Schubert 200 in Washington DC
January 27, 1997 – The Altenberg Trio, "concert celebrating 200 years, Franz Schubert" at the Austrian Embassy, in Washington, DC. They performed the Piano Trios D929 and D898. The Altenberg trio has recorded the World premiere of the "unabridged version" of the Trio in E-flat major, Op 100/D929. This version is about a third longer than what we are normally used to hearing, but, as Claus-Christian Schuster, the pianist of the group assured us that night, they have played the complete version to many audiences, and "there have been many survivors". This CD is available from Vanguard Classics, The Netherlands. A very good evening.
January 30, and February 13, 1997, Notturno, parts 1 and 2, at the Embassy of Austria, Washington, DC. "To commemorate the 200th Anniversary of the Birth of Franz Schubert". If you haven’t seen this movie, you MUST see it. Notes from the program: "this breathtaking movie is based on an in-depth study of biographical and musical sources and is internationally recognized as one of the best analytical portraits of a composer. Its soundtrack is outstanding and includes samples of Schubert’s quartets and symphonies, as well as piano compositions and his last mass." The first part, titled "Die Liebe hat gelogen", contains many beautiful scenes of young people dancing, gliding down a river, revelling in the open air. When the first evening ended, there was applause from the audience. Part 1 was like a "feel good" movie. The second part,Die Winterreise was the complete opposite. When the movie ended, the audience was silent, speechless, sad; not moving right away, not leaving right away. In silence, we watched the credits go by, and listened to the beautiful music, then departed quietly. A very beautiful, moving movie.
January 31, 1997 – National Public Radio (NPR), Performance Today (PT) Special Programming. (NPR is available all across the US, on various local fm stations). The Schubert Year on NPR/PT started with a blast. Suddenly, at 7pm, the nightly program "Performance Today" announced it was celebrating the 200th birthday of Franz Schubert. The program consisted of 2 hours of excellent recordings by top performers. These recordings are available on a 2 CD set, "Franz Schubert in Performance", issued by NPR on the birthday of the composer. You may order your set by calling, in the US, 1-888-677-3472. Performers include the Emerson String Quartet, Denyce Graves, Bryn Terfel, to name a few. It is worthwhile adding to any Schubert collection. This was an excellent, exciting program of Schubert music, followed by the Night program, also devoted to Schubert. A very good way to start the Schubert year. NPR honoured a year-long celebration of the Schubert Bicentennial. Details are available by visiting their archives. The Schubert celebration continues into 1998, as NPR broadcasts programs that were recorded last year and concerts of the 1997/98 concert season, which also include Schubert Bicentennial concerts. More details are available from the PT home page.
February 1 and 2, 1997, The Grand Salon of the Renwick Gallery, Franz Schubert. Piano Trio in B-flat Major, D. 898, and Quintet in A Major, D. 667 The Trout, performed by the Castle Trio, Lambert Orkis, fortepiano; Marilyn McDonald, violin; Kenneth Slowik, violoncello; with guest artists Kathryn Plummer, viola; and Trent Hellerstein, double bass. The pianoforte was a reproduction of a Streicher, Vienna, c. 1815, with 5 pedals; the string instruments were all period instruments of excellent sound. The way the artists ended the piano trio in B-flat major was breathtaking. This was one of those evenings when the performers get completely carried away by the music and by the occasion of the concert. It was one of those rare occasions when there is electricity in the air. A memorable experience rarely duplicated
February 9, 1997, The National Gallery of Art, one of a series of concerts in honour of the "200th Birth Anniversary of Franz Schubert". Bradford and Maribeth Gowen, pianists. Music of Schubert for piano, four hands: German Dance with two trios in G major; Variations on an original theme in A-flat major; three German Dances; Duo in A minor Lebenstürme; Fantasy in F minor; Polonaise in D major; and Rondeau brillant in D minor. The husband and wife team gave a beautiful performance. The program covered many different aspects of Schubert’s style and mood in his composition. Their interpretation of Lebenstürme was very moving and could make one feel the pain of this Love Storm while the polonaise uncovered a joyful, playful side of Schubert’s piano music. I heard the Fantasy in F minor on several occasions this year. This was definitely the best interpretation, smooth, not rushed, capturing the very special loving spirit of this piece, dedicated to the young Countess Esterházy.
