PETWORTH FESTIVAL 2020 / Concert Reviews I

 

PETWORTH FESTIVAL 2020 

This year has been a total washout for my insatiable appetite of attending concerts and music festivals. What the global Covid-19 pandemic has done to live music-making and the concert-going experience is unprecedented. In short, it has been shattering. Not being able to attend the Hong Kong Arts Festival (cancelled), the Singapore International Piano Festival (axed), the Rarities of Piano Music at Schloss vor Husum Festival (postponed) and The Joy of Music Festival in Hong Kong (still taking place but travel restricted) has been a major downer for me, and would have been a source of depression.

 

However, the one bright light that proudly shines is England’s Petworth Festival, held in a West Sussex town which has a history that goes back to medieval times. Home to the 17^th century National Trust Petworth House, there are neither tall buildings, railway station nor Macdonald’s on its cobbled streets. But its summer music and autumn literary festivals have hosted some of the land’s top artists and writers. Due to the year’s circumstances, both festivals have now been combined as an autumn special, to form one exceptional fortnight of live and streamed events.

 

My two day whistle-stop visit to Petworth in the summer of 2018 was a revelation, and I wished I could have come back and stayed longer. This has not happened – yet - but being able to witness the performances, on my handy laptop and through headphones is nonetheless a much-welcome relief from the tedium and humdrum of a Covid lockdown.

 

Friday 16 October 2020 

HOWARD SHELLEY &

London Mozart Players Ensemble

 

The festival opened with a Haydn symphony, well sort of. In this period of social distancing, big orchestra performances have been ruled out, but in comes the idea that “small is good”. Thus what we got was impresario extraordinaire Johann Peter Salomon’s arrangement of Haydn’s Symphony No.94 in G major (better known by its nickname, the Surprise Symphony) for string quartet, flute, double bass and piano (serving as a sort of continuo). It is a septet, but good music remains, performed with the care and love one might expect in intimate chamber music.

Petworth Festival Director Stewart Collins
addresses the audience in St Mary's

 

Opening with a slow introduction, the 1^st movement soon took off in the high spirits and wit that comes with the territory. The balance between the strings and piano chords was excellent, with the flute adding an extra line of timbre and texture. The main surprise here was the second movement’s theme and variations (remember that big abrupt tutti chord which gave the symphony its nickname?) being omitted.

 

The great British pianist Howard Shelley* then gave a scholarly but highly accessible preamble on Beethoven’s early style with relation to Mozart’s late piano concertos, and also played examples which helped in the appreciation of Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto. Accompanied by just a string quintet, one need not have worried about missing the full orchestra. The piano rumbled in its series of ascending scales without apology, and never looked back. Here was a performance that lacked nothing in brio and vigour, with Shelley in scintillating form leading from the keyboard.

 

The usual big cadenza by Beethoven was played, and even this sounded perfectly appropriate. The slow movement’s opening chorale for piano solo was an epitome of purity, from which a glorious lyricism unfolded. The Rondo finale turned from drama to sheer joy, but not before some tense moments which Beethoven put his listeners through. Overall, this work - and performance -  represented a triumph of the spirit. The audience in St Mary’s were served up a real treat. Whoever thought a live Beethoven piano concerto be heard with such vivacity and vividness in the midst of a global pandemic?

  

* The discophile world will forever be in his debt for his indefatigable work in Hyperion’s Romantic and Classical Piano Concerto series and championship of British piano music.

 

 

Saturday 17 October 2020

 

SHEKU KANNEH-MASON, Cello &

ISATA KANNEH-MASON, Piano

 

Billed as the highlight of the festival, the duo recital by two members of Britain’s first family of music was every bit as as good as their programme suggested, if not better. Cellist Sheku, winner of the 2016 BBC Young Musician of the Year competition, and his older sister pianist Isata opened with Beethoven’s Fourth Cello Sonata in C major (Op.102 No.1). One would feel their chemistry from the outset, with the cello voicing the first notes and the piano joining in for the 1^st movement’s slow introduction. Here were both instruments presented as first among equals, a status not previously recognised before Beethoven, and how. Sheku’s robust tone yet sensitive voice was well matched by Isata’s sure-fingered pianism through the sonata’s two movements.

