The International Musicians Seminar, Prussia Cove,
currently under the artistic direction of Steven Isserlis, may need
a little introduction. Founded in 1972 by the legendary Hungarian violinist
and conductor Sándor Végh, its bi-annual courses have
achieved worldwide recognition as a centre of musical excellence. For
three weeks each spring, many world-famous instrumentalists come to
Prussia Cove to give master classes in a setting of unspoiled natural
beauty on the Cornish coast. For three weeks in September the Open Chamber
Music Seminar takes place. It is based on Sandor Vegh´s concept of a
professor making music with his students, the aim being to explore the
rich variety of creative combinations which chamber music offers. Nine
public concerts, all with different programmes, are followed by a tour
culminating in a performance at the Wigmore Hall.
This years concert opened with Beethoven´s relatively
unfamiliar Clarinet Trio in B flat major, Op.11, an early work full
of joy and wit and one ideally suited to lift the spirit and to release
the tension of any audience after a long day at work. Almost immediately
after the performance began one had been catapulted into a different
world, where music making of the highest possible calibre was taking
place and it proved captivating. Beethoven wrote this unconventionally
scored Trio for piano, clarinet and cello for Josef Beer, the most prominent
clarinettist of the day in Vienna. It is certainly a demanding piece,
not only for the clarinettist, but for all three musicians; but it also
contains an incredible amount of humour, specifically in the last movement
with its variations on a popular operatic tune, the concluding number
of the first act of Joseph Weigl´s L´Amor marinaro. The Hungarian
pianist Dénes Várjon, the outstanding clarinettist Chen
Halevi from Israel and the temperamental Swiss cellist Rafael Rosenfeld
gave a vibrant interpretation and showed the kind of musicianship that
only happens when soloists of various backgrounds and nationalities
come together to play chamber music - something which was clearly projected
from this entirely unforgettable evening.
The Clarinet Quintet in B minor Op.115 by Johannes
Brahms, which followed, also owes its existence to a specific clarinettist.
On 11th September 1890 Brahms sent his publisher a piano arrangement
of parts of his last string quartet together with the comment: "With
this scrap of paper you can bid farewell to my music - because
it is altogether time to stop, and also be honest." But in March 1891
he met Richard Mühlfeld, the clarinettist of the court orchestra
in Meiningen. Suddenly, his creativity returned resulting in his two
last major chamber music compositions, the Clarinet Trio A minor Op.114
and the Clarinet Quintet B-minor Op.115. Despite being written at great
speed the quintet belongs to his most intimate and personal works. It
reflects many influences and also pays homage to Mozart´s famous clarinet
quintet K.581. Its refined structure, enormous intensity and considerable
length demands a high level of concentration from the musicians and
the listener. Thanks to the Hungarian violinist Gábor Takács-Nagy,
the leader of the famous Takács Quartet, acting as primus inter
pares of this outstanding sting quintet with the German violinist Christoph
Ehrenfellner, the indispensable British viola player Louise Williams,
the German cellist Maike Reisener and, again, the passionate Israeli
clarinettist Chen Halevi, there was never any doubt that the concentration
of the performers would lapse for one moment. It has been some time
since I have heard this work played with such deep understanding and
affection.
The evening ended with the first major composition
of a seventeen year old, the little known Piano Quintet in C minor Op.1
by Ernst von Dohnányi, composed in the winter of 1894-95. Hans
Koessler, his teacher at the Budapest Music Academy, was so impressed
with the individuality of this quintet that he mentioned it to Brahms
and it was indeed Brahms who arranged for its first performance as part
of a concert of the Vienna Tonkünstlerverein on 25th November 1895.
The four movements are full of surprises, constantly changing ideas,
breathtaking energy and an astonishing symphonic grandeur, including
a delicate fugato in the Finale.
The kind of virtuoso chamber music playing experienced
during this recital will always be rare and the audience, mainly young
musicians themselves, went wild at its close.
Hans-Theodor Wohlfahrt
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