SJE Arts International Piano Series, St John the Evangelist, Oxford,
Krysia Osostovicz and Daniel Tong: Beethoven plus, 22-24 September 2017.
In September, an SJE Arts International Piano Series event was devoted to a programme entitled Beethoven plus. It was given by violinist Krysia Osostowicz and pianist Daniel Tong. In a series of five concerts they performed all ten of Beethoven’s Sonatas for Violin and Piano. In addition, the performers had commissioned ten composers to write short works inspired by each of the Sonatas, to be played without a break before the Beethoven. The Sunday morning was devoted to a Masterclass, in which two talented young duos were each coached in a sonata movement.
It was sad that the audience turn -out was so small for what proved to be a major musical event, providing a profound musical experience for those present.
The quality of the playing was apparent from the opening recital on the Friday evening, in which were played the first two of the early Opus 12 set and the Sonata in C minor, Opus 30 No 2. Companion pieces were by Jonathan Dove, Peter Ash and Philip Ashworth; that of Ash contained a particularly amusing three-part fugal passage.
As often as not, performances of sonatas for violin and piano are advertised as ‘played by A violin, ‘with’ B piano, or even, if the pianist is mentioned at all, ‘accompanied by B piano’. These recitals demonstrated that the Beethoven Sonatas are true duos in which both players are essentially equal. The ten Beethoven Sonatas carry on the evolution of the genre from the early sonatas of Mozart ‘violin with piano’ through to closer equality in the later ones. The early Beethoven have a leading role for the piano. (There is a similar evolution through the Sonatas for Cello and Piano where the first is very much ‘Piano with Cello’.)
Osostovicz and Tong were a perfectly matched duo, playing together as one. This was particularly noticeable in the balance of alternating chords on the two instruments. At times, the balance was as if in a trio with violin, piano left and right hands. Their playing exhibited to the full the humour of Beethoven’s early compositions, a feature emphasised in the writings of Alfred Brendel.
Owing to a long-standing engagement, I was very sorry to be unable to attend on the Saturday and so missed Nos. 3, 5, 6, 7, 9. At the Masterclass on Sunday morning, two talented anonymous student duos were coached in the second movement of No. 2, Andante, più tosto allegretto and the first movement of No. 8, Allegro assai. As always, for the spectator, the fascination was to see how the students responded to the suggestions of the tutors. A key lay in the interpretation of the qualifiers più tosto allegretto and assai.
The climax of the weekend was the performance of No. 10, Opus 96 on Sunday afternoon. This was something special. Owing to chance circumstances, I found myself in the company of a pianist-teacher with whom I had studied this work in detail over several weeks a long time ago, together with a violinist. The last great G major Sonata can be regarded as early late Beethoven which sets it apart from the others. As the music unfurled, my memories came flooding back so that I could recall every note, every phrase and the overall architecture of each movement. It was uncanny how closely the interpretation followed that of our tutor. The choice of tempi and spacings of each of the variations in the last movement were identical. Only in the Scherzo did our teacher insist on a faster tempo; I felt vindicated by that of this performance!
The Sonata was preceded by a stand-alone Sonatina by David Mattews, present in the audience, which was very well received.
We look forward to the issue of the CD recording of Beethoven plus under the SOMM label.
It was sad that the audience turn -out was so small for what proved to be a major musical event, providing a profound musical experience for those present.
The quality of the playing was apparent from the opening recital on the Friday evening, in which were played the first two of the early Opus 12 set and the Sonata in C minor, Opus 30 No 2. Companion pieces were by Jonathan Dove, Peter Ash and Philip Ashworth; that of Ash contained a particularly amusing three-part fugal passage.
As often as not, performances of sonatas for violin and piano are advertised as ‘played by A violin, ‘with’ B piano, or even, if the pianist is mentioned at all, ‘accompanied by B piano’. These recitals demonstrated that the Beethoven Sonatas are true duos in which both players are essentially equal. The ten Beethoven Sonatas carry on the evolution of the genre from the early sonatas of Mozart ‘violin with piano’ through to closer equality in the later ones. The early Beethoven have a leading role for the piano. (There is a similar evolution through the Sonatas for Cello and Piano where the first is very much ‘Piano with Cello’.)
Osostovicz and Tong were a perfectly matched duo, playing together as one. This was particularly noticeable in the balance of alternating chords on the two instruments. At times, the balance was as if in a trio with violin, piano left and right hands. Their playing exhibited to the full the humour of Beethoven’s early compositions, a feature emphasised in the writings of Alfred Brendel.
