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Mozart, Szymanowski, Brahms, Clara and Robert Schumann : Kaoru Yamada (violin), Sholto Kynoch (piano), Wigmore Hall, London, 17.12.2008 (AO)


A few years ago, at a reception after a major Lieder recital, I noticed the pianist in a corner on his own. Since he is very famous in his own right I asked him how he felt about the attention being focussed on the singer. “That’s alright”, he answered, “it’s the music that counts”. 

Accompaniment is a very special skill, quite distinct from solo playing. A soloist can be egotistical, but a good accompanist is empathic towards others, knowing that the performance only works if they work together.  These days there’s a whole new breed of specialist pianists who’ve shown how accompaniment can be an art form of its own. Graham Johnson is justly revered.  Sholto Kynoch studied with him, and with Malcolm Martineau. He’s also worked closely with Julius Drake and Roger Vignoles. Seven years ago, while still a student, Kynoch founded Oxford Lieder, the biggest art song initiative in this country, a year long series of concerts and classes crowned with an excellent Festival each October. Like his mentors, he’s primarily associated with song, but also plays in the Prometheus Piano Trio and regularly with Kaoru Yamada, with whom he made his Wigmore Hall debut in 2006.

This second Wigmore Hall concert by the duo was part of a series organized by the Kirckman Concert Society, dedicated to rising young artists. Although I’ve heard Kynoch accompany singers many times, I’ve never heard him in Mozart, and was surprised how different the dynamics can be. Yamada and Kynoch were not on form in Mozart’s Sonata in B Flat major (K454), but more convincing with Szymanowksi’s Nocturne and Tarantella op 28.  Like so many of his generation, Szymanowski was fascinated by exotic locales which afford opportunities for colour and dramatic effect. The piano evokes the strumming of guitars, the violin the high-pitched sounds one might hear in an Arabic souk.

The second half of the programme was Brahms and Schumann. This showed where Kynoch and Yamada’s true affinities lie, in the Romantic. They played as if transformed.  Now Yamada was playing with fluid ease. The sotto voce introduction developed confidently, supported unobtrusively but firmly by the piano. Then the piano asserts itself.  In the solo passages of the Allegro, Kynoch showed why he’s respected in this repertoire. This was idiomatic playing, vibrant and warm. Most impressive though,  was the fluid interaction between the pair, reflecting the ebb and flow so central to the piece. This was “accompaniment” par excellence, where both partners enhanced each other, in mutual support. When Yamada played the long melodic section in the Adagio, the tension she’d shown in the Mozart was completely gone, replaced by eloquently lyrical freedom of spirit. The chemistry was working. By the final Presto agitato, Kynoch and Yamada were in full flow, expressive and exhilarating. No wonder they’ve won awards, though they are both barely 30.

Clara Schumann’s Three Romances op 22 are less familiar than the Brahms Sonata, and Clara is by no means as accomplished a composer, but Kynoch has made a name championing uncommon repertoire. He and Yamada made an excellent case for these pieces. They were, after all, performed by Clara Schumann and Joseph Joachim, both brilliant virtuosi.  It’s interesting how Clara’s music lends itself to dialogue.  Both parts are well balanced, as interactive as conversation. If anything, Clara’s sensitive, understated music showcased even more than the Brahms how Kynoch and Yamada were in partnership, for they gauged the shifting textures well.

There was no way this programme could have ended without some mention of Robert Schumann. Ever the repertoire buff, Kynoch announced that the encore would be the second of Robert’s Romanzen. In 1839, Clara had written Three Romances for solo piano (her op 11) which he greatly admired. This encore was his Xmas gift to her.

Anne Ozorio


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