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CHAMBER MUSIC REVIEW
A Modern Schubertiade November 4, 2001
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By Elinor Armer
Early in the 19th Century the composer Franz Schubert would gather his friends around to hear new works, with such regularity that these occasions carne to be called "Schubertiades." Such an event was re-created at Mills College on Sunday, November 4, this time to inaugurate two newly-acquired period instruments: faculty pianist Belle Bullwinkle's early piano (Schott, ca. 1840-45) and Sergiu Luca's violin (Stoss, 1820). The program included many of Schubert's more familiar pieces, giving listeners the opportunity to compare these instruments with their modern counterparts. A convincing case was made for their effectiveness in projecting the ingenuous beauty of Schubert's melodies.
The jewel of the afternoon was Sara Ganz, whose lithe soprano and elegant delivery were perfectly scaled to the salon intimacy of the occasion. Schubert lovers who have a personal emotional investment in "An die Musik" might have found Ganz's rendition of this love song to Music on the light side. "An die Nachtigall", however, was appropriately bright, and "Lachen and Weinen" imbued with rich-hued contrasts. Of Ganz's lieder group, "Du bist die Ruh" was clearly the intended expressive climax; here her own special instrument was both lustrous and true.
Lucidity of form and sweetness of melody prevailed in Sergiu Luca's gypsy-tinted accounts of two violin sonatas with sensitive, balanced accompaniment from Bullwinkle. The two instruments seemed to "remember" each other from old. Certain functional pitches — leading tones, thirds of triads, etc. — sounded a shade under pitch in Luca's playing of the Sonata in D Major, D.384. Perhaps this comes of having to adjust customarily to the equal temperament of modern pianos. Certainly by the second sonata, G minor, D.448, this was not a problem. Luca showed himself ideal for this style of playing; he can project the quietest of notes to the farthest row, and articulates Schubert's mellifluous lines with a delicate Romani portamento.
The one truly out-of-tune offering was a dance choreographed by Sara Hook and earnestly performed by Mary Cochran. Even though the program credited Amanda Williams with costume reconstruction. one can scarcely imagine a figure with a bubblegum-pink wig and garbed in frowsy off-white bursting into a Vienna salon with gestures ranging from Swan Lake flutters to Rite of Spring foot contortions. All the while, Ganz and Bullwinkle valiantly repeated two songs from the opening group. The memory of that earlier, eloquent rendition was all but obliterated by this spectacle. Pianist Karen Rosenak, who first introduced Belle Bullwinkle to the fortepiano, joined her in a crisp account of the Variations on an Original Theme in A-flat Major. This piece was proof-of-the-pudding for the instrument; no wonder Schubert wrote so many duets for the keyboard of his time! No Steinway heaviness or blur could smudge the texture of this full-range piece and the only “inauthentic” quality (the piece was probably intended for parlor amateurs) was the deft performance, especially on the part of Rosenak, who clearly knows her early piano. Like a child's mother, the new owner of a period instrument may not at first be its most convincing advocate as soloist. Bullwinkle suffered from self-consciousness in two of Schubert's impromptus from Opus 142. As she stated in program notes, the often-played A-flat Major impromptu is in its rhythmic pattern a descendant of the sarabande; a more stately, trusting tempo would certainly have served its main theme better. The B-flat Variations on a Theme from Rosamunde, while a little driven and un-voluptuous at first, grew more songful, and Bullwinkle displayed considerable fleetness and sparkle. Her thoughtful voicing in the instrument's different registers, so thoroughly explored in this piece, showed off its timbral clarity and variety. A simple Schubert waltz offered as encore turned out to he her loveliest solo; by then the instrument did indeed belong to her. (Elinor Armer is a composer and pianist. She teaches at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.) ©2001 Elinor Armer, all rights reserved |