SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Brahms, Christopher Theofanidis and Franck: Sarah Chang (violin), Andrew van Oeyen (piano), Barbican Hall, London, 12.2.2010 (BBr)

Brahms: Scherzo in C minor (1953)

Violin Sonata No.3 in D minor, op.108 (1886/1888)

Christopher Theofanidis: Fantasy (2009) (UK première)

Franck: Violin Sonata in A (1886)


After the previous night’s excesses from Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben in this hall, I wondered just how an intimate recital of violin and piano music would fare in the Barbican. I thought that the Cadogan Hall would have been a better venue simply because it is smaller, has a warmer and more intimate acoustic, and its stage can accommodate anything from full orchestra to solo violin equally easily. I was both surprised and pleased however, to find  that the Barbican’s huge space allowed us to hear a fine programme of the most satisfying and superb music making.

Ms Chang got down to business immediately, throwing herself into the Scherzo from the FAE Sonata – a joint composition between Brahms, Schumann and the latter’s pupil Albert Dietrich which was written for Joachim. This short piece is an early work and is full of an exuberance seldom found in later Brahms. Ms Chang relished the rhythmic drive of the music, but she never forgot the lyrical element, creating a fully rounded performance which was very fine indeed. Following it with the 3^rd Violin Sonata was a masterstroke for here is Brahms in maturity, and Ms Chang rose to the challenge of its lofty lyricism and very personal brand of emotion. As elsewhere this evening, the musicians never allowed their personalities to become larger than the music they were playing, thus we had a totally unaffected, fully Brahmsian, conception put before us. If only more performers could allow themselves this amount of self restraint.

Christopher Theofanidis came to worldwide attention when he won the 2003 Masterprize competition with his orchestral work Rainbow Body (which, it has been reported, has subsequently become the most performed orchestral work by a living composer) and he has written a large body of work, including several Concertos, orchestral and chamber works and, most recently, a Symphony. Two years ago Ms Chang premiered a Violin Concerto – commissioned for her by the Pittsburgh Symphony – and this Fantasy is an arrangement of that work’s slow movement. Theofanidis is a composer who believes passionately in tunes and this Fantasy is one long melody, playing for a little over five minutes, and as a chamber work it is wholly successful.

Ms Chang ended with a performance of Franck’s Sonata which was second–to–none. From the most winsome of openings, the music grew in stature until the final flourish, at the end of a beautifully controlled finale, the canon being especially well handled, almost literally brought the house down. This was a performance which never overplayed the work – it can so easily become a virtuoso piece with little regard for the progress of the music – and it was a joy to hear the way these young musicians allowed every note to speak. In fact, now I come to think about it, the genuine empathy between Ms Chang and her marvellous accompanist Andrew van Oeyen had been positively tangible all evening.

As an encore, we were given Elgar’s Salut d’Amour, containing as delicate a piece of playing as we’d heard all evening. A great violinist in partnership with a most sensitive and intelligent pianist and musical insights beyond ones wildest imaginings. It doesn’t get any better than this.

Bob Briggs