United States Schubert: Dame Mitsuko Uchida (piano), Jonathan Biss (piano). Union Faculty Memorial Chapel, Schenectady, New York, 7.4.2024. (ES-S)
Schubert – Allegro in A minor, ‘Lebensstürme’, D.947; Grande Marche No.5 in E-flat minor, D.819; Rondo in A significant, D.951; Divertissement à la hongroise in G minor, D.818
The sober but heat ambiance of the Union Faculty Memorial Chapel in Schenectady, situated in New York State’s Capital Area, has been a beautiful venue for chamber music live shows for a few years. Beneath the umbrella of ‘Capital Area Classical’, an annual sequence meticulously curated by Inventive Director Derek Delaney, interpreters of the best caliber from all corners of the world share their insights with a devoted and keen viewers. Two of those esteemed musicians, Dame Mitsuko Uchida and Jonathan Biss, are at the moment on tour, presenting four-hand piano works by Schubert. Schenectady was lucky to be one among their stops, simply two days earlier than their efficiency at Carnegie Corridor, a lot to the delight of the viewers within the Memorial Chapel on a balmy Sunday afternoon.
Amid the vastness of Schubert output, which is immense given his younger age when he died, the four-hand piano compositions stay unjustly quasi-unknown. Contemplating their wealth of beautiful musical particulars, presenting these compositions to the general public turns into a very commendable act of restoration. Furthermore, Jonathan Biss, an exceptionally articulate author on classical music, offered program notes that had been charmingly written and included many necessary particulars in regards to the circumstances during which these musical gems had been conceived.
Written in Might and June 1828, simply months earlier than the composer’s dying, the Allegro in A minor and the Rondo in A significant are sometimes thought of by critics to be actions of the identical sonata. That is seen both as a two-part sonata or a extra prolonged one, whose further components had been by no means composed. However, Biss and Uchida selected to deal with them as separate entities, inserting an earlier work, the Grande Marche No.5 between them. The latter, a fairly prolonged funeral march, is imbued with bleakness, every step drawing an unknown character nearer to an inescapable finish. Significantly in its center part, the music is wealthy with great and stunning modulations, which the 2 pianists, all the time completely in sync, emphasised with readability.
Carried out by Biss (on the appropriate facet of the keyboard) and Uchida, the Allegro served as eloquent proof that the celebrated Fantasia in F minor was not the only real excellent four-hands piece for piano composed by Schubert in 1828. Given the catchy Romantic heading ‘Lebensstürme’ (‘Storms of Life’) by Anton Diabelli, who revealed the rating many years after Schubert’s dying, the piece contrasts a turbulent starting with the unfathomable serenity of a second topic. As Biss characterised it, the ‘lonely utopia’ was visited 3 times, every showing extra distant, whereas the nervousness current from the primary bars appeared to accentuate over time. The 2 pianists, at the moment co-directors of the famed Marlboro Competition in Vermont, demonstrated a excessive stage of understanding of the opposite’s intentions in the course of the meandering growth. In the meantime, stunning caesurae turned moments brimming with rigidity, additional enhancing the general angst.
The Rondo in A significant may need interjected a touch of optimism in this system however, nonetheless, the music was engulfed in unmitigated melancholy. As within the Allegro, the 2 pianists by no means rushed the unfolding statements of ‘heavenly size’, drawing fixed consideration to the wealth of melodic materials, Uchida tempering any over-effusive makes an attempt by her accomplice.
After the interval, the 2 performers switched positions, with Uchida taking on the Primo half within the Divertissement à la hongroise. Regardless of its title, this substantial piece transcends mere mild leisure. The work, a march framed by two modified rondos, experiences some longueurs, but it affords instants of nice magnificence, particularly when the main target shifts away from the pervasive disappointment. Throughout these few moments of respite, one marveled on the ethereal modulations, conjured by Uchida’s understanding smile and nimble fingers. A grim destiny appeared, if just for just a few seconds, extra tolerable.
The duo performed one encore: the Sonatina from Bach’s Cantata BWV 106, ‘Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit’ (‘Actus Tragicus’) as transcribed by Kurtág György. This funeral music is imbued with disappointment but additionally hope, a top quality current in lots of Schubert’s compositions, albeit fairly absent within the ones heard on this event.
Edward Sava-Segal
