United Kingdom Brahms: Michael Collins (clarinet), Michael McHale (piano), Talich Quartet (Jan Talich Jr. [violin], Petre Strižek [violin], Radim Sedmidubsky, Michal Kanka [cello]). Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, 13.1.2024. (JC)
Brahms – Sonata in F minor for clarinet and piano, Op.120 No.1; Piano Quintet in F minor, Op.34; Sonata in E flat for clarinet and piano. Op.120 No.2; Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op.115.
What a delight it was to spend an afternoon immersed in Brahms’s music with Michael Collins and Co.! Despite consisting mostly of his later music — Brahms was going to end his composing career when he heard clarinettist Richard Mühlfeld and decided to pick up his pen again — the programme was engaging and diverse, showcasing Brahms the hot-blooded virtuoso, Brahms the creator of swoonworthy melodies and Brahms the experimental composer. The performers who brought Brahms’s music alive in London on a Saturday afternoon also showed to their audience what joy is contained in the act of playing chamber music as their fraternal energy permeated the Southbank’s Queen Elizabeth Hall.
The first half began with Michael Collins and Michael McHale performing Brahms’s First Clarinet Sonata, a challenge as an opener to a concert for both parties involved. Despite not feeling comfortable with the position of his reed – he adjusted it between movements — Michael Collins delivered a wonderful performance of the sonata. His tone was extremely varied and versatile, solid in places, delicately light in others. The sublime second movement was beautifully played without becoming stagnant, always lyrical. The dance in the Allegretto grazioso movement and the boisterous finale carried great mirth and energy, and Michael McHale responded with great attentiveness and sensitivity.
As Collins retired backstage, he was replaced by the Talich Quartet, bringing to the table Brahms’s youthful Piano Quintet. Immediately one sensed the difference between the elder Brahms and the same composer thirty years prior. The Piano Quintet reveals a more ambitious composer striving for an expansion of form, strong rhythmic motifs and muscular virtuosity, and the Talich Quartet with Michael McHale embodied all of that. They delivered an electrifying performance of this masterpiece! The quartet was extremely sensitive to each other’s playing which gave birth to many spontaneous magical moments. It was really nice to see players who have obviously rehearsed a lot together still surprising each other onstage and responding to the music in real time. The rhythmic drive in the latter two movements of the quintet was strong and despite the technical challenges the score poses the music never seemed out of control. The piano could have projected more in order to create a bigger sound, but it did not take away from the excitement created by sensitive musicianship and an openness to spontaneity in this one-time musical collaboration.
After the interval was Brahms’s Second Clarinet Sonata. Unfortunately, the pianist seemed less at ease than in the previous performances and seemed much more passive, thus making the performance less engaging than the one of the First Clarinet Sonata only an hour ago. The Clarinet Quintet, despite being written close to the other compositions for clarinet, seems to come from a wholly different era. The Talich Quartet, who joined Michael Collins to finish off the all-Brahms programme with this late masterpiece, brought the same intensity as it did to the Piano Quintet in the first half. They provided a solid foundation for Michael to freely direct the music, especially in the second movement, in which the clarinet is given almost extemporaneous passages above tremolo strings, a technique rather uncharacteristic of Brahms. The quartet let Michael take the lead in the final movement of the Clarinet Quintet, a wonderful set of variations.
This concert was a very nice occasion allowing an incredibly versatile clarinettist to take centre stage, showcasing music by a great Romantic composer who saw the potential of this underrated instrument more than a century ago and decided to champion it in the later period of his life.
Jeremy Chan