Two of music's greatest piano quintets
are the sole examples by Johannes Brahms and Cesar Franck, both of which play
for about 40 minutes.
Casting the net wider for quintets of this stature, one
will eventually stumble upon these virtually unknown and unjustly neglected
works by the Poles Ludomir Rozycki (1883-1953) and Ignaz Friedman (1882-1948).
Both piano quintets are in three movements and cast in C minor, the key of
unbridled pathos and unrelieved angst.
The Rozycki (1913) typifies the late
Romantic era, with broad melodies not dissimilar to those of Brahms, Faure and
Richard Strauss, but tinged with the Slavic melancholy of Tchaikovsky and the
young Rachmaninov. The slow movement is itself a portrait of gloom, only
dispelled by a finale of animation and levity. The Friedman (1918) is slightly
shorter, and has a veneer of Viennese charm over and above a bed-rock of
pensiveness and rumination.
Are these undiscovered masterpieces?
British pianist Jonathan Plowright and the Polish Szymanowski quartet perform
with passion and authority, lifting these beyond salon superficialities and
obscurity into the realm of established true classics.
I’m back in Husum, Germany for the second year in
succession. After spending three nights at the 2015, I have been totally
hooked, like some cocaine junkie. All thanks to the Japanese
professor-critic-musicologist Satoru Takaku, who has himself become a regular
fixture in these parts of Schleswig-Holstein.
This year, I was determined to
experience the full monty, which spans nine days in total with 12 recitals and
other fringe events thrown in. It will be piano music flowing into both ears,
and oozing out through the pores by the time I return to Singapore. As I had written in an
article for the Singapore Medical
Association News, “Muslims go to Mecca, Roman Catholics go to Lourdes, Pianophiles go to
Husum”. Just wondering, am I the only Singaporean who has done this piano
pilgrimage?
Friday
(19 August 2016)
The Brahms Museum in Heide, just 20 minutes by train from Husum.
It takes 20 hours to get from Singapore to Husum. Twelve hours
from ChangiAirport to Helsinki, two more hours to HamburgAirport, and thence two further
hours by train from Hamburg's Altona to Husum
itself. Not to mention the waiting times, and a brief stopover to the modest
little BrahmsMuseum in Heide (the home of
his ancestors), which by the way is a Pokemon Go stop of some relevance.
Th large festival banner at the gate of Schloss vor Husum.
Husum in summer is blue skies and bright
sunshine, a far cry from the “grey city by the sea” description by its most
famous native, the German writer-poet Theodor Storm. Its market square is a
hive of activity, with commerce and holiday-makers making the best of the
warmth before autumn inevitably arrives. Pianoraks (a term coined by British
writer-broadcaster-educator and all-round pianophile Jeremy Nicholas) gather at
the 16th century Schloss vor Husum for their annual harvest of
musical manna, and anticipation is thick as Kaiser Wilhelm II’s moustache for
the annual Rarities of Piano Music at Schloss vor Husum, now in its historic 30th
year. Peter Froundjian is the festival's founder and artistic director, proud
father of a baby that has not only grown up, but become piano esoteria central
of the world.
Concert 1: Jonathan Plowright
& Symanowski Quartet (4.30 pm)
These two piano quintets in the key of C minor are true rarities perhaps until the Hyperion recording by these
performers get released. If there is any justice in the world, both ought to be far better-known, especially the Ludomir Rozycki quintet with its massive
40-minute sprawl. It matches every bit the passion and intensity of favourites
like the Brahms or Franck. There is Brahmsian richness of themes and harmonies
in the 1st movement, but it is the slow movement's lament – with big
tunes by cello and viola – that steals the show. The light-heartedness of the
finale does not quite erase the pathos of the preceding movement.
The quintet by Ignaz Friedman is less
intense, but no less listenable. The charm of old Vienna (think of Kreisler and
Korngold) permeate the opening movement with the second theme reminiscent of
old movie music, and do I hear echoes of Dvorak and Grieg in the slow movement,
which is in the form of Theme and Variations. Similarly, Slavic folk music take
over the dance-like finale, before a welcome return of the melody from the slow
movement. Jonathan Plowright and his Polish partners give the best case
possible of both quintets, which I hope to hear again soon. The best fix: buy
the CD when it comes out next month!
