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Nyman, Mozart and Beethoven :   Stephen Kovacevich, piano – The Camerata Friends of Music Orchestra, Alexandros Myrat, conductor , Megaron, the Athens Concert Hall, 30.3.2009 (BM)


To fill a concert hall for an evening of classical music on a weekday night in Athens, you need to come up with something. In this case, the music commissioned by Peter Greenaway from Michael Nyman for his 1988 film Drowning by Numbers served as something of a sales gimmick, attracting a considerable number of young people who were then also treated to an exceptional performance of a Mozart piano concerto, which they might otherwise not have attended. Film music is an excellent way of stirring contemporary audiences’ interest in the classical genre, and Nyman’s composition, based on a theme in the Andante from Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante in E-flat major for violin and viola (KV 364) is a case in point. Even today, Mozart’s ideas (e.g. the appoggiaturas quoted in the first of the six segments, Trysting Fields) still sound as novel and fresh in this cinematic score as they did in the 18^th century, when they were the stuff of the pop(pular) music of his own day and age. But the suite is also interesting in itself in that it is an archetypal minimalist piece – and by the way, Nyman himself is said to have been the first to use the term ‘minimalism’, in a 1968 article in The Spectator – proving that quite a lot can be achieved with very little material, typically by way of pulsing repetitions, and that the result is makes very good background or film music, in that it is an understatement - but an appealing one.

The highlight of the evening, though, was Stephen Kovacevich at the piano for Mozart’s concerto no. 24 in c minor. Speaking of understatements, he is possibly one of the most underrated pianists of his generation (which includes Pollini, Baremboim and Argerich - whose third husband he was). Born to a Croatian father and American mother in California, he left the United States as a young man to study with Dame Myra Hess in London and has been living in Britain ever since. He has never been particularly interested in publicity and tends to come across as somewhat solemn, but also extremely intense, and if anything this makes his live appearances (and recordings) all the more spellbinding. A renowned Beethoven specialist, he is just the right pianist to perform this Mozart concerto, the composer’s second and last in a minor key, which Beethoven happened to admire greatly, especially for the variations and interplay of the orchestra and soloist during the third movement (which is said to have inspired the finale of his Appassionata sonata). Those who say they don’t care for Mozart because he is ‘superficial’ would do well to listen carefully to this concerto – there is absolutely nothing decorative about it - and Kovacevich played it as if it were a first performance, with a technical brilliance so misleading that it almost sounded easy, breathtaking trills, a cadenza alive with bravura, and a persuasive hint of wildness lying under a smooth, controlled surface. It was only when the applause went on and on – and on - that he finally sat down to give an encore (since, as he said, he “hadn’t prepared anything”), an evocative rendition of the Sarabande from J.S.Bach’s Partita no. 4 (which he has recently recorded together with Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations on Onyx).

After intermission it was time for Beethoven’s 7^th Symphony op. 92, ostensibly tying in with the opening piece by Nyman by virtue of its thematic repetitions, especially in the second movement (such a success when it was first performed in 1812 that it was repeated in full as an encore). Unfortunately, it turned out to be a bit of an anti-climax, since the orchestra seemed much less well-prepared than for the Mozart and every so often it felt like something was amiss, particularly in the wind section. Alas, the Camerata’s conventional attire also did little to dispel prejudice among young people against the kind of music they play. They would do well to lose the coat and tails once in a while and go for a more up-to-date image, but that is perhaps the least of their troubles. Nevertheless, none of this really detracted from the upbeat message conveyed on this evening, and one can only hope there will be many more of this kind to come.

Bettina Mara


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