 

The slow-fast-slow-fast form here is reminiscent of the sonata da chiesa of old, and made for splendid contrasts. Does anyone other than myself feel that a motif in the fast section of the 1^st movement sound like The Stars and Stripes Forever? Maybe John Philip Sousa was influenced by Beethoven? Whatever that maybe, there were lots to enjoy in the 2^nd movement’s interplay and counterpoint, which made this a fun outing.    

 

Frank Bridge may be regarded as a 20^th century composer (besides being the most important teacher of Benjamin Britten), but his Melodie remains firmly entrenched in the Romantic era. Its brief three-and-a-half minutes cast a sumptuously lyrical spell, beautifully voiced and served as the prelude to the concert’s main event, Rachmaninov’s Cello Sonata in G minor (Op.19). Here the sibs unleashed a no holds barred performance that simmered, sizzled and then erupted into glorious life.

Ecstacy is written
all over Sheku's face!

 

It was easy for the piano with its multitudes of notes to overwhelm the cello, but that never happened. Isata’s sensitive musicianship and Sheku’s passion made sure of that. While the opening movement and ensuing scherzo flexed muscle and sinew, it was the gorgeous slow movement that revealed the Russian composer’s psyché heart-on-sleeve. The duo milked it for what it was worth, and the result was heartrending to say the least. The finale’s tarantella-like dance followed off where the initial fast movements left which made for a breathlessly exciting finish, greeted by the loudest of cheers.  

 

On the strength of this hour-long recital, I dare say the Kanneh-Masons, Sheku and Isata, have what it takes to become Britain’s finest sibling duo since Yehudi and Hephzibah – and yes, I mean the Menuhins.  

CD Review (The Straits Times, August 2018)

POTTER Piano Concertos Nos.2&4

Variations di Bravura

HOWARD SHELLEY, Piano

Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra

Hyperion 68151 / ****1/2

The English composer Philip Cipriani Hambley Potter (1792-1871), or known as just Cipriani Potter, is so obscure that these are the first recordings of any of his piano concertos. A highly-regarded piano virtuoso during his time, he was responsible for the first performances in the British Isles of Beethoven's Third and Fourth Piano Concertos and the London version of Brahms' A German Requiem (scored for 2 pianos). 

Being a close associate of Beethoven and admirer of Rossini, his music reflected the tastes of the late classical period with a predilection for the bel canto idiom.

His Second Piano Concerto in D minor (1832) opens with the same urgency as Mozart's famous piano concerto in the same key, and develops in the manner of many early Romantic composers who were keyboard showmen. Hummel, Weber, Field and Mendelssohn all come to mind. 

The Fourth Piano Concerto in E major (1835) is no more modern in innovation of piano writing, but both concertos possess sumptuous slow movements which share similar inspirations as the earlier Nocturnes of Chopin. 

The Variations Di Bravura (1829), based on an aria from the almost-forgotten opera Mathilde Di Shabran by Rossini, completes this virtuoso showcase which British pianist Howard Shelley (leading from the piano) pursues with characteristic vigour and scintillating aplomb.

CD Review (The Straits Times, January 2017)

F.X.MOZART Piano Concertos Nos.1 & 2

CLEMENTI Piano Concerto

HOWARD SHELLEY, Piano

Sinfonieorchester St Gallen

Hyperion 68126 / ****

Franz Xaver Mozart (1791-1844) was the second son of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who was just four months old when his father died. Interestingly, he was a student of Antonio Salieri (Mozart senior's supposed rival) and Johann Hummel, himself a student and boarder who lived in the same household. F.X.Mozart's two piano concertos are chips from the old block, continuing in his father's classical style of piano and orchestral writing without further developing the genre.

Piano Concerto No.1 in C major (1809) recaps Amadeus' martial air of the C major concertos (Nos.21 and 25) and syncopated tension in the opening tutti of the D minor concerto (No.20). By the time Piano Concerto No.2 in E flat major (1818) came about, Beethoven's more vigorous and highly expressive concertos had already turned the tide of music, ushering in the age of Romanticism.