Concert 2: Duo Grau-Schumacher (8 pm)
The piano duo of Andreas Grau and Gotz
Schumacher look like a pair of solicitors and advocates from Stuttgart or
Dortmund, but they are are seriously good musicians. To perform an all-Busoni
programme completely from memory is no joke, and the seriousness of their
intent is stamped from the first note to the last.
Rambling is what one might
described the opening work, Improvisation
on the Bach chorale Wie wohl ist mir, o Freund der Seele (a mouthful in itself),
which is a hotbed of counterpoint, mildly disturbing harmonies and the obligatory
fugues. No argument with the committed and reading. What followed is hyphenated
Mozart, including the Fantasy in F minor (K.608) for mechanical organ
and the Duettino Concertante (a transcription of the finale from the Piano Concerto No.19
in F major). Those performances were on the rough and ready side, which could
have done with a more rehearsals, and somewhat more charm.
The main event was the Fantasia
Contrappuntistica, which for 2 pianos is a quite different beast from the
solo version. This was probably what J.S.Bach might have done for The Art of
the Fugue had he lived into the 20th century. The subject was a
Bach chorale but transformed into a quite unrecognisable behemoth that lasted
the best part of 35 minutes. Bring on its parade of fugues, variations and
chorales, and the duo delivered it with the authority which engenders a new
admiration on the craft of Busoni. You either love him or hate him, and there
can be no middle ground.
That was the best performance of the evening, which
drew two encores. The first was Busoni's transcription of the Magic Flute
Overture, now with far more ebullience than previously and a Bach-Kurtag
chorale transcription. Still that might be all the Busoni one will want to hear
for the rest of the year.
The first evening at Hartmann's Landkuche with Ludwig Madlener, Satoru Takaku & Monsieur Cortot (distant relation of Alfie).
The Wasserreihe in Husum, near the harbour, is where Theodor Storm's house is located.
Husum's quaint little inner harbour with the Marienkirche in the background.
Saturday (20 August 2016)
Recital 3: Florian Noack (4.30 pm)
One new aspect on this 30th
anniversary year is the introduction of the Young Explorers Series, which
highlights younger pianists with the penchant for rarities. The young Belgian
Florian Noack is already fairly well-known for his piano transcriptions of
orchestral works. He did not play any of these, but introduced instead Theodor
Kirchner's Nachtbilder (Night Pictures), comprising some 10
character pieces. The style is along the axis of Schumann and Brahms, but with
a streak of fantasy and tempestuousness beyond their mere titles (which were
just tempo indications). Noack brought a gamut of impulses and moods, but
seemed to over-pedal to make his point.
One way of describing unknown piece of
music is by referencing already well-known works or styles. So to say that
William Sterndale Bennett's Fantasie (dedicated to Schumann) was
Mendelssohnian is not an understatement. The German's manner was so well relived
that one might call the four-movement work derivative. There was a Chopinesque
opening in the 1st movement, but the rest was Mendelssohnian in its
melody, decorative touches and general note-spinning. Pleasant but not
memorable. Noack gave as good an account as he could, and it could be surmised
that he will play Mendelssohn very well too. His final work was Stephen
Heller's Tarantella, which is gentle and nimble, without the
coruscations of Liszt; another pleasant listen. His two encores were of a totally
different ilk, two of Sergei Lyapunov's Transcendental Etudes, the Berceuse
and Dance of the Phantoms, which were very well played.
Recital 4: Simon Callaghan (8 pm)
One thing that can be said of the Briton
was that he brought out the most gorgeous sound from the piano, one which the
earlier pianists had missed out on. There was a warm burnished tone created for
Arnold Bax's May Night in Ukraine, which carried off from the earlier
Lyapunov with its Borodin-like melody but filled with dark hues, and just as
evocative was Bax's Gopak, a folk dance with some delicious
syncopations.
The piece de resistance was surely Roger
Sacheverell Coke's 15 Variations and Finale. Its slow theme in a minor
key was not unlike that in Mendelssohn's Variations Serieuses or Grieg's
Ballade, but the variations were more aligned to Rachmaninov or Medtner
with more dark asides balanced with occasional sentimentality. Definitely more
demanding than Rachmaninov's Corelli Variations, this deserves to be
heard more often, especially with Callaghan's dedicated and most musical
advocacy.
