AAM, which mainly works abroad, has established
a residency at St John's, under the joint directorship of Christopher
Hogwood, Paul Goodwin and Andrew
Manze, with such success that next season they will give concerts
there monthly.
On their return from America, Christopher Hogwood
conducted an unusual Mozart programme 14 March with Robert Levin
(fortepiano). At the well attended introductory talk, Hogwood told of
the vicissitudes of touring, and explained how they took repertoire
for 1½ programmes, varying the items to keep fresh, abetted by Robert
Levin who embellished Mozart's lead-ins in proper eighteenth century
manner and improvised cadenzas differently each night, keeping everyone
on their toes. In the C minor K491 concerto Levin made us attentive
to the small voice of his Walther copy (the fortepiano 'speaks', whereas
later pianos were developed to 'sing', explained Hogwood) and after
the interval he improvised on melodic fragments written by audience
members and with the orchestra played one of Mozart's favourite party
pieces, the Concert Rondo K382 (Hogwood alerted us to the curiosity
that the violas have the easiest part in all classical music, consisting
of repeating A on the open-string - another such is the Purcell Fantasia
Upon One Note). The concert had begun strongly with the first three
movements of Mozart's Haffner Symphony, but its finale, saved
to become the finale of the whole concert (as happened at its 1783 premiere)
was hectic and ragged - maybe the musicians were a little tired and
jet-lagged?
On 6 February, under Paul Goodwin, two recent
prizewinners of the Queen Elizabeth International Music Competition
of Belgium were featured in Bach and Handel; Olga Pasichnyk (soprano)
& Marius Brenciu (tenor), who subsequently became winner of the
Cardiff Singer of the World competition. A Suite of six Bach Sinfonias
compiled by Paul Goodwin proved a welcome change to more familiar fare,
with opportunities for several solo instrumentalists of the AAM to shine.
Olga Pasichnyk captivated the large
audience with her charming appearance and relaxed, communicative manner
in Handel's florid Motet Saeviat tellus inter rigores of around
1707.
The second half disappointed, with a lack-lustre account
of Bach's Suite No 3 and vocal excerpts from Handel's 'Samson' in which
Marius
Brenciu confirmed the doubts about his triumphs which had been
expressed widely at the time, e.g. Graeme
Kay " - - If the requirements for a winning CSW are technique,
musicianship and charisma -- an aggregation of 'star quality' -- then
I have yet to discover it to the requisite degree in Marius." He
sang loudly, with an uningratiating tone quality and little evidence
of that love for music so irresistible with Olga Pasichnyk. My reservations
were trumped by the two singers returning for an unfortunate encore
in duet, Happy we from Handel's Acis and Galatea, with Brenciu
shamelessly upstaging and overwhelming Pasichnyk, who wisely made no
attempt to match his decibels.
My contrasted opinions of the two prize-winners are
supported by listening to the Cypres CDs of the 2000 Queen Elizabeth
Competition of, for which Paul Goodwin and the AAM were in Belgium to
accompany the baroque items [CYP9610].
Olga Pasichnyk is a sheer delight in her Monteverdi and Handel; Marius
Brenciu unremarkable in Evgeny Onegin, though better in the Flower Song
from Carmen (hear him sing as Verdi's Macduff on
line).
To celebrate 50 years of this prestigious competition,
Cypres has also released a fascinating boxed
set of 12 CDs covering all its first prize winners from its beginnings
(salutary to realise how many of them have vanished) with a multitude
of superb performances including future luminaries such as the young
Leonid Kogan (1951) Leon Fleisher (1952) Vladimir Ashkenazy (1956) Gidon
Kremer (1967) Vadim Repin (1989) Nikolaj Znaider (1997) and Mitsuko
Uchida (10th prize 1968) - a feast of fine live music-making,
mainly in complete works.
The Mozart Concert Rondo with the above artists is
included with Concertos 11 & 13 on Decca
L’Oiseau-Lyre 444 571-2OH, but some of these highly praised
AAM recordings are no longer available and unfortunately, because of
the troubles in the recording industry, the series may not be completed
on that label.
Peter Grahame Woolf
The next AAM concert in London,
Angels & Devils of the Violin, with Andrew Manze, has an
attractive programme of Italian Baroque violin writing. St
John's Smith Square, 11 June 7.30.
Return to:
Music on the Web