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SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL CONCERT REVIEW
Chopin by Seduction:
The opening of the season concert at the Campus Internazionale di Musica, Latina. Italy, Emanuel Rimoldi (piano) 23 .10. 2009 (JB)
Handel, Suite in F HWV 427
Schumann, Davidsbündlertånze, Op6
Chopin, Polonaise-Fantasia in A flat, Op 61 and 4 Mazurkas, Op 17
Scriabin, Sonata no 3 in F sharp minor Op 29.
In his sustained and sustaining revaluation of Liberty, Isaiah Berlin never ceased to express his gratitude to the Romantic movement, which by his estimation had dealt the final death blow to the Enlightenment’s concept of the supremacy of unity, by an insistence on individuality as the centre of creativity. Schumann and Chopin led the Romantic movement in music; both were born in 1810 and are imminently due for bicentenary celebrations, a good moment to revisit the question as to whether Sir Isaiah got it right.
Of course, that question ought to be addressed by whoever is the present torchbearer of Berlin’s insights. And that person is certainly not me. I restrict myself here to musical questions. Still, I happen to know that music was central to Berlin’s thinking. Sometime in the early eighties at a conference in Venice on Verdi’s Otello I tried to demonstrate how Verdi had made a strong opera out of a weak Shakespeare drama. I felt some pride when Berlin told me he was an enthusiastic supporter of my then controversial thesis. As part of the conference arrangements there was a performance of Otello in the courtyard of the Doge’s palace. The kindest word to describe that performance would be mediocre. At the hotel breakfast next morning, Lady Berlin said that at Otello, her husband was always so moved by the first act love duet that they then had to leave without seeing the rest of the opera. She added that the previous night’s performance was so awful, that for the first time, they were able to sit right through to the end !
It’s my guess that if Berlin were still alive, he might have been both moved and detained by the Schumann and Chopin performances of the twenty-two year old Milanese pianist, Emanuel Rimoldi in Latina on Friday night. Romanticism has hardly had a finer ambassador, especially in the way the philosopher conceived that movement.
Davidsbündlertånze is an almost insuperable Schumann challenge to a young pianist –eighteen short dance movements conceived around two contrasting mythological characters, one puckish, the other reflective. The brevity of the pieces is not the least of their problems: blink and you (the pianist) have missed your opportunity to make your effect. And Rimoldi is a pianist who needs time to make his altogether remarkable effects. Astutely, he takes a David before Goliath approach: he draws the listener into a rich, lyrical pianistic sound in all the meditative movements, while the thunderous roar of the demons has a distinctly volcanic ring. A couple of the lebhaft (lively) movements were despatched with the message – I bet you didn’t think I could play this as fast as this . That is the kind of mistake often made by young pianists. And mistake it was. Schumann’s lyricism disappears in this attempted showmanship. And lyricism is an impressive Rimoldi quality when he puts his mind to it. Message: Dear Emanuel, Schumann is lyrical even when he is fast.
I seem to recall that Berlin found Schumann’s volcanic impetuosity distasteful, a charge which naturally has to be laid at the door of Schumann, not Rimoldi. But in Chopin, Rimoldi has found the ideal composer for his unique talent. The main difference between a good pianist and a great one is that the latter will cause the listener to hear and understand matters which he had not previously known in this music. Chopin did not live into the age of recording but there have been some intelligent speculations from Charles Rosen and others as to how he played. All these experts are agreed on at least one thing: Chopin’s preferred venue was the salon –a small, private room with a few intimate friends. Intimacy is a Rimoldi speciality. He takes you through this music as someone who has stripped it of all superficialities – and often he delivers in an assured, confidential whisper.
Most young pianists make their mark in a highly competitive, overcrowded field by overwhelming their audience. Rimoldi has a much more risky, original approach: he proceeds by seduction. His Chopin offerings were the Polonaise- Fantasia,Op 61 and the four Op 17 Mazurkas. By the time he arrived at the A minor mazurka (no 4) he must have been aware that he had the audience eating out of his hands: he reduced the volume so that the audience had to strain to hear the pianissimo. But the reward was the quality of the pianissimo the seducer had led us into. O Frederyk Chopin ! O Isaiah Berlin ! Could you have been living at this hour !
The programme ended with the Scriabin F sharp minor Op 29 sonata. I admit to not empathising with Scriabin: glue-berry meandering is how it comes out to me. That is a criticism of me, by the way, not of Scriabin. I did, however find myself enjoying some glorious cascades of sound from the piano, almost as enticing as the glittering precision playing of the Handel Suite in F , HWV 427, which opened the evening.
