SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Mozart, Haydn, Pleyel: Barbara Burgdorf (violin), Oliver Göske (cello), Christian Brembeck (fortepiano) Allerheiligen Hofkirche, Munich 18.11.2007 (JFL)

Haydn: Trio in D, Hob.XV:24
Pleyel: Trio III in c
Haydn: Sonata No.62 in E-flat, Hob.XVI:52
Mozart: Trio in C, K.548

Sunday, November 18^th, musicians of the Bavarian State Orchestra got together for the second Kammerkonzert of their season with a program of piano trios by Mozart, Ignaz Pleyel, and Joseph and Michael Haydn. All was more or less as announced – except that Egino and Martin Klepper were replaced with the BStO’s concertmaster Barbara Burgdorf and the fortepiano-playing Christian Brembeck. The sad reason behind this change of lineup was the unexpected, premature death of the pianist Egino Klepper and a grave illness that struck his violinist brother shortly thereafter.

If the recital on that beautiful and crisp winter Sunday morning was to have been a tribute (and well wishes) to Messrs. Klepper, it was a beautiful one indeed.

Mr. Brembeck’s Hammerklavier was a little disadvantaged in Haydn’s Trio in D (No.38) when matched with his collaborator’s non-“Historically Informed Performance” instruments. The result was that the trios sounded like Violin Sonatas with a glorified cello continuo part, not as a keyboard sonata with string accompaniment (as might, if a Steinway equipped pianist played the dominant keyboard part with the vigor the notes suggest) or a balanced trio (as might, if a modern trio tried to homogenize the differently weighted parts). Even as late a trio as Hob.XV:24 from 1795 still has this unequal distribution between the voices – perfect for dilettantes playing them at home and for the strings softening the clanky fortepiano’s sound. Mr. Brembeck, staying rather in the background, proved a sensitive chamber musician and supporter of the violin part that Mme. Burgdorf played with bravura.

Ignaz Joseph Pleyel’s Trio III in c-minor made for a shocking inclusion in the program. Not because of its musical content which was benignly pleasant, veering between the busy and passionate (Grave. Presto assai) and some lyrical waxing of the violin (Adagio) – but because the liner notes (Rainer Karlitschek) reveal that Joseph Haydn once submitted, as his own work, this and another trio from his “best student” to his London publisher William Forster,  a matter over which Haydn was sued ten years later, in 1894. This strikes as going against everything we seem to know about the character of Haydn – and it is a small consolation to suggest that this fraud at least shows his appreciation of Pleyel’s work. The three musicians taking on the rarely heard work delivered a performance that was very much together – not at all suggesting that these were three players who had met solely for this concert, interested in getting most of the notes right and moving on. The intonation approximated that which might be expected from an early ‘HIP’ ensemble even though neither the string players instruments (bows and strings) or style of playing (present vibrato) suggested the desire to give a literal representation of the sound of a bygone era.

Introducing Sonata No.62 in E-flat major, Hob.XVI:52 as “one of Haydn’s gems among his, or anyone’s keyboard sonatas” is a temptation better resisted. Not only because the inflationary use – even when appropriate – of the word “gem” makes it less meaningful every time it appears in a review, but also because Haydn, more than any other classical composer I know, has produced a canon of works where consistency and quality are only rivaled by quantity. There’s not a clunker among his 68 string quartets, or his ~107 symphonies, or 45, or 13 masses, or 273 Scottish Folksong settings. Saying one sonata was a gem among its kind would be unfairly suggesting the others are not – even if some, of course, do stand out as particularly embraceable. 

Hearing this sonata on the fortepiano, kindles a special kind of appreciation – mostly the appreciation of hearing it on a ‘culturally incorrect’ grand piano, instead. But as such and with the considerable enjoyment the fine performance that Mr. Brembeck’s indtrument brings to the ears, it is not only worth hearing but also a happy way of listening to a favorite work in its original guise.

Concluding, was Mozart’s Trio in C-major KV584. Composed seven years before Haydn’s D-major trio, it is already much more concerned to match each player with some interesting musical content. A relaxed and uncontrived performance with casual flair and the professional skill of the three musicians ever evident sent a thankful crowd from the restored Allerheiligen Hofkirche of the Munich “Residenz” into the bright November noon.

Jens F. Laurson

 

Back to Top                                                    Cumulative Index Page