The program for this concert came very close to fitting the bill for an original Schubertiade evening. Featuring both chamber music and lieder, the lack of a solo piano work was made up for by the brilliant piano part of the Trio. Bendigo’s 480-seat Capital Theatre is a little roomier than most nineteenth century salons but is right in period. Built as a Masonic Hall in 1873, it boasts elegant Corinthian columns at the entrance, and a fully restored interior.
Schubert’s 1811 Overture in C minor, D.8 was a perfect opener – his earliest chamber work, written when he was 14 years old for a small, probably family group. As Festival Director Chris Howlett pointed out in his introduction, it perches on the cusp between chamber and symphonic music and is now often played by a string orchestra or quartet, rather than the original quintet configuration with two violas.
Opening with a short simple threnody shared by all instruments, violist Justin Williams then introduced pulsing repeated quavers, joined by cellist, Howlett. Next, violinists Natsuko Yoshimoto and Brigid Coleridge delivered a one bar figure ornamented with trills and turns above the pulse, the whole then moving between and across different pairs of instruments. This device of swapping musical ideas across the quartet allowed the musicians to demonstrate an impressive sympathy of phrasing. The listener was hard pressed to distinguish who was playing which figure by tone, only the pitch register giving the game away. This approach would be quite common in the choral music that the young Schubert would have been familiar with.
The final section makes up the bulk of the work and was not remotely choral; an extended allegro delivered with crisp precision. Contrasting dynamics were rendered skilfully such that the softer sweeter phrases did not lack resonance, and the work ended with powerful chords from perfectly matched bow strokes.
From the beginning of Schubert’s musical composing career with the Overture the program moved to the end. “The Shepherd on the Rock” D.965 was composed in 1828, in the last months of Schubert’s short life.
The work begins with piano. Ignaz Maknickas’ gentle opening phrase peerlessly blended with Lloyd Van’t Hoff’s opening note in such a way that one couldn’t hear the clarinet begin to sound, only realising that it is simply there. It was a wonderful beginning to a performance marked by attention to detail, and a controlled exposition of colour, shade and meaning in all three parts. Alexandra Flood’s voice was clear and compelling at every dynamic, never strident or forced, and her diction was meticulous. Her story-telling was ably supported by Van’t Hoff, whose line demonstrated very similar emotional depth and timbre. And always there was the glorious sound of Schubert’s piano writing, Maknickas’ playing never overbearing but just as rich as the other two lines. A masterful performance.
The final work of the evening, Schubert’s Piano Trio No. 2 in E-Flat Major, D.929, held particular fascination for those audience members who had attended the Conversation with Howard Penny: “The Ultimate Piano Trio?” presented earlier in the afternoon. In these Conversations Penny shares his thoughts on the performance of particular works based on his experience as a musicologist, pedagogue and one of Australia’s pre-eminent cellists.
Penny had explained that this Trio, like “The Shepherd on the Rock”, was also written in Schubert’s last year, using an even bigger canvas of melodic richness. Schubert’s mastery of trio instrumentation again rivals symphonic textures and so neatly bookended the promise of the opening Overture of the recital. This trio was one of the few works that Schubert heard performed, initially at a friends’ engagement party. It is dedicated not to any patron but simply to music lovers. It also had a rare successful public performance in Vienna later that year, providing a much-needed financial windfall for Schubert.
Once the musicians were seated to their satisfaction, with Harry Bennetts and Penny facing each other in front of the keyboard so that all three had clear sight lines, the opening phrase was delivered with grace and aplomb. It did not appear again for some time. It was the next theme, annunciated first by Penny, which dominated this movement, repeated in many guises, differing harmonies and intervals, and modulating from E flat to B minor, which key Penny had explained personified a particular type of bittersweetness characteristic of Viennese nostalgia. Melodic snippets repeated, unravelled and flowed between the players, and it became evident how sensible the seating arrangement was, as Bennett, Penny and Daniel de Borah kept in touch with constant communication of eyes, bows and arms. An extended coda heralded the only instance of a fortississimo dynamic in this work, after which the first theme made its only reappearance, joining the second theme to end the movement.
The second movement is marked andante con moto, and that con moto was honoured here with a tempo a little faster than the movement is often performed. This neatly bypassed the technical difficulty of sustaining an overly large bowing technique, which can so easily sound turgid. The additional fluency allowed the placement of the grace notes at the start of the second bar of the cello entry to occur before, rather than on, the beat – a small but vital detail that once heard is keenly anticipated every time this main theme recurs. This movement also contains a two-note falling “farewell” figure taken from a Swedish song whose lyrics talk of the loss of hope with the advent of night. The players carefully presented these farewells to be recognisable throughout the development without ever dominating any part of it. A final restatement of the main theme by Bennetts and Penny in perfect accord was followed by a cadenza-like soft sigh of semiquavers from de Borah. Two pianissimo farewell chords ended the movement.
The Scherzo and Trio third movement was originally designated by Schubert as an elegant minuet, and consists of a canon between the piano and strings, modulating often and succeeded by a trio and restated scherzo. All was presented with vigorous precision, which also had wonderful visual appeal. The movement plays out, in Penny’s words, with “genial Viennese charm and swagger”.
The finale is a huge and complex mixture of sonata and rondo forms. De Borah opened with a bright first subject in E flat, which Bennetts rapidly moved to a darker second subject in C minor triplets. Penny and Bennetts then shared the third subject, which de Borah underpinned with sweeping semiquavers in the right hand, all coming to an abrupt stop. In simple terms, the rest of the finale had the musicians playing with these three subjects in myriad ways, and, in an unusual addition, Penny also brought back the second movement theme with a transfigured accompaniment from de Borah and Bennetts.
This is a delightful but emotionally taxing trio for both audience and performer. The journey that de Borah, Bennetts and Penny took the audience on always felt secure, not just in its technical brilliance but in its deep understanding of the complexity of this most Romantic of piano trios. This recital performance after Penny’s earlier illuminating Conversation insights was also a rare feast for those who relish their music presented with a deep dive into its innermost workings.
Photo supplied.
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Jaynee Russell-Clarke reviewed “Schubertiade”, presented as part of the Bendigo Chamber Music Festival at The Capital on February 6, 2025.