The Italian Muzio Clementi (1752-1832) was a contemporary and rival of the father, upon who no little scorn and sarcasm was poured. Even his only Piano Concerto in C major (1896) sounds modern by comparison and may be passed off as proto-Beethoven. He, rather than Franz Xaver, was perhaps the true link between the masters Mozart and Beethoven. 

Trust the ever-enterprising British pianist-conductor Howard Shelley to breathe urgency and vitality into these little-known works, which are pleasant and worth listening if not life-changing. 

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, May 2016)

HOROWITZ Return to Chicago

VLADIMIR HOROWITZ, Piano

Deutsche Grammophon 479 4649  (2 CDs) 

*****

Some 27 years after his death, new recordings of the Ukraine-born piano virtuoso Vladimir Horowitz (1903-1989) continue to pop up with surprising frequency. His legend still burns brightly, and this one comes from a public broadcast of his Chicago concert on 26 October 1986. It thematically echoed the more famous Moscow concert of the same year, but was caught in better form. 

Two Scarlatti sonatas and two Scriabin Etudes bookend a selection of Mozart, a composer whom he had developed a belated interest. His performances of the cheery Sonata in C major (K.330), austerely beautiful Adagio in B minor (K.540) and Rondo in D major (K.485) were wonderfully contrasted and nothing less than absorbing.

New to the discography was Schumann's Arabeske (Op.18) and Chopin's Mazurka in C sharp minor (Op.63 No.3), works by composers he had special feelings for. In Liszt's Petrarch Sonnet No.104 and Soirees de Vienne No.6 (based on Schubert waltzes), he topped his Moscow effort with cleaner takes and this imperious sweep carried into the rough and tumble of Chopin's Scherzo No.1. 

Two familiar encores by Schumann (Traumerei) and Moszkowski (Etincelles) completed this splendid recital. The bonus of this album is to hear Horowitz candidly speak in his heavily Russian-accented English in two radio interviews.  

STEIBELT Piano Concertos Nos.3, 5 & 7

HOWARD SHELLEY, Piano

Ulster Orchestra

Hyperion 68104 / ****1/2

Here is a new fix for those who have enjoyed the piano concertos of Mozart and Hummel, and wonder what more the classical era has to offer the pianophile. The chief claims to fame of Berlin-born pianist-composer Daniel Steibelt (1765-1823) were to challenge Beethoven to a pianistic duel (and lost) and scoring works to include a tambourine part to be played by his wife!

His virtuosic piano concertos score high on special effects rather than originality, but who is to say Beethoven did not learn something from his old foe. Steibelt's Piano Concerto No.3 (1798) is nicknamed L'Orage (Storm) because its finale cooks up a raging tempest not unlike that in Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony. The title A La Chasse (The Hunt) comes from the hunting horn theme in Piano Concerto No.5 (1802), something which Beethoven fully exploited in his Emperor Concerto, also in E flat major.

The much-maligned tambourine appears in Piano Concerto No.7 (1816), the Grand Concerto Militaire as its employs batteries of wind, brass and percussion to most bombastic effect. British pianist-conductor Howard Shelley has his hands full and cannot but delight in these vulgar but surprisingly likeable novelties.

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, March 2013)

PIXIS & THALBERG Piano Concertos

HOWARD SHELLEY, Piano

Tasmanian Symphony

Hyperion 67915 / ****1/2

What happened to the piano concerto genre between Mozart and Chopin? Composers like Hummel, Weber and Mendelssohn provide certain clues in their piano music, as do the lesser-known pianist-composers Johann Peter Pixis (1788-1874) and Sigismond Thalberg (1812-1871), who were virtuosos in their time and all but forgotten now. Friends and rivals with both Chopin and Liszt, their stylistically conservative music paralleled aesthetics of the bel canto opera tradition, personified by the arias of Bellini, Donizetti and Rossini.  Allied with scintillating virtuoso traditions of the day, this meant strength in cantabile melody and ornamental excesses to the point of fussiness.

