Verbier is 1500m
above sea level and is in the Vol de Bages not far from
the Matterhorn and Mont Blanc in south-central Switzerland
which seems a strange place to hold a musical festival.
But the Verbier festival is now in its second decade and
attracts an astonishing array of many of the world’s most
famous musicians who play together, have fun, run master-classes
and help teach a new generation of musicians. This DVD records
the 10th anniversary celebration on July 22, 2003. As this
coincided with the 150th anniversary of Steinway and Sons,
they provided eight of their grand pianos as part of the
celebration.
Possibly never
before have so many famous musicians collaborated in one
concert as the above list of artists illustrates. Even this
list does not tell the full story as the “Birthday Festival
Orchestra” includes such famous musicians as Kremer, Repin,
Tetzlaff and others. The concert started with Argerich and
Kissin playing the Mozart Sonata for Two Pianos, a mature
Mozart piece of considerable beauty. Smetana’s Sonata in
one movement for two pianos and eight hands is a rarity,
which is really interesting, tuneful and at times complex;
it sounds quite percussive and modern in places. Extracts
of the Happy Birthday Variations by Heidrich follow; this
comprised variations in the style of Haydn, Beethoven, a
Tango and Czardas and was played with style by the orchestra.
The Bach concerto
for four pianos is another fascinating rarity – contrapuntal
and very complex at times but with a haunting slow movement
and a rousing finale.
The rest of
the concert is a grand bash with eight pianists playing
eight excellent pianos. With such forces, playing together
at all is almost impossible, but with pianists of this calibre
the result is amazingly good - providing that you don’t
expect subtlety and exact precision. The artists seem to
be enjoying themselves and it is really good fun. As you
would perhaps expect the Gottschalk “Union” arrangement
was probably the most suitable for this treatment. The Rossini
is quite a subtle piece and showed the strain of the octet
treatment the most. All most enjoyable – and finally Barbara
Hendricks joined to conclude the Concert with Happy Birthday.
Throughout the
musicians were clearly enjoying themselves as was the audience
and the atmosphere is caught very well on this DVD.
Arthur Baker
Leif Ove Andsnes,
Nicholas Angelich, Martha Argerich, Emanuel Ax, Claude Frank, Evgeny Kissin,
Lang Lang, James Levine, Mikhail Pletnev, Staffan Scheja (piano) with
Barbara Hendricks (sop)
[100:00]
