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SEEN AND HEARD UK CONCERT REVIEW
Schumann - Pieces from Album für die Jugend, op.68, interspersed with:
Holliger - Duöli (2008/2010)
Holliger - Præludium, Arioso, and Passacaglia, for solo harp (1987)
Berg - Chamber Concerto
This was the second of two concerts, curated by Christoph Richter,
welcoming Heinz Holliger to Kings Place. We did not hear him as oboist,
but we heard him both as composer and as conductor - as well as lecturer
in a pre-concert analytical talk on Berg's Chamber Concerto. The first
concert had been entitled 'Fantasies and Journeys', offering music by
Sandor Veress, Schumann, Holliger, and Kurtág. I wondered whether the
second, 'Childhood and Encryptions,' might have made more sense in the
context of having heard the first. As it was, 'childhood' inhabited the
first half, and 'encryptions' the second; it was not always clear what
connected the two.
However, there was much to enjoy. Alexander Lonquich offered an
excellent selection from Schumann's Album für die Jugend, both
precise and Classically alluring of tone; I should have been happy to
have heard more, and suspect that I cannot have been the only audience
member taken back to my own childhood assaults on Schumann's exquisite
miniatures. It was interesting to hear interspersed with the Schumann
pieces Holliger's Duöli, the work's title given in his native
Swiss German, as were those of the individual pieces. Whether one would
wish, outside a Holliger series, to hear all of these violin 'duos'
(confusingly, they occasionally involve three or four players) is
another question. I am sure they work very well as teaching pieces,
rather like Bartók's Mikrokosmos, to which they sometimes sound
close in language. There is humour, whether in the titles - for
instance, 'It is really not so difficult,' or 'Two Little Pieces that do
not quite fit together' - or in the additional noises (cat-song, the
canon for two or three snorers) that the instrumentalists are sometimes
called upon to provide. Moreover, there are moments of considerable
beauty; for instance the droplet music, which sounds as one might
expect, or the occasional ventures into Nono-like near-inaudibility.
There are also instances of a somewhat soft-centred version of
Lachenmann-like re-examination of the violin's possibilities, though
without Lachenmann's intensity. It was encouraging to note that two
young violinists from the Junior Guildhall, Alexander Harris and Curtis
Wilkinson, stood up perfectly well in comparison with their professional
colleagues, Muriel Cantoreggi and Florence Cooke. Nevertheless, a
selection might prove a better way to programme the pieces, for a
certain monotony, compositional variety notwithstanding, sets in.
Holliger's wife, Ursula, opened the second half with the Præludium,
Arioso, and Passacaglia. The piece is dedicated 'for Ursula for 8.6
and 7.7'. We are not informed what these numbers signify, but are told
that they form a structural role in the music as a whole. (I am afraid I
should need to be informed how…) Whatever the meaning of these
encryptions, it is a fine addition to the solo harp repertoire,
combining neo-Baroque form, or at least an echo thereof, with decidedly
twentieth-century style. Ursula Holliger was clearly in command
throughout.
Finally - and this was what I had been waiting for - came a splendid
performance of Berg's Chamber Concerto. Holliger has good form in Berg:
I highly commend his recording of the Violin Concerto with Thomas
Zehetmair. Having heard a detailed description of the various
encryptions in the earlier lecture, it was all the easier to receive the
work as much as a dramatic exploration of various Romantic 'characters'
- Berg, Schoenberg, Webern, Rudolf Kolisch, and so on - and their
interaction. The performances were certainly impressive, woodwind
players from the Royal Academy of Music proving full of drive and
character. One could truly relish their engagement with the score - and
doubtless with the conductor too. Lonquich proved an estimable pianist,
finely balancing post-Romantic expressive considerations with complexity
and structure. Cantoreggi played the violin part; initially she sounded
somewhat disconnected, taking a little while to get into her stride, but
when she did, she proved impassioned indeed. Holliger's overall command
of Berg's form was as clear as his attentiveness to detail. I have never
understood why some people claim to love Berg's music yet to be put off
by this work. In its marriage of labyrinthine complexity and
hyper-expressivity it could hardly be more typical of the composer. A
very good performance such as this, or the
outstanding West-Eastern Divan Orchestra performance at the 2009 Proms
, ought to convince any remaining doubters. It was interesting,
moreover, to note how different the work sounds in a small hall: much
more 'concerto', much less 'chamber'.
Mark Berry