Monday, February 13, 2023

The 2023 Israeli Schubertiade hosts Graham Johnson (UK) at the Mormon University, Jerusalem. Other performers: Roman Rabinovich (piano), mezzo-soprano Hagar Sharvit and 'cellist Hillel Zori

 

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.  




Prof. Graham Johnson (Miri Shamir)

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