February 23, 1997, The National Gallery of Art, one of a series of concerts in honour of the "200th Birth Anniversary of Franz Schubert". Catherine Robbin, mezzo-soprano; Michael McMahon, pianist; Miles Hoffman, violist, performed songs by Schubert and Brahms, including two songs with viola by Brahms. Catherine Robbin’s interpretation of the songs, and her voice, are a delight to hear.
February 24, 1997, Schubert and His Time, at the Embassy of Austria, Washington, DC. Elisabeth Eschwé and Thomas Kreuzberger, Four hands on the Piano. Franz Schubert, Military march op. 51/3, Deutscher with two trios and Ländlers; Beethoven, Eight variations on a theme by Count Waldstein Wo067; Franz Schubert, Fantasy in F-minor, op. 103, D.940; and Brahms, Hungarian Dances Nos 11-16. Each piece or group of pieces was introduced by a recitation of letters and texts by Eduard von Bauernfeld, Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, and Elisabeth von Herzogenberg. I discovered that Brahms wrote quite a bit about Schubert, and that he expressed "love" for Schubert’s music. In one of the letters read that night, Brahms says that everywhere he goes in Vienna, he meets people who knew Schubert and who talk about him. "it’s almost as if Schubert were still alive" he writes.
March 2, The National Gallery of Art A concert in honour of the Millennium of the Nation of Austria and the 200th Birth of Franz Schubert. The National Gallery Orchestra and the Washington Men's Camerata, Thomas Beveridge, conductor. Franz Schubert: Symphony No. 3 in D major, D200 Franz Schubert: Gesang der Geister Über den Wassern, for male chorus, set to a poem by Goethe. (Song of the Spirits over the Waters) Brahms, Alto Rhapsody; for alto and male chorus, soloist Beverly Benso von Weber, Hunter's Chorus. As with many concerts this year, Schubert and Brahms were honoured. Excerpts from program notes: "The eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries…saw a burgeoning of guilds, student organisations, hunting lodges, and other special interest clubs. These were open at the time only to men, and singing in parts was a favourite pastime for many of their members. […] Even when setting texts such as the ones heard this evening, which deal with emotions and aspirations common to both men and women, composers such as Schubert and Brahms often turned to the male chorus sonority on account of its intrinsic beauty." This year brought the performance of works by Schubert seldom heard. Among them, the songs for male choruses were a welcome discovery. The Washington Post wrote of the "lovely textures and warm colours" of Schubert's Gesang der Geister Über den Wassern, and said that this song "gave the orchestra's violas, cellos and basses an opportunity to shine, and shine they did."
March 23. From the National Gallery of Art. One of the highlights of the year. Winterreise, song cycle to poems by Wilhelm Müller. Canadian baritone Daniel Lichti and pianist, harpsichordist, and conductor Leslie De'Ath rearranged their schedules so as to be able to substitute for Hermann Prey, who was ill, and pianist Michael Endres. The crowd overflowed into the hallway, where a monitor had been installed. The evening was a great success and very rewarding. It was also very emotional, as an evening of Winterreise should be.
April 10, 1997, The Embassy of Austria. Eduard and Johannes Kutrowatz, piano duo, featuring works by Franz Schubert and Johannes Brahms. Franz Schubert: Marche charactéristique in C Major, Op. Posth, 121, D886 Rondo in A Major, Op. 107, D.951 Lebensstürme in A minor, Op. Posth. 144, D947 Variations on a theme from the opera Marie by Hérold, Op.82/1, D.908 Johannes Brahms: Hungarian Dances. I liked their interpretation of Brahms, but I feel that the Schubert pieces left something to be desired, and certainly they did not equal the lyrical performance 2 months before by the duo-piano team of Maribeth and Bradford Gowen at the National Gallery of Art.
