A clean sweep for Andras Schiff in Rome with a marathon concert where music spoke louder than words.
And what Music !
Starting with the Aria from the Goldberg and finishing three hours later with Schubert’s G flat Impromptu having ‘demolished ‘ or more correctly ‘relished’ twelve works mostly of Bach.
A wondrous FABBRINI Steinway with the 90 year old magician in the hall to reassure Schiff of the very best instrument that would allow him to turn the notes of the masters into wondrous luminous sounds of whispered beauty.
Sonatas followed by Mozart : K 570 in B flat and Haydn :Hob XVI : 44 in G minor.It was the simple beauty of Mozart distilled in his last piano sonata where Schnabel was to say Mozart’s music was too easy for children but too difficult for adults. Andras Schiff with humility and mastery was able to tread this line to absolute perfection. In the two movement G minor Sonata the genius of Haydn was revealed to us in all its refined intricacy as Richter was to show us, with this very sonata ,in the ’60’s on his first appearances in the West. Let us not forget ,though, the little Gigue by Mozart which was imbued today with a dynamic drive of subtle accents that brought a smile to our face, reminding us that Mozart like Haydn also had a sense of humour and all the world was a stage! After masterly performances of Bach’s Chromatic Fantasy, Italian concerto ,Fifth French suite and Capriccio it was time to change voice.
A very particular Viennese voice that only the Bösendorfer could provide and that was wheeled on in the interval .
This was after a first half of 90 minutes that had passed in complete,marvelled silence.
Now a shorter second half with Beethoven’ s last work for piano : the Bagatelles op 126 followed by Schubert’s Drei Klavierstücke.Three movements all under a cloud of wondrous sounds that united them as one. Not the usual fast slow fast of three separate movements but one glorious whole with the same voice of ravishing beauty. I had never been aware today of how short the work can seem.
Beethoven’s last work for piano, the six bagatelles op 126 ,where the composer had distilled sounds, like Mozart, to a bare framework adding colour through long pedals or the same wisps of sound on which fragments are floated like in his last Sonata op 111, as they are interrupted with the impatience of the final burst of energy Beethoven was to reveal.
A final glorious farewell with Schubert’s magical G flat impromptu floated into the midnight air as many now had lost their last buses home.
It was the absolute simplicity of his music making that held the audience in a silence that I have rarely noticed in Rome especially in the winter season. No need to admonish the audience that was present in great numbers today as they were able to enjoy such a journey of discovery and simple beauty.
There was never a moment of boredom where a cough or two might take away the tedium.
This was because the music spoke with the inflections of the human voice in a musical conversation where there were no mere notes and where Nadia Boulanger’s constant reminder was ever present : ‘Words without thought, no more to heaven go’ ( Shakespeare 12th Night). Performances where balance and touch were used to bring contrasts where other interpreters use muscle and projection. Schiff drew us in to a world of such disarming simplicity and was able to suggest contrast not by playing louder but by revealing the bass or inner counterpoints that could give the impression of another voice in the orchestra that he was revealing with his ten fingers.
His playing reminds me of the Indian summer of Wilhelm Kempff or Radu Lupu where through Matthay like sensitivity (infinite gradations of sound in each note) and a refined sense of balance, together with an intelligence and poetic soul, they could convince us that this box of hammers and strings could sing better than any singer. It could become an orchestra worthy of the greatest ensembles and in fact the Piano is an instrument for all seasons and styles. As Graham Johnson said to me when I asked him how he was allowed by singers to leave the piano lid open; with a knowing smile he simply said because they know I can drive!
Andras flying away on his magic carpet to surprise and delight his fellow Florentines on Saturday with another concert where at the drop of his hat he will find even more wonders to share with us on his miraculous voyage of discovery .
ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary 