East Neuk Festival: Viola, Clarinet, Piano

East Neuk Festival, Crail Church, 26/6/2025 

Emma Wernig (viola), Sergio Pires (clarinet), Chiyan Wong (piano)

Crail Church was the venue for the forenoon event on the first full day of this year’s East Neuk Festival, billed as ‘Diyang Mei & Friends’, with works for various combinations and solos of viola, clarinet and piano.  Unfortunately, star violist Diyang Mei, whose Bach and Brahms had whetted our appetites in 2023’s Festival, was experiencing visa issues and unable to travel from Germany (I shall refrain from ranting about Brexit – I may have said that out loud?).  The ‘friends’, clarinettist Sergio Pires and pianist Chiyan Wong, were however in attendance, and Sergio was able to “phone a friend”, with the result that violist Emma Wernig was able to step in at short notice, to present an almost identical programme, with minor adjustments.

A viola-and-piano arrangement by Vadim Borisovsky of the Introduction from Prokofiev’s Suite from his ballet ‘Romeo and Juliet’ opened the concert.  The glorious melodies were delivered with warm tone enriched by lovely vibrato, while mutually responsive phrasing characterised the interplay of the instruments.

Mozart’s ‘3-movement ’Kegelstatt’ Trio K.498 is something of a rarity, so it was great to catch it live.  The opening Andante, in triple time, had an air of good-humoured banter between viola and clarinet, with cheeky comments from the piano, all delivered in sonata form.  Mozartean phrasing, with subtle hesitation and relaxation of the metre, was delicious.  In the minuet, the viola scampered while the clarinet tried to persuade it to adopt a more dignified and noble metre, almost but not quite succeeding. The Rondeaux finale was playful with one charming minor-key episode.  Very lovely.

Stravinsky’s ‘3 Pieces for Solo Clarinet’, written in 1918 for a clarinet-playing philanthropist who had helped him out when he was down on his uppers, was a first hearing for me.  The first piece had an improvisatory, meditative feel.  The second was very ornate, ranging over the instrument, and seemed imitative of birdsong.  For the last piece, Sergio switched to the E-flat instrument, for music that was cheekier, jazzy and syncopated, with a frenetic dash to the finish.  An enjoyable piece given a convincing outing.

György Kurtág’s ‘Hommage à R. Sch.’, a homage to Robert Schumann in the form of 6 pieces for the full trio, 5 short sketches in typical Kurtág minimal style and one longer overtly elegiac piece.  The pieces have long titles referring to the facets of Schumann’s personality (it would be an exaggeration to say “longer than the pieces themselves”, but not by much).  My shorter descriptive titles of the first 5 would be: line sketch, limpid, fierce & austere, slow with subtle comments, and nightmarish attack.  I always find Kurtág a compelling listen, but I would never travel to hear solely his music.  It was played with consummate skill.

Next up, Chiyan Wong played Gustave Samazeuilh’s Prelude from his 1902 neo-classical ‘Suite in G’ for solo piano.  The influence of Debussy was clear and, whilst it would never challenge the place in my esteem reserved for Ravel’s exquisite ‘Tombeau de Couperin’, its subtle, elegant modality and fluid romanticism received the fullest advocacy and it was a welcome introduction to a composer hitherto unknown to me.

The final work on the programme was a substantial 4-movement piece of bona fide Schumann using the full trio: his ‘Märchenerzählungen’ (Fairy Tales) Op.132.  The first movement was in the character of a song-without-words/ romance/humoresque, the piano providing the context for dialogue between the viola and clarinet, pure chamber music and very satisfying.  The second movement was march-like and started sternly, but the mood relaxed and then skipped along for a bit.  It alternated between these two characters before grim austerity reasserted itself for the end.  The slow movement was a yearning, romantic reverie, the viola and clarinet lines weaving around each other.  Very lovely.  The finale I had definitely heard before, whether on Radio 3 or live I can’t recall.  Initially march-like, the music strutted confidently.  A different mood inhabited the central section and was lighter and quite Brahmsian.  Back to the first mood for the ebullient coda.  A super piece setting out the chamber music credentials for the next four days.

There was an encore, from the full trio, which I didn’t recognise, another accompanied love duet between the viola and the clarinet.  Gorgeous.