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CHAMBER MUSIC REVIEW
December 8, 2003
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By Renato Rodolfo-Sioson
An 1841 Viennese fortepiano by Franz Rausch and a political rally competed for the audience's attention during the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble's concert held on Monday, December 8, the eve of San Francisco's runoff election for mayor. With a program of familiar 19th-century chamber works presented on period instruments, the Ensemble offered a refreshing aural glimpse into a sound world that Mendelssohn, Chopin, and Schumann might well have recognized. But even without the encroaching clamor, the concert was ultimately marred by continual imbalances among the musicians.
A rarity in the concert hall, the Viennese fortepiano (“fortepiano” referring to the various technological precursors of the modern grand piano) usually appears as a solo instrument, not in chamber ensembles. There are good reasons for this. The most obvious (and audible) one is its relative lack of power (even in comparison with French pianos of the same era). Moreover, there is a fundamental inequality between the top and bottom of the keyboard: the diminished sustaining power of the brittle upper range demanded that melodies be carefully weighted against a potentially overpowering harmonic bass.
Eric Zivian is clearly a fine and imaginative pianist, whose technique was more than equal to the formidable challenges of Chopin's Cello Sonata (op. 65) and Mendelssohn's D-minor Piano Trio (op. 49). Nevertheless, Zivian repeatedly demonstrated that habits learned on a modern grand do not translate well when applied to the fortepiano. Booming harmonic bass lines occasionally swamped the overall texture of the piano part, reducing the melody to a ghostly presence. His tendency to overpedal certain passages — most noticeably in the denser sections of the opening movement of the Chopin — resulted in an occasional muddy wash of sound. I suspect that his touch and his style of pedaling would have been better served by a more “modern” instrument, like a mid-century Érard. (They were, after all, one of Chopin's preferred pianos). Zivian's greatest successes were with the leaner textures of the slow movements and scherzos — in particular, his reading of the Mendelssohn slow movement: it was so exquisitely poised and well-balanced as to avoid the sentimentality that usually spoils the piece.
Given the limitations of the Rausch fortepiano, the string players tended to steal the spotlight. Cellist Tanya Tomkins dominated the outer movements of the Chopin Sonata so completely that the piano part often dwindled into mere shadowy accompaniment. It is possible that, in a similar situation, a 19th-century cellist might have acceded to a narrower dynamic range. But Tomkins is simply too good a musician to sacrifice such a rewarding interpretation. The sheer authority of her attack, the richness of her sound, the emotional breadth — all these were so compelling that my qualms over the balance were transformed into mild regrets. Ironically enough, this uncompromising attitude in relation to the fortepiano produced the finest performance of the evening. Faced with the full dynamic range of Tomkins and like-minded violinist Anna Presler, Zivian injected a ferocious impetuosity into their presentation of the Mendelssohn Trio. Under normal conditions, one probably shouldn't whack at an old keyboard instrument like that. But his ability to spout torrents and cataracts of notes, coupled with the inexorable melodic flow afforded by Presler and Tomkins' impeccable bow control, produced an unforgettable performance. Certainly, it was potent argument for the use of period instruments in 19th-century chamber music. The Rausch instrument appeared to its best advantage in a sensitive performance of Schumann's Three Romances for oboe (op. 94). The thin, plaintive tones of oboist Gonzalo Xavier Ruiz's late-19th-century instrument were an ideal match for the fortepiano's delicate upper range. Less fortunate was tenor Michel Taddei's presentation of nine Lieder by Schumann, all settings of Heine. In taking six selections from the Dichterliebe (Poet's Love), op. 48, out of context, Taddei violated the carefully crafted progression — both tonal and psychological — of Schumann's greatest song cycle. The tentative (at times inconclusive) endings and even the brevity of most of the Dichterliebe songs simply do not work in a “selected favorites” format. And while Taddei possesses a pleasant enough voice, he simply was not up to the demands of Schumann's notoriously high tessitura. In fulfillment of the Ensemble's mission to commission new works “as companion pieces to familiar works,” the program also included a partial premiere of Zivian's Suite for Solo Cello with Baroque Bow. (Perhaps a less cumbersome title is in order.) Again, Tanya Tomkins conquered all, attacking a score bristling with such special effects as multiple stops, artificial harmonics, and left-hand pizzicati. My only concern was how these rhythmically kaleidoscopic pieces coincide with the metrical framework that defines “courante,” “minuet/waltz,” or “sarabande.” Can one truly write a sonnet in vers libre?
(Renato Rodolfo-Sioson has a Master's degree in musicology from the
University of California, Berkeley. He also received the Licentiate of the
Royal Schools of Music in piano performance while studying in India and
occasionally appears as an accompanist and chamber musician throughout the Bay Area.)
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Left Coast Chamber Ensemble