Owing to a long-standing engagement, I was very sorry to be unable to attend on the Saturday and so missed Nos. 3, 5, 6, 7, 9. At the Masterclass on Sunday morning, two talented anonymous student duos were coached in the second movement of No. 2, Andante, più tosto allegretto and the first movement of No. 8, Allegro assai. As always, for the spectator, the fascination was to see how the students responded to the suggestions of the tutors. A key lay in the interpretation of the qualifiers più tosto allegretto and assai.
The climax of the weekend was the performance of No. 10, Opus 96 on Sunday afternoon. This was something special. Owing to chance circumstances, I found myself in the company of a pianist-teacher with whom I had studied this work in detail over several weeks a long time ago, together with a violinist. The last great G major Sonata can be regarded as early late Beethoven which sets it apart from the others. As the music unfurled, my memories came flooding back so that I could recall every note, every phrase and the overall architecture of each movement. It was uncanny how closely the interpretation followed that of our tutor. The choice of tempi and spacings of each of the variations in the last movement were identical. Only in the Scherzo did our teacher insist on a faster tempo; I felt vindicated by that of this performance!
The Sonata was preceded by a stand-alone Sonatina by David Mattews, present in the audience, which was very well received.
We look forward to the issue of the CD recording of Beethoven plus under the SOMM label.
Barry Douglas: Brahms and Mussorgsky, 25 April, 2017.
Barry Douglas distinguished himself early in his career as a non-Russian Gold Medal winner of the 1986 Tchaikowsky International Piano Competition at the age of twenty-six He received the Order of the British Empire in 2002 for services to music. His career has grown on the roots of his Irish origins. As Artistic Director of Camerata Ireland he has promoted music in Ireland and of Ireland, as well as pursuing an international performing career. Among many recordings, he has recently completed the solo piano works of Brahms, some of which form the first half of this programme.
Douglas enters unobtrusively, acknowledges the audience, sits down and starts to play. His body is very still. Deceptively, all his power seems to reside in his exceptionally long fingers, playing with clarity and accuracy. At the end, he meets the thunderous applause with a slight self-deprecatory smile and leaves the platform.
He opened with 8 Klavierstücke Op.76. Less well-known and more introverted than the later Op. 116-118, this set of four Capriccii and four Intermezzi provided an appropriate warm-up to the two major works which formed the main part of the programme.
The Variations on a Theme by Paganini come from the virtuoso phase of Brahms’ writing for piano. Falling midway between Liszt and Rachmaninov, though never losing sight of Paganini they form a formidable challenge to the pianist. Douglas gave an exhilarating tour through Book 1 of the set, with skillful continuity and extreme finger dexterity.
Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition was last reviewed here in an arrangement for piano and chamber orchestra by John Lubbock given in the Orchestra of St John concert in the Ashmolean Museum with pianist Maki Sekaya. It is possibly best known in its orchestral arrangement by Ravel. Nothing, however can beat the original solo piano version in the right hands. Douglas gave an authoritative account of the work, giving a real visual impression of the promenade around the Gallery displaying Hartmann’s pictures, culminating in a magnificent performance of The Great Gate of Kiev, which tested to the limit the resilience of the SJE Steinway to a well-deserved ovation.
A great recital with two great performances to savour.
Douglas enters unobtrusively, acknowledges the audience, sits down and starts to play. His body is very still. Deceptively, all his power seems to reside in his exceptionally long fingers, playing with clarity and accuracy. At the end, he meets the thunderous applause with a slight self-deprecatory smile and leaves the platform.
He opened with 8 Klavierstücke Op.76. Less well-known and more introverted than the later Op. 116-118, this set of four Capriccii and four Intermezzi provided an appropriate warm-up to the two major works which formed the main part of the programme.
The Variations on a Theme by Paganini come from the virtuoso phase of Brahms’ writing for piano. Falling midway between Liszt and Rachmaninov, though never losing sight of Paganini they form a formidable challenge to the pianist. Douglas gave an exhilarating tour through Book 1 of the set, with skillful continuity and extreme finger dexterity.
Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition was last reviewed here in an arrangement for piano and chamber orchestra by John Lubbock given in the Orchestra of St John concert in the Ashmolean Museum with pianist Maki Sekaya. It is possibly best known in its orchestral arrangement by Ravel. Nothing, however can beat the original solo piano version in the right hands. Douglas gave an authoritative account of the work, giving a real visual impression of the promenade around the Gallery displaying Hartmann’s pictures, culminating in a magnificent performance of The Great Gate of Kiev, which tested to the limit the resilience of the SJE Steinway to a well-deserved ovation.
A great recital with two great performances to savour.