The built-in encores were Stephen Hough's
Rodgers and Hammerstein transcriptions: the Carousel Waltz, My
Favourite Things, Hello Young Lovers and March of the Siamese
Children, all of which I've heard from Hough himself in concert. Callaghan
cannot pretend to be Hough but his performances were still persuasive. Just do
not play The King & I pieces in Bangkok, lest the lese majeste laws
get the poor pianist thrown into the slammer. There were three further encores,
all Preludes by Coke. From Callaghan, who has recorded them, its the
real thing.
Simon Callaghan with his page-turner Satoru Takaku after the recital. Callaghan's piano duo partner Hiroaki Takenouchi looks happy on the banner behind them.
The Polish composer Ludomir Rozycki
(1883-1953), a contemporary of his celebrated compatriot Karol Szymanowski, was
an arch-traditionalist. While the latter was experimenting with new-found
harmonic directions, Rozycki, better-known for his symphonic poems and operas,
was stuck in the hallowed past.
However his model was not Chopin, but rather
Liszt, Paderewski and the Russian Romantics, particularly Rachmaninov. Both the
First Piano Concerto (1917-18) and Second Piano Concerto (1941-42) were
composed during wartime years but there is little or no hint of strife or
tragedy.
The First
is more ambitious at 32 minutes in three movements, almost over-shadowing
the more compact Second in two
movements. With lush harmonies and luscious melodies, and British pianist and
authority of all things Polish Joanathan Plowright in commanding form, the
results are nothing short of spectacular. Both finales are touched with the
glitter of show business and film music, especially the Second's.
The 10
minutes of the single-movement Ballade
in G major (1904) brings to mind British film composer Richard Addinsell's Warsaw Concerto, but with a major
difference. All of Rozycki's were actually written in Warsaw, which make for
enjoyable invigorating listens for the jaded.
ELGAR
Symphony No.1
Staatskapelle
Berlin / DANIEL BARENBOIM
Decca
478 9353 / *****
The first of Edward Elgar's two
symphonies, in A flat major and first performed in 1908, has been described as
the musical equivalent of St Pancras Station, London's neo-Gothic edifice.
That is a fair assessment, given its grandiose stature and length over four
movements: almost 52 minutes.
To sustain that duration in concert or recording
is no mean feat, and the Berlin led by veteran pianist-conductor Daniel
Barenboim give a magnificent performance. There is no pompous, flag-waving
histrionics, and the broad Andante nobilmente e semplice (Slow, noble
and simple) of the opening movement gets exactly what it deserves.
There is a Brucknerian grandeur, that
later escalates to extremes of vehemence at the pinnacle of climaxes, which the
far from dispassionate Germans totally appreciate. The mercurial second
movement, by contrast generates plenty of excitement before cooling off in the
sublime longeurs of the Adagio.
The
exciting finale builds up inexorably to a massive standoff, where the first
movement's theme of nobility returns with the warmth of a familiar embrace.
Elgar certainly knew how to stoke emotions to feverish highs. This new album
matches the best of the Brits on record and has become a must-listen.
British pianist Jonathan Plowright is a
regular at Husum, where his breadth and depth of his enormous repertoire gets a
sympathetic hearing. There were none of his Polish favourites on show this
evening, which began with hyphenated Bach. Busoni and Siloti were not on the
slate but instead, the likes of Granville Bantock, Herbert Howells, Constant
Lambert, Eugene Goosens and Lord Berners.
These were transcriptions of chorale
preludes and short movements from the collection for Harriet Cohen (famed lady
pianist who was the mistress of Arnold Bax), and in these were a wealth of
surprising harmonies that ticked the ear, all performed with refinement and
obvious love by Plowright.
What followed were hardly rarities,
Brahms's Four Ballades Op.10, repertoire Plowright is working on in his
ongoing Brahms cycle for BIS recordings. He produced a warm and burnished sound
for the familiar favourites, comfortably overcoming the tricky bits of the Second Ballade and conjuring a dreamy,
hypnotic mood for the Fourth Ballade in B minor. In this quiet number,
one could hear a counterpoint provided by the nesting migratory birds and ducks
from the Schloss vor Husum moat, a famous and not unwelcome fixture of evening
recitals here.