Despite the triteness of invention and inspiration, the C major Concerto (1829) and E flat major Concertino (1824) of Pixis may be enjoyed on their own terms. One should not expect dissonances, dynamic surprises or others innovation, but just bask in the sheer congeniality. At least his slow movements sound like proto-Chopinesque nocturnes. From Thalberg, who once had a pianistic duel with Liszt, one expects just a little more attitude. His F minor Concerto (1830) might just enter the periphery of the standard repertoire, not because of harmonic daring but by its technical demands for the sake of itself. British pianist-conductor Howard Shelley is a specialist of music of this epoch, and does his best to make it sound fresh and inviting. His spirited advocacy succeeds, because one will return to this music again, at least for its easy charms and outward glitter. 

DEBUSSY 24 Préludes

(Orchestrated by Peter Breiner)

Royal Scottish National Orchestra / Jun Markl

Naxos 8.572584 / ****1/2

The 24 Préludes of Debussy represent an ultimate test for the pianist in crafting a palette of colours on the keyboard, yet they positively beg to be orchestrated. These arrangements by Slovak composer Peter Breiner (who also happens to be Naxos’s house orchestrator for popular tunes and anthems) are both idiomatic and evocative. The preludes are presented in two books, in the order they were published, and the sonorities he creates come close to the spirit of Debussy’s own style.

He conjures up a pastoral mood for The Girl With The Flaxen Hair, raises a tempest-tossed vibe for What The West Wind Saw, and fulminates explosively in the final prelude Fireworks. For Spanish-inspired numbers, such as Interrupted Serenade and The Wine Gate, the deft use of percussion and the rhythms lends the music an exotic flavour. These bear comparison with the orchestrations by Colin Matthews, recorded by the Halle Orchestra on its own label, which have a more modernistic slant. The Royal Scottish National Orchestra is every bit as sympathetic and incisive in its playing, making this a welcome addition to the recorded orchestral canon.    

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, September 2010)

SCHUMANN, GRIEG & SAINT-SAENS
Piano Concertos
HOWARD SHELLEY, Piano
Orchestra of Opera North
Chandos 10509

****1/2

Do we need yet another recording that couples the A minor Piano Concertos of Robert Schumann and Edvard Grieg? Not unless it has something new to say. British pianist Howard Shelley, who regularly conducts concertos from the keyboard, lays on a convincing argument for the tempos adopted for these warhorses. “Go with the flow” is his view, and the music takes on an added urgency which is quite refreshing. Some listeners will quibble about the “lack of breathing space” in the fast outer movements, but there is certainly no protractedness for the sake of profundity here.

With both concertos running under half an hour each (most pianists clock in at 32 minutes), there is enough time to pack in a third concerto – Camille Saint-Saëns’ Second Piano Concerto. Once described as “a journey from Bach to Offenbach”, the work bristles with virtuosic gestures and sparkles with champagne lightness. Shelley and the Leeds-based orchestra are every bit equal to its witty and quixotic demands. Recommended.

BERNSTEIN Mass
JUBILANT SYKES, Baritone with choirs
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra 

MARIN ALSOP
Naxos 8.559622-23 (2CDs)
*****

When Leonard Bernstein’s Mass: A Theatre Piece for Singers, Players and Dancers was first performed at the inauguration of Washington D.C’s Kennedy Centre in 1971, it was panned for its eclecticism and low brow leanings. One critic likened it to a recipe for steak fried in peanut butter and marshmallow sauce. Heard from a distance of almost four decades, the 100-minute long work still sounds like a child of its time, from the era of the Vietnam War, Woodstock, Hair and LSD.

It attempts to encompass everything from liturgy to rock opera and high school musical, like a cross between his Chichester Psalms and West Side Story, but without the innocence and chic. It is nevertheless fun to listen to, with baritone Jubilant Sykes’ exuberant tour de force as the Celebrant, who questions his faith, has a meltdown and walks away from it all with the mantra “I don’t know”. 

The listener is left to ponder on Stephen Schwartz’s subversive and almost blasphemous text. The Credo, for example, is qualified with “I believe in God / But does God believe in me?” The pacifist and sceptic messages make this one of the most fascinating and politically incorrect works of the last half century.