Jack Buckley
Handel, Suite in F HWV 427
Schumann, Davidsbündlertånze, Op6
Chopin, Polonaise-Fantasia in A flat, Op 61 and 4 Mazurkas, Op 17
Scriabin, Sonata no 3 in F sharp minor Op 29.
In his sustained and sustaining revaluation of Liberty, Isaiah Berlin never ceased to express his gratitude to the Romantic movement, which by his estimation had dealt the final death blow to the Enlightenment’s concept of the supremacy of unity, by an insistence on individuality as the centre of creativity. Schumann and Chopin led the Romantic movement in music; both were born in 1810 and are imminently due for bicentenary celebrations, a good moment to revisit the question as to whether Sir Isaiah got it right.
Of course, that question ought to be addressed by whoever is the present torchbearer of Berlin’s insights. And that person is certainly not me. I restrict myself here to musical questions. Still, I happen to know that music was central to Berlin’s thinking. Sometime in the early eighties at a conference in Venice on Verdi’s Otello I tried to demonstrate how Verdi had made a strong opera out of a weak Shakespeare drama. I felt some pride when Berlin told me he was an enthusiastic supporter of my then controversial thesis. As part of the conference arrangements there was a performance of Otello in the courtyard of the Doge’s palace. The kindest word to describe that performance would be mediocre. At the hotel breakfast next morning, Lady Berlin said that at Otello, her husband was always so moved by the first act love duet that they then had to leave without seeing the rest of the opera. She added that the previous night’s performance was so awful, that for the first time, they were able to sit right through to the end !
It’s my guess that if Berlin were still alive, he might have been both moved and detained by the Schumann and Chopin performances of the twenty-two year old Milanese pianist, Emanuel Rimoldi in Latina on Friday night. Romanticism has hardly had a finer ambassador, especially in the way the philosopher conceived that movement.
Davidsbündlertånze is an almost insuperable Schumann challenge to a young pianist –eighteen short dance movements conceived around two contrasting mythological characters, one puckish, the other reflective. The brevity of the pieces is not the least of their problems: blink and you (the pianist) have missed your opportunity to make your effect. And Rimoldi is a pianist who needs time to make his altogether remarkable effects. Astutely, he takes a David before Goliath approach: he draws the listener into a rich, lyrical pianistic sound in all the meditative movements, while the thunderous roar of the demons has a distinctly volcanic ring. A couple of the lebhaft (lively) movements were despatched with the message – I bet you didn’t think I could play this as fast as this . That is the kind of mistake often made by young pianists. And mistake it was. Schumann’s lyricism disappears in this attempted showmanship. And lyricism is an impressive Rimoldi quality when he puts his mind to it. Message: Dear Emanuel, Schumann is lyrical even when he is fast.
I seem to recall that Berlin found Schumann’s volcanic impetuosity distasteful, a charge which naturally has to be laid at the door of Schumann, not Rimoldi. But in Chopin, Rimoldi has found the ideal composer for his unique talent. The main difference between a good pianist and a great one is that the latter will cause the listener to hear and understand matters which he had not previously known in this music. Chopin did not live into the age of recording but there have been some intelligent speculations from Charles Rosen and others as to how he played. All these experts are agreed on at least one thing: Chopin’s preferred venue was the salon –a small, private room with a few intimate friends. Intimacy is a Rimoldi speciality. He takes you through this music as someone who has stripped it of all superficialities – and often he delivers in an assured, confidential whisper.
Most young pianists make their mark in a highly competitive, overcrowded field by overwhelming their audience. Rimoldi has a much more risky, original approach: he proceeds by seduction. His Chopin offerings were the Polonaise- Fantasia,Op 61 and the four Op 17 Mazurkas. By the time he arrived at the A minor mazurka (no 4) he must have been aware that he had the audience eating out of his hands: he reduced the volume so that the audience had to strain to hear the pianissimo. But the reward was the quality of the pianissimo the seducer had led us into. O Frederyk Chopin ! O Isaiah Berlin ! Could you have been living at this hour !
The programme ended with the Scriabin F sharp minor Op 29 sonata. I admit to not empathising with Scriabin: glue-berry meandering is how it comes out to me. That is a criticism of me, by the way, not of Scriabin. I did, however find myself enjoying some glorious cascades of sound from the piano, almost as enticing as the glittering precision playing of the Handel Suite in F , HWV 427, which opened the evening.
Jack Buckley