After having heard the first half of the 1:00 p.m. recital, I returned to Morse Hall later Sunday afternoon to hear the 5:00 p.m. recital, one of the longest I've attended this season. The program lasted almost three hours and featured works by Ravel, Ferruccio Busoni, Heinrich von Herzogenberg, Edvard Grieg and Schubert that are not so often performed, at least not that I've heard recently here in New York City.
The program opened with a pair of works for two pianos that were both composed at roughly the same time, Ravel's La Valse (1919-1920) and Busoni's Duettino concertante nach Mozart, BV B 88 (1919) that's based on the final movement of Mozart's Piano Concerto No.19 in F major, K.459. Of the two works, it was the Ravel piece that was by far the more captivating. Ravel excelled at orchestration - what he accomplished with Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition is breathtaking - but the reduction of La Valse is, if anything, even more jarring and exciting than the orchestral version. Although the composer vehemently denied that the piece was in any way a reflection of Europe's postwar malaise, it's impossible to accept Ravel's earlier claim that it was intended as a tribute to Johann Strauss II, the Waltz King himself. That may have been the original intention when Ravel first conceived the idea in 1906, but his service driving a munitions truck at the front as well as the death of his beloved mother, plunged him into so profound a despair that one wonders if he may not actually have been suffering from a form of PTSD, Certainly, there is little here of the graceful Viennese waltzes one hears on New Years Day. Instead, the piece always makes me think of the off-kilter sounds one might expect a broken music box to produce.
The two pianists were Chaeyoung Park and Salome Jordania; their coach was Matti Raekallio.
The next work was the Trio for Oboe, Horn and Piano, Op. 61 (1889) by Heinrich von Herzogenberg, a composer with whose work I'd previously been unfamiliar. A professor of composition at the Berlin Hochschule, Herzogenberg is best remembered today for his friendship with Brahms. He was in fact a great admirer of the Viennese master, but unfortunately the latter never held Herzogenberg in equally high esteem. Judging from the present work, that may have been a mistake. The four movement trio is definitely a very competent work that displays throughout traces of Brahmsian classicism handled in an adept manner. The unusual combination of instruments also adds to the work's considerable charm.
The trio was performed by Russell Hoffman, oboe, Harry Chin-Pong Chiu, horn, Chang Wang, piano, and was coached by Julian Martin and Erik Ralske.
The trio was followed by Grieg's String Quartet No. 1 in G minor, Op. 27 (1877-1878). This was the only quartet completed by Grieg - a second was left unfinished at his death - and it's really a masterpiece that sounds much more modern than its date of composition would indicate. Grieg had previously put to music a poem by Ibsen entitled Spillemaende ("Fiddlers"), and he used this song as the "core motive" in the quartet. It continually strives for a soaring orchestral sound that caused many early critics to find fault with it to the extent that Grieg's usual publisher, Peters, at first refused it. After that, Grieg considered reworking it into another chamber form, but was convinced not to do so by Robert Heckmann whose ensemble had premiered the piece. The quartet did have its admirers, however, including both Liszt and Tchaikovsky, and is today one of the few Nordic pieces to have a permanent place in the repertoire.
The musicians on this piece were Annika Jenkins and Mira Yamamoto, violins, Jordan Bak, viola, and Jan Fuller, cello; they were coached by Ronald Copes.
After a brief ten-minute intermission - the recital had already lasted 90 minutes by this point - the program concluded with Schubert's Octet in F major, D. 803 (1824). The work was commissioned by Ferdinand Troyer, chief steward to Archduke Rudolph, one of Beethoven's most important patrons. It was inspired by Beethoven's Septet, by then almost a quarter century old but still, to the master's chagrin, by far his most popular work. Schubert for the most part adhered to his model's six movement structure and instrumentation but added a second violin to provide an even richer texture. As Troyer was an expert clarinetist, Schubert made sure to give that instrument a prominent part in the composition. Like its predecessor, the Octet is an enjoyable melodic piece that incorporates themes from the composer's lieder. It's in the tradition of the Classical divertimento but of a far more serious nature. Running a full hour in length, it demonstrates great complexity in the interrelationships among the eight instruments and in that sense can be seen as a preparatory study for the Symphony No. 9 composed the following year.
The eight musicians were Kenneth Liao and Lyly Li, violins, Stephen Goist, viola, Mariko Wyrick, cello, Sheng Yao Wu, bass, Alec Manasse, clarinet, Thomas English, bassoon, and Nathaniel Silberschlag, horn; their two coaches were Fred Sherry and William Short.
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