Felix MENDELSSOHN (1809-1847)
Octet in E flat major, Op. 20 (Original Version for Piano 4 Hands) [35:13]
Overture “The Hebrides” in B minor, Op. 26 [9:39]
Sonata Movement in G minor [4:01]
Song Without Words in E flat major, Op. 67 No. 1 [3:03]
Duo Lontano (Babette Hierholzer and Jürgen Appell – piano duet)
rec. 2014, Mendelssohnsaal, Gewandhaus, Leipzig, Germany
GENUIN GEN15359 [52:00]
The nineteenth century was the heyday of the piano duet –
music-making that, among other things, gave aficionados the chance to play
orchestral and vocal works in the comfort of their own home. It was especially
important in places where full-scale symphonic or theatrical performances
weren’t that frequent or informed. This was after all long before the
days of recordings or radio.
Mendelssohn was a gifted pianist, and also very fond of domestic music-making.
While he wrote only a handful of original works for the medium, his thematic
catalogue contains no fewer than eighteen arrangements of his own pieces for
piano duet. These include two symphonies, a string quartet, several overtures,
and the complete score of his incidental music for A Midsummer Night’s
Dream.
The accompanying booklet is written by the two pianists and translated into
German, French and Italian respectively. When discussing the first work on
the CD, Hierholzer and Appell conclude that ‘the version (of the Octet)
for piano four hands is equal in musical qualities to the string version’.
They go on to say, ‘It is amazing that Mendelssohn was able to integrate
all the voices without overloading the piano transcription’. It would
be fair to make this assumption when comparing Mussorgsky’s ‘Pictures
at an Exhibition’ with Ravel’s brilliant orchestration of the
original oeuvre for piano – each can be as effective in performance
as the other, a single pianist holding their own against the might of a full
symphony orchestra. However in Mendelssohn’s case, it is more still
by way of a transcription – four hands now doing the job of eight individual
string players – rather than Ravel’s total regeneration of Mussorgsky’s
musical concept.
True there are many figurations which can suit both string instruments and
the piano, but there are also some where either instrument really does it
better. What nearly always comes over when listening to Mendelssohn’s
Octet, irrespective of how many times you’ve heard it, is the
sheer exuberance, joie de vivre and precocity of this true masterpiece from
a mere lad of sixteen. It is not yet-to-be-developed talent, but already the
really thing, fully-fledged perfection and virtuosity from one so young.
Listening to the opening ‘Allegro moderato ma con fuoco’ in the
piano-duet version, there is just that sense of immediacy missing –
perhaps a bit too much ‘moderato’ and not enough ‘fuoco’
(‘fire’)? Translate this into track times, and while Duo Lontano
takes 15:10 to get through the movement, two randomly-chosen CDs – Kodály
and Auer Quartets (Naxos 8.557270) and Divertimenti (Hyperion CDA66356) have
times of 14:15 and 14:12 respectively. Not surprisingly, as far as the slow
movement is concerned, the piano-duet version wins here at 7:01, while the
string CDs have 7:22 and 7:52. Strings have all the advantages of dynamic
shading within a note, as well as vibrato, whereas the piano sound decays
from the moment the hammer hits the string.
The immensely fleet-of foot Scherzo again lends itself more to the delicacy
of the bow, whereas even the most finely-regulated Steinway grand, as is used
here, has to transmit the pianist’s finger-articulation mechanically
to the action: the piano-duet version takes 5:32, whereas the two string versions
undercut this by 1:13 and 1:07 respectively. The finale, with its contrapuntal
complexities is a veritable tour de force. While Hierholzer and Appell
applaud Mendelssohn’s sheer ability to emulate the same string texture
with the significantly more limited resources of just four hands, it does
come at a cost. Yes, it might be reasoned that the choice of a slower ‘Presto’
for the four-hands version does allow the listener a little more time to pick
out and follow thematic strands. However, it again robs the music somewhat
of its pure panache and élan – string versions here are 5:53, and 6:15,
while the piano transcription comes in at over a minute slower at 7:30.
From Mendelssohn’s best-loved chamber work, the Duo turns to one of
his concert-hall favourites – the Hebrides Overture. Here they
despatch the work in 9:39, but by the nature of the writing and texture, orchestral
performances can vary here, for example, from just 9:00 (Orchestra of the
Age of Enlightenment) to 10:01 (London Symphony Orchestra) – both Hyperion
downloads.
The Sonata movement for two pianos in G minor – which comes
without title or tempo-marking – is apparently a work from the young
Mendelssohn, written when a mere eleven years old. Despite its brevity (4:01
– and this includes a repeated exposition), and the fact that it’s
the only original duet piece on the CD, this work strangely proves of greater
interest than what has preceded it so far. Having two pianos available gives
much more textural freedom than two pianists crammed onto one. The clarity
of the writing, thematic development, and musical ideas make this even more
impressive, when it’s from the pen of an eleven-year-old boy. The sleeve-notes
inform us that Mendelssohn wrote another Sonata for Two Pianos in D major
– this time replete with three movements – so it’s a pity
that this couldn’t somehow have found its way on to the CD. At just
52 minutes in length, it isn’t overly generous to start with.
The closing track is a piano-four-hand transcription of one of the composer’s
Songs Without Words – a serenely-flowing ‘Andante cantabile’.
This is a work which Mendelssohn in fact dedicated to Queen Victoria as a
token of his gratitude for the court’s hospitality while he was staying
in London. As with the other duet versions of some of his Lieder ohne Worte
it is a pleasant and effective reworking.
There are also a couple of illustrations in the booklet, but frankly, the
first one (the first twenty bars of the Hebrides Overture in the composer’s
hand), and the second (an excerpt from a letter from the composer to his family
in Berlin) are too small, and lack visual definition. Their inclusion lacks
any real value.
The piano sound, recording, and pianists’ technical performance and
ensemble are first-rate. However, apart from a fleeting interest in the one
original work recorded, it would be hard otherwise to see any place for this
CD in the average collection.
Philip R Buttall
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