EIF: Malcolm Martineau and Steven Osborne
Queen’s Hall – 13/08/2022
The Queen’s Hall forenoon recital on Saturday 13th August brought us Edinburgh pianists Malcolm Martineau and Steven Osborne in 4-hands piano duet with two masterworks from different centuries for that format: Schubert’s F-minor ‘Fantasie’ and Ravel’s ‘Ma Mère l’Oye’ in its original version. To flank these, the duet was joined by SATB soloists Madison Nonoa, Jess Dandy, Magnus Walker and William Thomas respectively for both sets of Brahms’ Liebeslieder-Waltzer, Op. 52 & 65.
In a change to the published programme order, the Op. 65 set (minus the last of the 15) was performed first, while the earlier set of 18 closed the recital. I must agree with this artistic decision. A darker, more pensive emotional world surrounds the later songs, making them more logical companions to the pathos and melancholy of Schubert’s masterpiece; the earlier opus inhabits a sunnier landscape of Viennese Gemütlichkeit, not without some unfulfilled yearning, but a more logical bedfellow for the fairy tale world of Ravel’s impressionistic dreamscape. The omitted final song of the Op. 65 set apart artistically by its slightly longer duration, its metre of 9/8, its text being by Goethe and its mood being summarily valedictory, was performed as an encore – again an artistic choice that felt just right. All the others are vignettes of world folksongs, collected, translated and published by Daumer and cherry-picked by Brahms, set to a 3/4 metre that is more Ländler than waltz. A recipe for “sameness”? Not a bit of it – the genius of Brahms finds infinite variety, varying the vocal combinations, the rhythm, the dynamics and the mood.
And all were utterly delightful. The inner voices, so important in Brahms’ scoring, particularly the contralto’s bottom register and the tenor’s upper, had glorious tone and were delicious. The soprano sang with limpid clarity of line and the bass perfectly anchored Brahms’ exquisite harmonies. Balance of voices and instrument was flawlessly controlled.
It is perhaps inevitable that, having heard the Schubert F-minor Fantasie performed by Kolesnikov and Tsoy in the East Neuk Festival, comparisons arise, and they are not uniformly happy ones. The phrasing and subtle rubato in the sensitively played first section let Schubert’s most aching pathos speak and were fine; the sternly majestic Largo with its songlike central section was similarly played with mastery and excellent balance. The extended allegro vivace scherzandosection started confidently but wee imperfections in the articulation were evident and it felt a bit metronomic and rushed. The return of the opening melody was as well-delivered as previously, but in the fugato section, the voices were not fully integrated and the sense of mystery was not fully exploited. The excellent phrasing of the opening thankfully resumed for the closing pages.
Ravel’s ‘Mother Goose Suite’ is perhaps best known through his sumptuous expertly orchestrated version, but it was originally conceived as a (hopelessly ambitious) 4-hands piece for the children of his friends, the Godetskis. A series of 5 fairy tale character pieces comprises a hushed pavane for the Sleeping Beauty, a picture of the hopelessly lost Tom Thumb in a tall dark forest with birdcalls, a piece of delicious chinoiserie depicting Laideronette, Empress of the Pagodas, a dialogue of Beauty and the Beast (complete with the latter’s magical metamorphosis) and the equally magical and magnificently climactic Enchanted Garden. The playing was nuanced, elegant, engaging, charming and as magical as the subject matter, ensuring that the concert, especially the second half, will remain memorable for all the right reasons.
Cover photo: Ryan Buchanan