and Ryuichi Sakamoto. Next was a melancholic piece from Liszt’s Album dun voyager, the First Nocturne and a Waltz by Bizet (piano music by Carmen’s composer are finally receiving their due), and appropriately a Hommage a Bizet by Theodor Adorno, of all people. This is a surprise by the philosopher and champion of atonalism, and how pleasant and lyrical the three movements sounded, perilously skirting at the edges of tonality.

 

The piece de resistance of Fukuma’s recital had to be the six posthumously-published Charles Trenet songs by Alexis Weissenberg (Mister Nobody in his younger and presumably wilder days) as realised by Marc-André Hamelin. This is heady and highly virtuosic stuff despite the relative simplicity of thematic material, and beautifully played too. One will not view Coin de rue or April in Paris in the same light again. Quite unusually too, he closed with Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s Sixth Sonata, which is acerbic, savage and viscerally exciting, as one would expect from a one-time Shostakovich student. One might even discern a hint of jazz at its close, which complimented the earlier goings-on.

 

Fukuma gave three encores, a Clara Schumann nocturne, more Bizet (Heimat) and his own over-the-top version of the familiar waltz-song Je te veux, which is Satie meets Mr Nobody. Naughty but nice! 

RARITIES OF PIANO MUSIC AT SCHLOSS VOR HUSUM 2019 / Part 3

  

Sunday 25 August 2019

JONATHAN SUMMERS Matinee (11 am)

 

In a festival for pianophiles by pianophiles, Husum has offered an interesting variety of piano-themed talks for its weekend matinees. Jonathan Summers is the curator of the British Library’s classical music sound archive, and his hour-long lecture was a treasure-trove of rare recordings of little-known works by historical pianists of repute. There are no Horowitz or Rubinstein recordings (considered common garden by Husum standards) but gems by the likes of Guiomar Novaes, José Vianna da Motta, Bernhard Stevenhagen, Victor Staub, Walter Rehberg, Mark Hambourg, Michael von Zadora, names so rare that only Peter Froundjian would recognise. Whole tracks were played, and one is astonished by the distinctive sound and colour heard on mostly 78 rpm discs.

 

MARCO RAPETTI 

Piano Recital (7.30 pm)

 

The Italian pianist Marco Rapetti presented an evening of Russian music, one interestingly characterised by a distinct absence of Russian nationalism. He has, for me, exorcised the notion that Cesar Cui (member of the Mighty Handful, and infamous critic of Rachmaninov’s First Symphony) was a bad composer. If anything, parts of his suite A Argenteau sounds more like Wagner (Parsifal and Tristan come to mind), and there’s even a Toy Soldiers’ March that seems to have escaped from The Nutcracker. Causerie, arguably the suite’s best-known piece reaches Rachmaninov-like heights of ecstacy.

 

Then we have the First Sonata of the tragically short-lived Alexei Stanchinsky (1888-1914, whose turbulent life was even briefer than Scriabin’s), which has nifty syncopations, saucy harmonies, moving lyricism, portentous moodiness and a jazzy presto finale to close. In Rapetti’s very capable hands, this is something I would like to hear again. Rather un-Russian in feel are are pieces by Arensky, Conus and the early-Chopin influenced Scriabin himself. Alexander Scriabin’s Canon is dry and academic but his early Sonata in E flat minor, which could be labelled Sonata No.0 (preceding his ten numbered sonatas), is quite something else.

 

This might just be Scriabin’s longest sonata. Its rambling and not fully-formed, filled with Chopinesque cliches but has enough of early Scriabinisms (think of his early sonatas and preludes) to merit some interest. Its full of ideas, ecstatic outbursts, impetuous and tempestuous pages, and awkward page-turns. Rapetti could have done with an alert page-turner (no shortage in Husum!) if anything to forestall untoward breaks, but he nonetheless survived. There were four encores, by Ornstein (To A Grecian Urn), Shchedrin (In Imitation of Albeniz), Scriabin (a prelude) and Borodin (Au Convent from Petite Suite), thus closing with gentle bell sounds. In short, a quintessentially Husum recital: very curious but totally enjoyable.

The serene harbour at Flensburg.

 

Oluf Samson Gang, one of Flensburg's
most picturesque streets,
once a red light district but now gentrified.

Monday 26 August 2019

MARKUS BECKER 

Piano Recital (7.30 pm)

 

This had to be the most intellectual programme at this year’s festival, founded on Bach, counterpoint, the fugue and thematic transformation. If a pianist were paid by the volume of notes alone, German pianist Markus Becker would be more prosperous than Lang Lang. I don’t know which combo has more notes, Bach-Busoni or Bach-Reger, but I reckon its the latter. In B-R’s Prelude and Fugue in E flat major, the piano attempts to relive the organ’s sonority. Throw in some over-indulgent pedalling, it comes as plethoric morass of sound. There are plenty of missed notes but Becker gives his all in this unbridled account that needs no apology.

 

Viktor Ullmann’s Variations and Double Fugue on a Theme by Schoenberg is one tough and thorny cookie to crack. The former student of Schoenberg’s, murdered by Nazis at Auschwitz, used one of his master’s atonal Kleine Klavierstücke (Op.19) and creates a grosse klavierstück in its place. The one thing about atonal works is that when a tone row gets heard repeatedly (as in a set of variations or gets worked contrapuntally), the ear gradually adapts and it does not sound so fearsome after all.