SJE Arts International Piano Series 2017: Schubert Sonatas II, St John the Evangelist, Oxford, 6 March
In the second of his four recitals devoted to the complete Piano Sonatas of Franz Schubert, James Lisney again played three sonatas, including the early D 575 in B major and the first of the last set of three, D 958 in C minor, finishing with D 894 in G major.
D 575 was played persuasively, though as with D 537, it was written before the composer had developed his own style but the other two are great and much loved and well-known masterpieces. Nevertheless, these performances were a revelation. Why is this pianist not well-known? He swept away all the reservations expressed in my review of the first concert (OM No.381 Fifth Week Hilary Term 2017). They were performances on a par with the great Schubert interpreters. We were reminded, in particular, of Clifford Curzon.
Lisney’s playing is characterised by extreme clarity and attention to the minutest detail. But above all they brought out the structural elements of the composer’s writing: passages which are duets between left and right hands played with exquisite balance, followed by agitated bars, exploiting the full dynamic range of the piano, melting into divine melody.
The next concert is on Friday 5 May at 7.30 pm, when the programme will include the last and greatest Sonata of the set, D 960 in B-flat major. Do not delay before booking a seat. This should be a sell-out.
In the second of his four recitals devoted to the complete Piano Sonatas of Franz Schubert, James Lisney again played three sonatas, including the early D 575 in B major and the first of the last set of three, D 958 in C minor, finishing with D 894 in G major.
D 575 was played persuasively, though as with D 537, it was written before the composer had developed his own style but the other two are great and much loved and well-known masterpieces. Nevertheless, these performances were a revelation. Why is this pianist not well-known? He swept away all the reservations expressed in my review of the first concert (OM No.381 Fifth Week Hilary Term 2017). They were performances on a par with the great Schubert interpreters. We were reminded, in particular, of Clifford Curzon.
Lisney’s playing is characterised by extreme clarity and attention to the minutest detail. But above all they brought out the structural elements of the composer’s writing: passages which are duets between left and right hands played with exquisite balance, followed by agitated bars, exploiting the full dynamic range of the piano, melting into divine melody.
The next concert is on Friday 5 May at 7.30 pm, when the programme will include the last and greatest Sonata of the set, D 960 in B-flat major. Do not delay before booking a seat. This should be a sell-out.
.Schubert Sonatas I, St John the Evangelist, Oxford, 27 January
The 2017 international series of piano recitals given at St John the Evangelist consists of concerts given throughout the year. A feature this year is that four of them are devoted to all of Schubert’s Piano Sonatas introduced and performed by James Lisney who has made a special study of these works. In the first concert, on 27 January he played three sonatas in the key of A, major and minor. The first of these, in the minor key, was the first that Schubert completed, the second, probably the best known to most amateur pianists first encountered around Grade 8, and the third, the second of the final trio of great works written towards the end of the composer’s life. The concert was preceded by a half-hour talk (which I was unable to attend) and each sonata was preceded by a rather rambling introduction (in the French style of not knowing how to stop).
The Sonata in A minor, D537, was written in 1817 before the composer had established his own characteristic style and owes a lot to Beethoven. Rarely played and little known it proved a fascinating warm up to the series. In it Lisney displayed his authoritative style of playing, didactic in nature, every individual note clear. A feature of his playing was to bring out the inner voices, each with its own phrasing, often to the point of intrusion on the main melody. The second movement was of interest, being a set of variations on a theme which returns in the last movement of the A major Sonata, D959, completed in 1828.
In performance, this sonata was mixed. Again, the extreme clarity of texture was the prime virtue. The first movement was too fast to bring out the contrast between the solemnity of the opening chords and the following development. But the middle movements were beautifully played, particularly the scintillating Scherzo. The final Rondo flowed well. One just wished the performer would occasionally relax the tempo a bit to emphasise the divine melody, as do the greatest interpreters.
The remaining three Schubert recitals will be given on 6 March, 5 May and 17 November at 7.30 pm with pre-concert talks at 6.45 pm. The next Piano Series concert will be given by the Phoenix Piano Trio playing Haydn on 15 February
Angela Hewitt: Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, 21 April 2016.
.In her piano recital in the SJE Arts International Piano Series, Angela Hewitt played four works by Joseph Haydn interleaved with three of six Moments Musicaux D 780 by Franz Schubert and, instead of the advertised Schubert, Piano Sonata Op. 31 No. 2 in D minor, sometimes referred to as The Tempest.