The only work in the second half will not
be heard anywhere else outside of Husum, the piano transcription in 9 movements
of Constant Lambert's ballet Horoscope. From the composer of The Rio
Grande, this is a wonderfully crafted work comparable to Glazunov's ballet The
Seasons and Gustav Holst's The Planets, just to name orchestral
works with multiple movements. Lambert's is slightly more elusive, opening
with a prelude (Palindrome) composed solely of a series of chords
exploring different tonalities.
The ensuing dances combined fast and slow
numbers, with Leo being the obvious star among the stars. There is an element
of the rough and ready in the writing, but the slow movements fared best in
Plowright's hands, some music I will definitely want to hear again.
Encore time: Harold Craxton's neo-Baroque
Sarabande and Rigaudon was tinged with interesting harmonies, and no one
would have expected American band-leader Jack Fina's rumbling Bumble Boogie
to follow. It was back to the sublime with Federico Mompou's Secreto (Secret)
with more achingly beautiful harmonies.
Give that man a beer! Jonathan Plowright is toasted by Peter Froundjian (left) and Ludwig Madlener (right).
In the Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s 35th
anniversary year, it is perhaps timely to revive the fortunes of the
orchestra’s first and only Beethoven recording. Occasionally remembered as the
SSO’s “forgotten” disc, this also happened to be its first recording of
mainstream repertory, and the first for a UK-based label. Amazingly this 1989
release of Beethoven’s Fourth and Fifth Piano Concertos with the late
British pianist John Bingham, former Head of Piano at TrinityCollege, is still available on
sale.
Choo Hoey had already trained the orchestra to
be a more-than-competent accompanist and the results are palpable, with
full-blooded tuttis and sensitive playing in the central slow movements.
Bingham (1942-2003) studied with Stanislav Neuhaus at the Moscow Conservatory
and was a rising name in concert circles. His trenchant and totally musical
readings of both concertos are tempered by the marginally over-sharp tuning on
the piano. Although greater recordings of both works are in plentiful supply,
this one is more than just for die-hard SSO collectors and sentimentalists.
The Piano
Quintet in G minor by Polish composer Juliusz Zarebski (1854-1885) has
gained a measure of popularity thanks to two recent recordings by
Argentine-born virtuoso Martha Argerich. This recognition outside of Poland is belated for this
one-time favourite student of Franz Liszt, who died from tuberculosis shortly
after completing the work, which was only published in 1931. The music, though
unabashedly Romantic, is harmonically adventurous, not least in the piquant Scherzo and Finale, which share the same thematic material but diverges in
totally different paths.
The Piano
Quartet in C minor by compatriot Wladislaw Zelenski (1837-1921) is more
conventional, stemming from its influences by Schumann and Brahms. However a
melancholy typical of Slavic character pervades, and the memorable opening
theme could easily have come from the young Rachmaninov. British pianist and
specialist in Polish music Jonathan Plowright is well supported by the
Szymanowski Quartet from Poland, and the performances
of both works are exemplary for their passion and emotional sweep.
How
many Polish composers who came between Chopin and Szymanowski can you name? If
you remembered Moszkowski, Scharwenka, Paderewski or Godowsky, that is not bad
at all. Now meet Wladyslaw Zelenski (1837-1921) and Aleksander Zarzycki
(1834-1895), whose names are hardly breathed outside their homeland. Both with professors
and directors of the Warsaw Music Institute, leading lights of Polish musical
society, with the former being the slightly better known.
To
Zelenski’s credit, his Piano Concerto
in E flat major (1903) does not imitate Chopin but is anachronistic for its
time, the Romantic and martial strains in the outer moments coming from an
earlier age. The second movement is a moving and dramatic theme and variations
filled with tension and bluster.
Zarzycki’s
Piano Concerto in A flat major
(1859-60), a shorter work in two movements, combines Lisztian flair with the
delicious humour to be found in Saint-Saëns. Capping it is a Grand Polonaise in E flat major composed
during the same period, which is every bit as good and memorable as Chopin’s
own orchestrated Grand Polonaise
Brillante (Op.22). British pianist Jonathan Plowright, a specialist in
Polish music, gives highly spirited performances that can only win new friends for
his cause.
