Music at Paxton – Summer Festival of Chamber Music 2023 [3]: (MC)
22.7.2023 – Paul Lewis (piano), Picture Gallery, Paxton House, Berwickshire, Scotland
Schubert – Piano Sonata No.7 in E-flat major, D.568; Piano Sonata No.14 in A minor, D.784; Piano Sonata No.17 in D, D.850
Arriving at Paxton House Music was Liverpool born pianist Paul Lewis who has been taking his Schubert Series both home and abroad. A former student at Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester and the Guildhall School of Music, Lewis is one of the UK’s leading pianists and by my reckoning one of the foremost of his generation internationally. Attending a masterclass with Alfred Brendel led to Lewis taking lessons with the great German pianist becoming his protégée.
It was no surprise Lewis had chosen to play a full evening of Schubert as he recorded a cycle of the complete Schubert piano sonatas for the label Harmonia Mundi. Starting off in 2002 with recordings of sonatas D.959 and D.960 Lewis completed his cycle in 2022 with sonatas, D.537, D.568 & D.664.
Lewis began his all-Schubert recital with the Piano Sonata No.7 in E-flat major, D.568 possibly from around 1826. For this Schubert had both revised and completed an unfinished 1817 Piano Sonata in D-flat major, D.567. This was confident and convincing playing from Lewis. One soon realised in this four-movement score just how cognizant Lewis is of Schubert’s turbulent moods. I experienced the light melancholy of Andante molto movement from Lewis as exquisite, providing a sense of solace.
Next Lewis played the Piano Sonata No.14 in A minor, D.784. It was written in 1823 in the wake of a difficult time for the composer who had been hospitalised for what was likely syphilis. In three movements the A minor score had to wait eleven years after his death before it was published.
This is an extremely intense score that verges on the unrelentingly tragic. In the opening movement Allegro giusto Lewis’s playing seemed to reflect Schubert’s anger and hurt at the realisation of his illness.
Lewis relished the unruly character of the Finale: Allegro vivace and drove the music forward energetically evoking to me a roller-coaster ride.
After the interval Lewis dived straight into the Piano Sonata No.17 in D major, D.850. Sometimes referred to as the Gasteiner Sonata, Schubert completed his four-movement score in 1825 during a vacation with his friend the singer Johann Michael Vogl, when he spent time at the Austrian spa resort of Bad Gastein. Overall, within this D major score of epic scope, Lewis’s performance evoked the grandeur of the stunning alpine scenery with its perilous snow-covered summits, ice cold mountain lakes and verdant valley pastures. In this direct and robust statement of intent from Schubert, I found especially striking Lewis’s playing of the Scherzo creating an ebullient character that just flowed with energy.
Although an enthusiastic admirer of Schubert works especially his piano sonatas I am not as keen on this immersive approach of three of his works on the same programme that was almost too much of a good thing. With playing of integrity and unwavering concentration, however, Lewis delved deep to the emotional core of these Schubert sonatas. I found Lewis’s performances entirely compelling, and I hope it is not too long before I attend another of his recitals.
Music at Paxton – Summer Festival of Chamber Music 2023 [4]:
23.7.2023 – Rowan Pierce (soprano) and Christopher Glynn (piano), Picture Gallery, Paxton House, Berwickshire, Scotland
‘An Entertainment’
Arne – O Ravishing Delight
Haydn – The Mermaid’s Song; A Pastoral Song; O Tuneful Voice; She never told her Love
Beethoven – Since Grey Beards Inform Us; To the Aeolian Harp
Schubert – The Lonely One; Listening to Love; To Music
Walton – A Song for the Lord Mayor’s Table: The Lord Mayor’s Table; Glide Gently; Wapping Old Stairs; Holy Thursday; The Contrast; Rhyme
Poulenc – Banalités: Chansons d’Orkenise; Hôtel; Fagnes de Wallonies; Voyage à Paris; Sanglots
Noël Coward – A Bar on the Piccola Marina; London Pride; Sail Away
The relative intimacy of the Paxton Picture Gallery was just perfect for the song recital ‘An Entertainment’ from soprano Rowan Pierce and pianist Christopher Glynn.
Pierce is a prize-winning soprano who attended the Junior Royal Academy of Music at weekends. It was at the Royal College of Music in 2017 she was awarded the President’s Award and having embarked on a professional career Pierce has debuted at the English National Opera, Royal Opera House and Glyndebourne. Leicester born Christopher Glynn obtained a music degree at New College Oxford and studied piano at the Royal Academy of Music where he is now a professor. Glynn is music director of the Ryedale Festival in North Yorkshire, where both he and Pierce have collaborated.
Pierce had designed an attractive and fascinatingly varied programme of twenty-four songs including two song cycles to replicate the musical entertainments that were once fashionable in all types of homes. The recital spanned over two hundred years from a Thomas Arne’s opera aria through to a song by William Walton.
The first half of the recital comprised of ten songs all sung in English, with a single song from the only Englishman Thomas Arne, and four from Haydn, two by Beethoven and three from Schubert. Haydn songs are works I rarely encounter, and it was pleasing to hear four settings. Three are settings of verse by Anne Hunter (née Home) an Irish poet that Haydn had met whilst on tour in London and the fourth setting is She never told her Love from Shakespeare play Twelfth Night. These Haydn songs unquestionably suited Pierce who sang quite beautifully, imparting the evocative texts so distinctly. Standing out was Pierce’s performance of Schubert’ To Music an English translation by Jeremy Sands of the setting An die Musik (1817) by his friend Franz von Schober. Clearly Pierce relished Schubert’s beautiful flowing melodies and clearly conveyed the text that extolls the ‘healing power of music’ to ensure one can revive and find love anew.
In the second half Pierce performed fourteen songs. Included was music from English composers Walton with a song cycle and three Coward songs, plus a song cycle of mélodies by Poulenc. Pierce shone with the six songs of Walton’s 1962 song cycle A Song for the Lord Mayor’s Table and was able to provide a slight cabaret-feel to the set. There was also Poulenc’s Banalités his 1940 cycle of five mélodies settings of French poems by Guillaume Apollinaire. I enjoyed the contrast of the three Noël Coward songs although Pierce was fighting against the composer’s exceptionally distinctive voice, which all pale by comparison.
Rowan Pierce clearly deserves to forge ahead with her career, and she has a bright voice which isn’t big but is most effective. She took great care with the meaning of the text and her level of performing expression felt just right. Without difficulty Pierce’s voice projected extremely well though the Picture Galley. The support from pianist Christopher Glynn was all that Pierce could ask for. With such energy Glynn seemed more of a participant in the recital than an ordinary accompanist.
Michael Cookson