Editorial Board

London Editor:
(London UK)
Melanie Eskenazi

Regional Editor:
(UK regions and Worldwide)
Bill Kenny

Webmaster:
Bill Kenny

Music Web Webmaster:

Len Mullenger

                 

Classical Music Web Logs

Search Site With Google 
 
Google

WWW MusicWeb


MusicWeb is a subscription-free site
Clicking  Google adverts on our pages helps us  keep it that way

Seen and Heard Concert Review

 

Schubert:  Philharmonia Orchestra / Andras Schiff (conductor, piano), St. David’s Hall, Cardiff, 31.03.07 (GPu)

Symphony No.2 in B flat major, D 125

Four Impromptus, D 899

Symphony No.5 in B flat major, D 485

Schubert’s youthful symphonies are still rather underestimated. The young Schubert has too often been seen as some kind of intuitive natural genius warbling his woodnotes wild. In fact the best of these symphonies are complex and subtle pieces, both richly embedded in Viennese tradition and formally inventive, works of some emotional complexity. Anybody not already convinced of their merits would surely have been persuaded of their error if they had attended this Cardiff concert in Andras Schiff’s Schubert series with the Philharmonia.

The Second Symphony was written between December 1814 and March 1815. The seventeen year old Schubert produced a work which, while there are clear allusions to Mozart  (including the G minor symphony) and, especially, to Beethoven (his Second Symphony and the Prometheus overture), isn’t merely derivative. Brahms admired this second symphony and in a performance such as this it wasn’t hard to hear why that should have been the case. In the first movement’s slow introduction, Schiff blended the strings and woodwinds of the Philharmonia in quite beautiful fashion; the transition to the drivingly rhythmic writing which characterises the movement was articulated to perfection. The compulsive rhythmic intensity of much of the first movement had a tensile energy in which any lightness of spirit was shot through with a certain edginess. Moments of relaxation amidst the insistent forward momentum spoke of that conflict which is evident even in the music of the youthful Schubert, that simultaneous apprehension of, on the one hand, the timeless and, on the other, life’s brevity. The string quartet opening of the andante second movement was a thing of remarkable beauty and the chamber-music clarity of this opening was sustained throughout the succeeding five variations. Here (and elsewhere) the precision of ensemble and the clarity of sound were outstanding. The aggressive rhythms of the third movement, full of off-beat accents, were only temporarily held at bay by the quieter central section, and the dominant tone was one of frustration, even anger – but all held within a structure of neo-classical elegance. The closing presto conveyed more a sense of pursuit than of contentment, the young Schubert perhaps sounding most Beethovenian here. Such concluding triumph as there was, was not remotely complacent; there were no illusions that closure or stability might be easily won or result from mere adherence to formal rules. Schiff’s reading of this symphony was as good as any I have ever heard. It was conducted with a well-judged sense of appropriate scale; without any kind of inflation or excessive rhetoric the Beethovenian model was implicitly acknowledged and the work’s considerable emotional complexity was given full expression. A work sometimes thought of merely in terms of youthful blithe spirits was revealed as having other things to offer above and around such superficial innocence.

The Fifth Symphony belongs to 1816. Scored for strings, plus one flute and pairs of oboes, bassoons and horns, it is a work perhaps rather simpler in its emotional language than its predecessor. It is a work which seems consciously to avoid the large gesture – the dynamic level is on the low side throughout and in the absence of percussion or trumpets there are no loud affirmations or objections; the whole air is relaxed and genial and the rhythms are largely without the almost obsessive insistence which characterises parts of the Second Symphony. This performance brought out well the sheer good humour of the opening and communicated an unexaggerated joy in its lilting rhythms. The andante was taken rather slowly, but the lines were well sustained and we were extended a persuasive invitation to follow at leisure Schubert’s harmonic and melodic elaboration of his material, to enjoy this lovely demonstration of what, for all the sophistication of the method, feels like “grace in all simplicity”. This really was the music of utter contentment, but the contentment of a highly sophisticated mind, not of a mere innocent. I did wonder whether the third movement minuet might not have been taken just a little quicker, might not have been imbued with a slightly greater degree of rhythmic drive; but any minor reservations disappeared with a splendidly vivacious account of the closing presto, beautifully clear in structure, subtle in its handling of shifts in dynamic and tempo, a Schubertian updating of Haydn quite masterly in its serious playfulness.