RACHMANINOV Isle Of The
Dead
The Rock / Symphonic
Dances
Bergen Philharmonic / Andrew Litton
BIS 1751 / ****1/2
This CD brings together the major orchestral
works of Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943) outside of his three symphonies and
choral symphony The Bells, spanning
his youth, maturity and his final years. Composed in 1893, The Rock was his first major tone poem, based on a Chekhov short
story The Meeting. Though resembling
his mentor Tchaikovsky’s style, his flair for pathos and the dramatic is
already evident. More mature is Isle Of
The Dead (1909), inspired by Arnold Böcklin’s painting of the same title,
coming from the same period as his Second
Symphony and Third Piano Concerto.
Its lugubrious opening builds up to a heady climax with some of Rachmaninov’s
most ecstatic and chilling music.
Symphonic
Dances
(1942) was Rachmaninov’s last work, sometimes regarded to be his unnumbered
symphony. Its three movements are a nostalgic glance of his forsaken homeland.
Music of melancholy, a haunting Tolstoyan waltz, and the pomp of the Orthodox
Church (including quotes of the medieval chant Dies Irae and his choral Vespers)
make this in certain ways, his most Russian piece. Norway’s finest orchestra led
by Andrew Litton (who recently guest-conducted the SSO) captures the moods and
nuances perfectly.
Homage To Paderewski was a 1942 album of piano music published by Boosey & Hawkes commemorating the 40th anniversary of virtuoso Ignacy Paderewski’s American debut concert tour. The one-time Polish president however died in 1941, and this anthology by 16 composers became his requiem.
Bartok, Martinu and Milhaud are the only familiar faces here, but some of the most memorable pieces come from virtually forgotten names. Most capitalised on Polish dance rhythms or the funeral march in tribute, sometimes both. The Elegiac Mazurka by Arthur Benjamin (composer of Jamaican Rumba) sounds much like late Scriabin, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Hommage a Paderewski is a whimsical mazurka, while Richard Hammond’s Dance distils the more violent pages from Stravinsky and Prokofiev. Others played on Paderewski’s love of Chopin, such as Theodore Chanler’s minute-long nocturne-like Aftermath and Ernst Schelling’s tender Con Tenerezza.
British pianist Jonathan Plowright, whose variegated touch makes each work sound like gems, also includes six other pieces dedicated to Paderewski. The most memorable among these is Benjamin Britten’s Mazurka Elegiaca, mistakenly written for two pianos instead of one, which is a haunting slow procession in three quarter time. Also notable are the Romantic anachronisms: fellow Pole Aleksandr Zarzycki’s Chant Du Printemps and the French queen of salon Cecile Chaminade’s Etude Symphonique come from a bygone age of Chopinisms. All in all, this is an excellently presented selection that will please the terminally inquisitive.
BRUCH Violin Concerto No.1
String Quintet / Romance
VADIM GLUZMAN, Violin
Bergen Philharmonic / Andrew Litton
BIS SACD-1852 / ****1/2
The evergreen First Violin Concerto in G minor by Max Bruch (1838-1920) has been so over-exposed and over-recorded that each new recording needs to be special in order to stand out. The programme notes relate the German composer wishing the work to be proscribed completely, as its over-popularity had obscured his other music. Ukrainian-Israeli violinist Vadim Gluzman and the Bergen Philharmonic give a solid account that lacks nothing in the departments of beautiful tone, heartrending dramatics and virtuoso fireworks.
It is the couplings, however, that make this album special. Instead of the Mendelssohn or Brahms concertos, or Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy (his second most performed concertante work), the listener is offered genuine rarities. Bruch’s Romance in F major (originally written for viola) is mined from the same lyrical vein as the concertos, and is a totally delectable listen.
His String Quintet in A minor from 1918 is an anachronism for its time. While Schoenberg, Bartok and Stravinsky were busily dismantling the foundations of tonal music, here was the 80-year-old Bruch still churning out lush Romantic melodies and gestures that were de rigeuer in the 1870s. In four movements and scored like Mozart’s quintets (with two violas), this is a pleasurable jaunt into nostalgia. Gluzman plays the soloistic first violin part (sounding like yet another violin concerto), ably supported by his string partners. The chemistry is palpable and the ensemble is beautifully recorded.
Dr Chang Tou Liang is a Singaporean family physician in private practice. From 2004 to 2008 he was the Artistic Director of the Singapore International Piano Festival. He has also been the classical music reviewer of The Straits Times (Singapore's national daily) since 1997. He is married to Janet, has a son Shan Ming, and keeps a household of four rescued cats.
