United Kingdom Schumann and Paganini: Academy of Saint Martin within the Fields / Joshua Bell (violin and director). Queen Elizabeth Hall, London. 26.1.2023. (CSa)
Schumann (arr. Ravel) – Excerpts from Carnival, Op.9
Paganini– Violin Concerto No.1 in D Major
Schumann – Symphony No.2 in C Major
Recently returned to London after a thirteen-stop tour of Germany and Luxembourg, the indefatigable Joshua Bell and the musicians of the Academy of St Martin within the Fields introduced a high-octane efficiency of Schumann and Paganini to the Southbank’s Queen Elizabeth Hall. The determination to hyperlink works by these two nineteenth-century composers in the identical programme made sense. Niccolò Paganini was a loyal follower of the music periodical Neue Zeitschrift für Musik which was based and edited by Schumann, and the latter’s admiration for the virtuosity of the person referred to as ‘the Devil’s Violinist’ is well-documented. After attending a live performance in Frankfurt in 1830 to listen to Paganini play in particular person, the 20-year-old Schumann enthusiastically reported, ‘how he cast his magnetic chains into the listeners lightly and invisibly so that the latter swayed from one side to the other.’ Indeed, so nice was Schumann’s veneration for Paganini, that he really options as one of many characters in Carnaval – his assortment of 21 miniatures for solo piano.
Carnival, the piece which started the live performance, was commissioned by the nice dancer Vaclav Nijinsky on behalf of the Ballet Russes and deftly tailored for orchestra by Ravel in 1913. Like Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, tailored by Ravel eight years later, Schumann’s composition was initially written for piano, and includes a collection of 21 etchings or work. These painting a collection of characters at a masked ball at carnival time. Sadly, a lot of Ravel’s unique rating has been misplaced and only some of those orchestral sketches stay. The first motion, Préamble, opens with a daring brass fanfare, after which a collection of grand, swirling melodies transport us to the dance ground. The second extract, Valse allemande – Paganini, a lilting and wistful waltz, particularly contains Schumann’s hero in its title. The third piece – Marche des Davidsbündler contre les Philistins – is a biblical reference to the musical King David who slew the Philistines and was meant to take a swipe on the shallow compositions of a few of Schumann’s mediocre however standard rivals. In musical phrases, Carnival occupies the identical melodramatic, one-dimensional world of Parisian gentle opera. Despite Ravel’s delicate and complicated textures, there’s something harking back to Offenbach in its orchestration. Superficial maybe, however a deliciously tuneful option to open the proceedings. Bell, seated on a leather-based upholstered rectangular stool, took his place subsequent to the primary violins, and pivoting between the orchestra and viewers, used his bow in extravagant gestures to accompany or alternatively conduct his gamers. Under his energetic management, each part of the Academy’s 52-strong band sparkled.
Piano stool eliminated, Bell stood centre stage in entrance of his gamers holding his 300-year-old Huberman Stradivarius, to carry out Paganini’s First Violin Concerto. Described by one critic as ‘a concerto with the madcap theatricality of comic opera’. It is an extravaganza of devilish problem which requires virtually pyrotechnical expertise and the athleticism of a London Marathon winner to carry out. The orchestra supplies a considerably mundane accompaniment to the violin’s acrobatic melodies. There are not more than a handful of soloists at present who’re able to enjoying them, and fewer nonetheless who can imbue them with such deep emotional depth. Bell is one in every of them. The first motion, marked Allegro maestoso, is an intricate assault course of double and triple stops taken at breakneck pace. Bell, swaying back and forth like a sapling in a storm, made gentle of those extraordinary calls for. Yet his efficiency was not centred on technical showmanship. On the opposite, his emphasis was on rigorous management, refinement, and sweetness of tone. Each theme was exquisitely moulded, and every be aware articulated with glowing precision and readability, significantly within the lovely second motion Adagio. In Bell’s magic fingers, the breath-taking intricacies of the demanding Rondo: Allegro spirituoso appeared easy.
After a rousing standing ovation from the near-capacity viewers, and a well-earned interval, Bell as soon as once more resumed his player-conductor position, seated to at least one facet of the orchestra, for a efficiency of Schumann’s advanced Symphony No.2. Written when the composer was dealing with a disaster in his private life, and affected by listening to issues and the onset of psychological sickness, the work was regarded by Schumann as ‘full of combativeness, very moody and rebellious in character’. The work’s wealthy, and continuously altering tones and textures mirrored Schumann’s shifting emotional states and made for an altogether extra introspective and religious distinction to the choices within the programme’s first half. The symphony’s first motion marked Sostenuto assai which begins with a serene brass fanfare underscored by a sinuous string line, shortly transitions to a seething, turbulent Allegro vivace. A window is instantly opened into Schumann’s troubled soul. A restive second motion Scherzo provides method to an Adagio espressivo of heart-breaking magnificence, whereas the ultimate motion, resolute, joyous and defiant, means that when this was written, Schumann was going by a interval of restoration. The ASMF performed all through with agility and heat, significantly within the strings and woodwind. They additionally conveyed a way of immediacy and urgency, helped in massive measure by the scale and comparative intimacy of the Queen Elizabeth Hall. An spectacular efficiency to make certain, but it was Paganini’s concerto which proves that the outdated satan nonetheless has the perfect tunes, and the wizardry of Joshua Bell and his Strad which can dwell within the reminiscence.
Chris Sallon