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| Franz Schubert |
It was Franz Liszt who
spoke of Schubert as "the most poetic musician that ever was".
Schumann went as far as to say that "Schubert’s pencil was dipped in
moonbeams and in the flame of the sun." and Beethoven, on his deathbed, declared: "Truly, Schubert possesses the divine fire.”
Franz Schubert's music draws the listener in on so many levels: within his
world of musical colour and melodic splendour, the composer seems to wield a
powerful force of mystery, of light and dark and of emotional intuition well beyond
the years of a young man who lived only to the age of 31. British classical pianist,
teacher and Lieder accompanist Graham Johnson has been heard to claim that
"everyone has his/her own Schubert ''. From the first Schubertiades, informal,
unadvertised gatherings, held at private homes in Vienna, often including the
composer's participation,
to those of today taking place in various locations around the world, people
congregate year after year to reconnect with "their Schubert''. A concert of the 17th Israeli
Schubertiade was introduced by Raz Kohn, who in 2007 initiated and established
the Israeli Schubertiade, remaining its artistic director. The festive event took
place on February 4th 2023 at the Brigham Young University Jerusalem Center for
Near Eastern Studies. Kohn spoke of this program as celebrating two 200-year
anniversaries - of Schubert's "Wanderer" Fantasy and also of the
arpeggione, the curious hybrid 'cello-guitar instrument that ended up
disappearing from the Austrian music scene almost as soon as it had appeared.
Guest artist at this year's Schubertiade was eminent Schubert scholar Prof.
Graham Johnson himself. Other artists performing in the program were
mezzo-soprano Hagar Sharvit, 'cellist Hillel Zori and pianist Roman Rabinovich...
The concert opened with Schubert's
Sonata for Arpeggione and Piano in A minor D.821, seemingly the only substantial
composition for the arpeggione remaining from its short period of existence.
(The 21st century has seen a revival of interest in the arpeggione, leading to
the composition of a number of new works either for the instrument alone or
with ensemble.) Hillel Zori chose to play the first movement of the sonata on
an arpeggione (built by Amit Tiefenbrunn) - a six-stringed musical instrument fretted
and tuned like a guitar, but with a curved bridge, enabling it to be bowed like
a 'cello. No easy task, considering Zori was using a modern bow and the fact
that Rabinovich was accompanying on the large Steinway & Sons piano of the
Mormon University auditorium. But for those of us early instrument buffs, it
was more than interesting to hear the voice of this "outsider" as
Zori presented a finely-detailed and expressive reading of the Allegro
moderato, giving the stage to its drama and poignancy, albeit in the slender
musical voice of the arpeggione. How fitting it would have been to hear it
partnered with a fortepiano; Rabinovich's playing, however, was sensitive and
attentive to it. So, for a few minutes, we were taken back to a musical salon of
Vienna of 1824. Then, to the 'cello for the two next movements. Following the
artists' fine-spun introspective reading of the Adagio movement, their playing
of the Allegretto put to advantage the opportunities Schubert proffered for
contrast, from the Hungarian style to Viennese dance music. Virtuosic though it
might be for the string player, the Arpeggione Sonata (written at a dark time
in the composer’s life) presents mood shifts encompassing the full spectrum of
human experience, from unbounded joy to nostalgia and deep sorrow. Indeed, the
rich musical and emotional fabric of the Arpeggione never loses its personal
appeal.
Then to a selection of
Schubert's songs. Mentioning the huge range of emotions and poets found in the
more-than-600 Lieder, Graham Johnson said he and Hagar Sharvit would be
performing just six of their favourite songs. From the busy joy of Franz
Schlechta's poem "Fischerweise" (Fisherman's Ditty) ending
with an unexpected reference to a cunning shepherdess fishing there to provide
a small twist, to the complexity of "Der Zwerg" (The Dwarf). This
setting of a text of Matthäus von Collin must be one of the composer's most
disturbing and darkest songs, with the playing out of its three characters -
the dwarf, his mistress the queen (whom the dwarf strangles) and the narrator.
There was no soft pedalling as the artists set the drama before us - Sharvit
enlisting different timbres of her voice to evoke the characters, with Johnson
creating the night scene on the water with the drama's fateful message and references
to its neo-Gothic grotesque element - a song referred to by Johnson himself as
a "distillation of genius". Then to the mellow "Der Jüngling und der
Tod" (The Youth and Death), Joseph von Spaun's soft-spoken dialogue
between a young man and death, quite a strong association in atmosphere and
construction with the "Death and the Maiden" Lied, only that here the
young man invites death to take him. Sharvit and Johnson's performance of
Schubert's unique setting of Friedrich Rückert's "Dass sie hier gewesen"
(That
she has been here) brings out the erratic workings of mind and memory as
prompted by the senses, in this case, a woman's fragrance. It is as if the
listener has intruded on the recounter in his musings, is taking a clandestine
glimpse into just a few moments of his most intimate feelings, as Schubert
colours these sensations with either daring- or more conventional harmonies, as
befitting the degree of fantasy or reality. As to the artists' rendition of
Schubert's setting of Goethe's "Gretchen am Spinnrade" (Gretchen at
the Spinning Wheel), which they thankfully took at a more moderate tempo than is
often heard in performances, their strategic timing of the song’s gestures
provided a gripping and impactful listening experience. In its range of
emotions - from Gretchen's melancholy to heartache, to the moment of frenzy -
Johnson and Sharvit gave a memorable performance of one of the 17-year-old
Schubert's most dramatic and disturbing studies of love and obsession. The
artists concluded this part of the concert with "Der Wanderer" (The
Wanderer) set to a poem by Georg Philipp Schmidt (von Lübeck), its curious
line-up of unlike musical sections indicative of the wanderer's loss of
direction and base. Although she has had previous contact with Johnson via
master classes and competitions, this was the first time Sharvit has actually
performed with him; decisions regarding the concert repertoire were made
together. I had the pleasure of talking to the singer in Berlin, where she
makes her home today. Sharvit, who is attracted to the darker, more
psychological Lieder, gave an informed, profound and involved reading of the
songs. Graham Johnson's remarkable insight into the genre shines through the
layers of meaning in his awe-inspiring playing. A sense of close communication
between the two artists pervaded the performance.
Referring to the
technical demands of his Fantasie in C major, Op. 15 (D.760), (Wanderer
Fantasy), Schubert himself wrote that "the devil may play it".
Composed in 1822, the Fantasy finds its inspiration and primary
musical materials in "Der Wanderer", the final song heard at the
concert. The work emerges as a somewhat giant theme and variations across all
four movements, further enhanced as the movements flow together without pause,
each leading directly into the next. Roman Rabinovich's performance of it abounded in
positive energy, clarity of touch and virtuosic pizzazz, no less appealing in
its lyricism. As was the audience, he was clearly enjoying the response to the
work’s every gesture on the auditorium's superior piano. An exhilarating end to
an excellent concert.
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| Prof. Graham Johnson (Miri Shamir) |
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