United Kingdom Janáček, Mozart, Bach, Shostakovich: Peter Donohoe (piano), Academy of St Martin in the Fields. St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, 15.2.2025. (MBr)
Janáček (arr. Richard Tognatti) – String Quartet No.1, ‘The Kreutzer Sonata’
Mozart – Piano Concerto No.12 in A major
CPE Bach – Symphony in G major H.655
Shostakovich – Concerto in C minor for Piano, Trumpet and String Orchestra, Op. 35
It has been some two decades since I was last at St Martin-in-the-Field’s for a concert and how worthwhile this one proved to be, despite, I suspect, it coming rather close to not happening at all. With scheduled pianist Bruce Liu falling ill en route to London the afternoon before the concert, it must have proved very difficult to find a pianist to cover for the two concertos on the program, although the Mozart did subsequently change.
The Academy of St Martin in the Fields is an orchestra I have not heard for a very long time either – something I will remedy based on the outstanding playing we got here. The performance of the first work on the program, Leoš Janáček’s String Quartet No.1, ‘The Kreutzer Sonata’, in an arrangement by Richard Tognetti, was simply astounding. Stephanie Gonley, the exceptional leader of the orchestra, is quoted in the booklet as saying that this haunting music is something you ‘could hear again decades and still remember it’. Much the same, I think, would be true of the memory of this particular performance which, somewhat rarely for me, remains as strikingly vivid and fresh in the imagination as it was on the evening it was given; indeed, it is probably the finest, most devastating, performance of ‘The Kreutzer’ I have yet heard, in either the string quartet or the orchestrated version.
Janáček had everything in Tolstoy’s novella of marital strife and cruelty – a Russian view of marriage as cold, obsessive, and raging with jealousy amidst the Tsarist oppressiveness of the times – to create something that resonated with the themes of his earlier operas such Jenůfa. But rather than write a sonata of Beethovenian scale, he treated Tolstoy’s novella (even if he didn’t follow its narrative) on almost minimalist terms: ‘The Kreutzer Sonata’ is Haydanesque in its size, with short movements, although there is absolutely nothing about ‘The Kreutzer’ which flinches from the mood, atmosphere or the sheer rage of the jealousy which is evoked by Tolstoy’s destructive husband, Pozdnyshev.
The best performances of this work are all about conflict: this is music that needs to be both passionate, but tense; it needs to be marked by the emotional extremes of jealousy and then of remorse. If there was often the sense of the soloists of the orchestra (the principal violins, viola and cello) playing off each other magnificently, and with often febrile intensity, then there was also a devastating ominousness and grunting terror from the two double basses that underlined how dark this story is. Tempi were always exacting – the poco agitato, for example, with Gonley’s solo powerfully searing as if branding flesh. The earlier scherzo had been spiky, with rhythms sharpened like needles just to bring home the atmosphere of jealous nagging hanging in the air. If the cello and violin entwined in the slower andante section of the third movement this never felt for a moment a loving one; rather, it was of conflict, with the seething rage bubbling beneath it. One could only feel the overwhelming sense of tragedy during the closing pages – in a performance where here the music became desolate, with fragmented notes breaking up into a kind of marital wasteland. Tognatti’s arrangement brings, it is true, an added lushness to Janáček’s quartet – but played the way it was here it felt entirely devastating, heartrending and completely tragic.
The Mozart concerto which followed (played by Peter Donohoe) was the A major No.12 (replacing the programmed No.9). Donohoe certainly brought a sense of gravity, even intensity, to his playing, though this is not a notably Mozartian concerto full of turmoil, even in the faster movements. There was considerable elegance to much of the playing, notably in an Andante that felt exquisitely hymnal at times. Tempi were fleet in the outer movements, and the numerous cadenzas were played with brilliance and a lightness that tended towards the Viennese in touch. But it all felt a little back-to-front, that perhaps the Mozart should have preceded the Janáček – or perhaps not been there at all.
CPE Bach’s Symphony in G major H.655 opened the second half – a crisp work, with nifty outside movements cradling a sombre Largo. The ASMF played it with exquisite poise, beautiful tone and balance – setting up a nice contrast to the main work, Shostakovich’s Concerto for Piano, Trumpet and String Orchestra.
Under the circumstances, the performance was as fine as one could have expected – especially since Donohoe was largely sightreading the score (a very notable British skill, and certainly not one all pianists are comfortable with, especially in concertos of this complexity). The concerto is small in scale – for a chamber orchestra of strings only (no grand Romantic concerto here) – but it also plays up the sardonic, convivial side to this composer which is less exposed in his other concertos: here humour is almost done with comical effect, the solo trumpet an instrument of parody at times, the piano either hyperactive as if on a Helter skelter or wistfully sinking into melancholy.
I think Donohoe took a little time to warm up in the first movement, appearing just a little too score-bound, with some hesitancy (the reference to the Appassionata just a little too literal), the tempi perhaps just a tad more on the moderato than Allegro moderato. The Lento, however, was beautifully done – spellbinding in the waltz-like theme that had a wistfulness to it, and with perfect interplay between the trumpet (played by Mark David) and piano. Considerably freer was the Allegro con brio, where Donohoe seemed completely at ease and willing to let his hands just rattle off the notes with explosive abandon. With David’s militaristic trumpet and the piano in a kind kaleidoscopic overdrive the performance finally came together.
Although this was certainly not the concert it was supposed to have been it often did hit the mark and in the case of Janáček’s ‘Kreutzer Sonata’ gave us a performance of remarkable and, I think, unforgettable intensity and power. It may well be rather more than that – it was little short of a lasting musical memory, and those are very few in my experience.
Marc Bridle