by Marvin J. Ward

Northampton and Ashburnham, MA, 11 and 12 October 2008.  There aren’t too many places outside major metropolitan areas where one can hear historically informed performances by 1st rate musicians with any frequency, but Western Mass is blessed with regular opportunities to do so.  Yet the possibility of a weekend full of this kind of Beethoven playing is rare even here.

For the 1st concert in its 20th season on Saturday evening in Smith College’s Sweeney Concert Hall, Arcadia Players offered a program of Beethoven firsts.  It opened with his 1815 An die ferne Geliebte, Op. 58, not only Beethoven’s but the world’s first true song cycle, with texts, sometimes interlinked (The final lines of the first and last poems are identical.), by the same author telling a story, and sung without pause.  Tenor Peter Shea was accompanied by pianist Monica Jakuc Leverett playing her 2000 Paul McNulty (an American residing and building in Divisov, Czech Republic) piano inspired by the designs of Viennese "Walther & Sohn" products from the early 19th century, a 5.5 octave (FF – c’’’’) keyboard with 2 knee levers, moderator (which inserts a piece of felt between the hammers and the strings) on the left and sustaining (like the damper on a modern piano) on the right.  The piano is discrete in this work, shining primarily in introductory and concluding passages to each poem but otherwise playing a supporting role.  Shea’s perfect lieder voice, impeccable diction, and judicious interpretive skills together with Jakuc Leverett’s sensitive touch were a fine combination and made this a magical rendition.  The work ends in a fff, and they had all the power necessary to make the hall resound and elicit hearty applause from the audience.

The orchestra came onto the stage to join Jakuc Leverett for the next work, the Piano Concerto No. 4 in G, Op. 58, which had its 1st public performance in the infamous 4-hour long 22 December 1808 concert in Vienna with the composer conducting from the keyboard and the orchestra apparently sight-reading.  It is held by some to be the first truly Romantic piano concerto because it breaks with the Classical mold by having the piano begin and the orchestra echo rather than the reverse, as well as containing other innovative elements.  One can also see that the composer is pushing his instrument to its outer limits, using every key (The work was written for a 5.5 octave piano.) and undoubtedly wishing there were more.  The lid was removed from the piano for both works: This is a significant detail to note, because doing so allows the piano’s sound to rise and blend with those of the other instruments (or the voice) rather than focusing it outward, and thus keeping it more distinct from and making it seem to dominate them.  Jakuc Leverett improvised a most effective figured-bass style accompaniment in the orchestral tutti sections in accordance with performance practices of Beethoven’s time.  The instruments of the 32 musicians conducted by Artistic Director Ian Watson and the McNulty piano were more than adequate to fill the hall with lovely, warm sound in what was a stunning performance by all.  One could almost hear the audience holding its breath with rapt attention to and pleasure with this "new" way of hearing this remarkable work.

After the Interval, the orchestra returned with 2 more members to play the Symphony No. 1 in C, Op. 21, which was premièred in 1800.  This rendition was equally fine, and again the forces were more than adequate for the hall.  The earlier instruments have a warmth that more brilliant modern ones, often made with different materials, lack, and consequently reveal details and nuances of the music that are often lost in the sound produced by larger organizations playing the latter.  Arcadia Players began its life as a Baroque period group, but has in recent years, like many other early music groups, expanded its size to include more musicians, some of whom also play with Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society, and scope to extend into the Classical and even early Romantic period.  With this concert, Watson, beginning his 5th year as AD, clearly demonstrated that this fine organization has moved up to the next level.

On Sunday afternoon, the 4th recital in the Frederick Collection’s 24th fall season also featured Beethoven.  The artists were the NY City-based Orfeo Duo, pianist Ishmael and his sister violinist Vita Wallace, who played the entire program from memory.  They opened, however, with works by 2 of Beethoven’s pupils.  Ishmael chose to play the Collection’s 6-octave (FF – f’’’’) piano by “Caspar Katholnig, Burger in Wien” dated ca. 1805-10, and not in playing condition when acquired from Count von Schönbrun, whose wife was an Esterházy, and said to have been part of the estate of her family palace at Eisenstadt, but meticulously restored by Mr. Frederick.  It has 4 pedals, l. to r.: una-corda (The piano is double strung; this shifts the keyboard so that only 1 is struck by the hammers.), bassoon (which lowers a thin strip of paper to vibrate against the lower strings, presently disabled), moderator, and sustaining.  Vita played an instrument by Matthias Albani made in Bozen/Bolzano in 1706.

The opening piece was “Variations in C on an original theme” dating from 1810 by Archduke Rudolf of Austria & Tuscany, who was also Beethoven’s patron.  It was originally composed for the czakan, an exotic early 19th century novelty instrument that combined a recorder and a walking stick.  The work was not exotic, however, but quite charming, lighter in texture than much Beethoven, and skillfully composed.  This was followed by a Sonata in A (date not available) by Ferdinand Ries, who studied with Beethoven in the early 1800s and was also his secretary and copyist.  He was a well-known pianist as well as later a conductor, and published a book of reminiscences of Beethoven in 1838.  It, too, was a charming piece, with the central Andantino movement especially lovely, more Classical than Romantic.

Both of these works, as well as Beethoven’s 11 Bagatelles, Op. 119, for piano from 1821-22, showed off well the possibilities and varieties of the remarkable sound the Katholnig can produce, that veritably bathes you in its warmth and richness as well as impressing with its roundness and volume.  This work was composed on Beethoven’s triple-strung 6-octave 1817 Broadwood, acquired in 1818 and now in teh Hungarian National Museum in Budapest.  After the interval, Beethoven’s Sonata No. 10 in G for piano and violin, Op. 96, from 1812, rev. 1815, his last for this instrumental pair, dedicated to Archduke Rudolf, concluded the program.  It was a fine and very sensitive performance, and like the 4th piano concerto, the work pushed the possibilities of this instrument’s keyboard to its outer limits.  The 6.5 octave piano was not available until the mid 1820s.

In both of these performances, it was interesting and instructive to watch the facial expressions and body language of the performers.  The smiles that spread across their faces as they savored the sounds they were able to produce and the gestures of lifting their arms from the keyboards in a sort of triumph revealed their joy in achievement not unlike that of an athlete who has just won a race or broken a record.  But here, it is also the sharing with the audience of what these instruments can offer that others cannot that provides the thrill.  Unlike athletes, musicians strive for others rather than themselves, and their goal is the beauty of sound, not merely its volume.

Many classical music lovers are reluctant to attend historically informed concerts using original early pianos (or replicas thereof) because they believe that they produce weak “tinkly” or “tinny” tones.  They should banish this thought!  There was certainly an early stage in the development of the pianoforte (now called the fortepiano) from the harpsichord where this was the case, but those are not the models used in major recital halls or performances.  On the contrary, the sound is remarkably rich, round, and warm, and often has a greater variety in tone among the registers than modern instruments, and the necessary volume is not at all lacking.  In the final analysis, they often reveal nuances in the compositions of their times that modern pianos cannot display.