She opened with the sonata for keyboard in A flat major, Hob. XVI: 46 by Haydn. I thought I had a fleeting knowledge of all Haydn’s keyboard sonatas but this long and complex work was completely new to me. It was a revelation. The composer’s stretching of the bounds of sonata form gave rhapsodic proportions to the first movement. Hewitt’s interpretation of the composer’s works was also a revelation. She placed Haydn in the middle of historical development between the textural clarity of JS Bach and the digital dexterity of Franz Liszt. This is in complete contrast to the style of Alfred Brendel who anchors Haydn firmly in his period, played with a dry, wry sense of humour. It is as if they were playing different composers. The programme contained two other, more familiar, keyboard sonatas and concluded with a fizzing performance of the Fantasia in C major, Hob XVII: 4., all equally sensational.
Such was the impact of Hewitt’s playing of Haydn that the rest of the programme was somewhat overshadowed. The familiar Moments Musicaux, ending with No. 3 in F minor which every pianist learns at an early age, entertained but provided no new insights.
I was less happy with Hewitt’s Beethoven. To my taste the opening Largo was far too ponderous and the following Allegro too fast and throughout the rubato too extreme.
But Angela Hewitt’s Haydn deserved its ovation, following which she cleansed the palate with a simple performance of the second movement of Mozart’s well-known C Major Piano Sonata, K 545.
23 April 2016
She opened with the sonata for keyboard in A flat major, Hob. XVI: 46 by Haydn. I thought I had a fleeting knowledge of all Haydn’s keyboard sonatas but this long and complex work was completely new to me. It was a revelation. The composer’s stretching of the bounds of sonata form gave rhapsodic proportions to the first movement. Hewitt’s interpretation of the composer’s works was also a revelation. She placed Haydn in the middle of historical development between the textural clarity of JS Bach and the digital dexterity of Franz Liszt. This is in complete contrast to the style of Alfred Brendel who anchors Haydn firmly in his period, played with a dry, wry sense of humour. It is as if they were playing different composers. The programme contained two other, more familiar, keyboard sonatas and concluded with a fizzing performance of the Fantasia in C major, Hob XVII: 4., all equally sensational.
Such was the impact of Hewitt’s playing of Haydn that the rest of the programme was somewhat overshadowed. The familiar Moments Musicaux, ending with No. 3 in F minor which every pianist learns at an early age, entertained but provided no new insights.
I was less happy with Hewitt’s Beethoven. To my taste the opening Largo was far too ponderous and the following Allegro too fast and throughout the rubato too extreme.
But Angela Hewitt’s Haydn deserved its ovation, following which she cleansed the palate with a simple performance of the second movement of Mozart’s well-known C Major Piano Sonata, K 545.
23 April 2016
Clare Hammond, 19 February 2016
In my coverage of musical events in Oxford I have almost completely neglected those organised by Music at Oxford. This is in part because in the past these have largely been held in the Sheldonian Theatre at rip-off prices for the discomfort of the seating, which I will only attend in exceptional circumstances. I have to confess complete ignorance of their part in the organisation of the SJE Arts International Piano Series, now in its third year, until I received an invitation from Clare Hammond to her recital on 19 February.
Hammond, rapidly gaining in reputation, is a pianist with a formidable technique at the service of her deep musicianship. She specialises in little known late nineteenth century and twentieth, twenty -first century romantic music, rarely played. This programme was no exception. She opened with five mazurkas. The first three were by the Polish composer Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937), mazurkas based on the folk rhythms of the Tatra Highlands, closer to the music of Bartok rather than those which inspired Chopin. The followed two by Thomas Ades, piano pieces which retained vestiges of the rhythm and structure of the mazurka form. The first half of the programme concluded with a performance of the Sonata Romantica by Nikolái Médtner (1889-1951). Médtner was a slightly younger contemporary of fellow-Russian Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943); his work is far less known but of a similar quality. Hammond proved a strong advocate of the work, in four continuous movements. She gave a clear coherent account of each movement easy for the untutored audience to follow: this, despite the extreme technical demands and aided by a prodigious memory.
Following the interval, Hammond played another rarity, Sergei Rachmaninov’s Variations on a Theme of Corelli. In fact, the theme is La Folia which predates Corelli by at least half a century. Some hundred sets of variations on this theme date from the baroque era, among the best being Corelli, Vivaldi (Op 1) and, for viol, Marin Marais. Rachmaninov’s set are neo-baroque in nature, each following the bar structure of the theme, rather than the freer form of the composer’s Paganini variations.
Hammond’s Chopin is at the robust end of the interpretive spectrum, though not without moments of melting tenderness. She played eight of the opus 25 Études as studies to display flawless technique. The one which stays in the memory is No 6 with its uninterrupted ripple of thirds but all could be relished. As an encore she played a scintillating Study in minor seconds' by the Ukrainian composer Nikolai Kapustin, one of five studies, recently recorded on a CD devoted to études by various composers.
22 February 2016