Hindemith’s Third Sonata is one of my favourites (thanks to Glenn Gould), so droll and quirky are its themes that its hard to dislike. While Becker may not have the devastating and evil wit of the loony Canadian, his is still a solid account that deserves plaudits.  

 

The piece de resistance had to be August Stradal’s transcription of Julius Reubke’s Sonata on the 94^th Psalm, orginally an organ work. This masterpiece by the short-lived student of Liszt (Reubke was dead at 24) is the Liszt sonata on steroids, and should be heard more often. The only problem: who would bother to learn all these notes? Becker did, and more than delivered on its masses and expanses of sound with a passionate vehemence that was hard to ignore. Reubke was a blazing meteor who burnt himself out too soon. His encores made for delightful contrasts: the Bach-Reger Ich ruf’ zu dir and the witty finale from Haydn’s Sonata in E minor (Hob.XVI:34).   

Shostakovich and Sviatoslav Richter
were seen rummaging through the
bargain CDs at the Danacord booth.

Here's the proof that the Russian legends
are hiding out in Husum (and so is Elvis).

RARITIES OF PIANO MUSIC AT SCHLOSS VOR HUSUM 2019 / Part 4

The marvel of engineering that is
the Rendsberg High Bridge

Tuesday 27 August 2019

ROLAND PÖNTINEN 

Piano Recital (7.30 pm)

 

I have been collecting the Swedish pianist Roland Pöntinen’s recordings (on BIS and many other labels) for decades, and it was great to actually hear and meet him in person. After the innocuous pleasantries of Swede William Seymer’s Sommarcroquiser (Summer Sketches), the first half comprised mostly transcriptions.

 

I hate to say this but not everything translated perfectly on the piano. Having loved Sibelius’ haunting Rakastava in its versions for strings and voices, the piano transcription by Leo Funtek just fails to sustain its long seamless and undulating lines. Similarly, Ronald Stevenson’s otherwise masterly transcription of the Adagio from Mahler’s Tenth Symphony sounds threadbare, and the 9-note chordal scream at its climax was somewhat a letdown, despite Pöntinen’s ardent advocacy.

 

The balance of  Pöntinen’s programme was excellent, including Fauré’s Barcarolles Nos.9 & 10 and Impromptu No.5 (all of which are rarely heard despite the Frenchman’s relative fame), Szymanowski’s Metopes - its steamy three movements (Isle of Sirens, Calypso and Nausicaa) inspired by Greek mythology, and a true rarity in Gustave Samazeuilh’s Nocturne. This nocturne was dedicated to Fauré and is filled with late-Fauréan harmonic ambiguities and Debussyan textures, a lovely piece that deserves to be better-known.

 

The evening closed with Villa-Lobos, the Brazilian folk-inspired A Tres Marias, and the last and best transcription of all: The Little Train of the Caipira, finale of Bachianas Brasileiras No.2 as arranged by American pianist-conductor Ira Levin. Now the last number is one heck of a showpiece, the firing of pistons, spouts of steam, chugging ostinatos, bells and whistles all sound totally idiomatic on the piano.  

 

His single encore was an excellent follow-up to the last piece, a Pöntinen original, étude ergonomique (à la maniere Thomas Newman), which delighted in an insistent F note ostinato.   

 

Hamburg: a view of the Rathaus,
Nikolaikirche Spire and Elbphilharmonie
from the Alster Lake.

 

Wednesday 28 August 2019

MARK VINER 

Piano Recital (7.30 pm)

 

On the strength of his recital, 30-year-old British pianist Mark Viner has surely inherited the mantle of the late Ronald Smith and Raymond Lewenthal, as well as the much-alive Marc-André Hamelin, as interpreter par excellence of the piano music of Alkan. Economy of notes and labour never encumbered the French-Jewish misanthropic pianist-composer (Birth-name: Charles-Valentin Morhange) whose horrendously difficult pieces even fazed the likes of Franz Liszt.

 

He performed four works by Alkan alone, culminating with his Symphony for solo piano (Études Nos.4-7 from his 12 Studies in Minor Keys), the companion to the notorious Concerto for solo piano. Granted this is a somewhat less fearsome work, but nobody but the most masochistic and intrepid would subject himself or herself to its multitudes of fast and relentless torrents of notes. To this end, Viner’s performance was a total triumph, making this sound seemingly effortless. I remember another stupendous performance from Liszt specialist Leslie Howard in Singapore some 15 years ago. Both will remain in my memory for a very long time to come. The other pieces swung between the extremes of sobriety and pomposity, namely Chant d’amour (from 12 Studies in Major Keys), Funeral March (Op.26) and Triumphal March (Op.27), the result being more sound and fury as we have come to expect from Alkan.

 

Besides, Viner also performed fantasies on Donizetti operas (Dom Sebastien and Lucrezia Borgia) by Liszt and Thalberg (piano rivals with quite divergent fates), demonstrating that bel canto and prodigious note-spinning were never strangers at all. The only departure from the Alkan-Liszt-Thalberg axis of extreme virtuosity was Cecile Chaminade’s Automne (her most famous piece, an étude and not such a rarity these days), performed with a lovely singing tone and understated good taste. Viner’s encore was a rarity among rarities: The Cross of Granite (La Croix de Granit) by little known Belgian Goeau (student of Joseph Jongen), a short but spiritual number that provided ultimate relief from the many, many notes that came before.