April 26, 1997. Washington's Men's Camerata, Spring concert, Kennedy Center. An evening celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Franz Schubert and commemorating the 150th and 100th anniversaries of the deaths of Felix Mendelssohn and Johannes Brahms. A glorious tribute to three of the greatest composers of men's choral music. Another step in the discovery of Schubert's music for male choruses. Schubert: Widerspruch (Contradiction); the beautiful a cappella Die Nacht (The Night); An den Frühling (To Spring); la Pastorella (The Shepherdess); Salve Regina; Der Gondelfahrer (The Gondolier), poem by Mayhofer; Gesang der Geister Über den Wassern (Song of the Spirits over the Waters), with piano accompaniment, poem by Goethe; the beautiful male chorus version of Sensucht (Longing), poem by Goethe; and two drinking songs, Edit Nonna and Auf! Jeder sei nun froh und sorgenfrei! (Now we should be happy, worry-free!) Brahms: Geleit (Military Burial); variations on "Blau, blau, Blümelein" (Old Love Song); the program ended with the splendid Liebeslieder Waltzes. Mendelssohn: Beati Mortui (Blessed are the Dead); Liebe and Wein; Jagdlied (Hunting Song); Der Jäger Abschied (The Hunter's Farewell).
May 4, 1997. University of Maryland Memorial Chapel. Brahms & Schubert Anniversaries, with the University of Maryland Chorus. The very beautiful Brahms Liebeslieder, opus 52, songs for men's chorus by Schubert, and selections from his Deutsche Messe. By this time of the year 1997, I had heard several of Schubert's works for men's chorus many times. This program concluded with a work not heard very often, Einförmig ist der Liebe Gram op 113 no 13 a choral arrangement of the melody of Schubert’s Der Leiermann as a six- part canon.
October 15, 1997. At the Austrian Embassy Franz Schubert: The Wanderer, a lecture presented by Joseph McLellan, Music Critic Emeritus of the Washington Post; followed by the documentary film The Wanderer (1997) featuring Andras Schiff.
October 18, 1997. At Dumbarton Church in Georgetown: The Dumbarton Concerts, in this intimate historic setting presented the Lark String Quartet and Guarneri Quartet cellist David Soyer, in a Franz Schubert birthday concert. Together, they performed one of the most beautiful pieces in the chamber music repertoire, the Schubert C Major String Quintet, D956. Also on the program were the unfinished masterpiece, String Quartet in C minor, D703, Quartettsatz, and special birthday wishes from Haydn, Beethoven, Mozart and others in Peter Heidrich's (b.1935) Variations on the Theme Happy Birthday. This series is normally broadcast about a year later on "Music from Washington, Dumbarton Series", on WETA, 90.9 FM in Washington, D.C. Unfortunately, I did not attend this concert, and I am looking forward to its radio broadcast.
October 24, 25, and 26, 1997. Georgetown University's Gaston Hall Schubert, Schubert and Schubert, three commemorative concerts presenting the music of Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Brahms, performed by the Haydn Trio and the Auryn quartet. For this bicentennial year, all the Schubert selections but one had Deutsch numbers higher than 880. This means that they date from 1826 or later, when Schubert's "music rose to heights unmatched by any later composer" (Joseph McLellan). The first night of the Festival, the Haydn Trio played Schubert's spacious and lyrical Piano Trio in E-flat major and Mendelssohn's melodious Trio in C minor. Op.66. Brahms' very impressive Piano Quintet in F minor, Op.34 opened the second night, followed by Schubert's last string quartett, D887 in G. The final concert was dedicated exclusively to Schubert, with two of Schubert's best-known and best-loved compositions. The sunny and witty Trout Quintet in A, D667 opened the concert. The String Quintet, D956, one of the greatest pieces, if not the greatest piece of chamber music ever composed, concluded the festival in a glowing tribute to Schubert's genius. For this year's program, visit Schubert, Schubert and Schubert on the internet at http://www.access.digex.net/~schubert/