Between the two symphonies the hard-working Schiff gave a compelling performance of one of the two sets of Schubert’s Impromptus, later works written in the penultimate year of the composer’s life. Schiff brings a sense of graceful politeness to all that he does, though without the slightest hint of the superficiality that such a description might be taken to imply. Schiff made an excellent recording of these pieces in 1998 and here on stage in Cardiff his identity with the music was so absolute that it was almost as if one was indeed listening to a master musician improvising at the keyboard. His control of the complex architecture of the first of this set of four impromptus was seemingly effortless and natural, his playing having an unforced power and remarkable clarity of delineation. The triplet figurations were played with unflamboyant panache and the whole was imbued with a great sense of unforced drama. The eighth-notes of the second piece had a winning grace, but the darker passages at its heart and the rapid coda held grace and power in rich complementarity. A high spot was the limpid beauty of Schiff’s performance of the third impromptu, the melodic lines beautifully shaped, the control of tone and dynamics absolute but unpedantic, the whole a minor masterpiece of serene, contemplative music making. In the last of the set Schiff displayed once more that heightened awareness of both detail and larger design, of fidelity and passion, that characterised his work throughout this very fine concert.

Writing in his ABC of Reading in 1951, Ezra Pound observed that “Music rots when it gets too far from the dance”. At the hands – and baton – of Andras Schiff, the music of Schubert is never in danger of forgetting its roots in the dance (and the song), without ever being limited by such an awareness. In the rhythmic alertness of his playing and conducting, in his ability to take even the youthful Schubert with entire seriousness, but without misplaced gravity, Schiff presided over a very fine ‘Schubertiade’.

 

Glyn Pursglove

Back to the Top     Back to the Index Page


Seen and Heard
, one of the longest established live music review web sites on the Internet, publishes original reviews of recitals, concerts and opera performances from the UK and internationally. We update often, and sometimes daily, to bring you fast reviews, each of which offers a breadth of knowledge and attention to performance detail that is sometimes difficult for readers to find elsewhere.

Seen and Heard publishes interviews with musicians, musicologists and directors which feature both established artists and lesser known performers. We also feature articles on the classical music industry and we use other arts media to connect between music and culture in its widest terms.

Seen and Heard aims to present the best in new criticism from writers with a radical viewpoint and welcomes contributions from all nations. If you would like to find out more email Regional Editor Bill Kenny.





 








Search Site  with FreeFind


 


Any Review or Article




 
Contributors: Marc Bridle, Martin Anderson, Patrick Burnson, Frank Cadenhead, Colin Clarke, Paul Conway, Geoff Diggines, Sarah Dunlop, Evan Dickerson Melanie Eskenazi (London Editor) Robert J Farr, Abigail Frymann, Göran Forsling,  Simon Hewitt-Jones, Bruce Hodges,Tim Hodgkinson, Martin Hoyle, Bernard Jacobson, Tristan Jakob-Hoff, Ben Killeen, Bill Kenny (Regional Editor), Ian Lace, John Leeman, Sue Loder,Jean Martin, Neil McGowan, Bettina Mara, Robin Mitchell-Boyask, Simon Morgan, Aline Nassif, Anne Ozorio, Ian Pace, John Phillips, Jim Pritchard, John Quinn, Peter Quantrill, Alex Russell, Paul Serotsky, Harvey Steiman, Christopher Thomas, Raymond Walker, John Warnaby, Hans-Theodor Wolhfahrt, Peter Grahame Woolf (Founder & Emeritus Editor)


Site design: Bill Kenny 2004