The prevailing Beethoven craze knows hardly any limits: the audience is flooded by a tsunami of events. Every self-respecting venue organizes at least a concert series or preferably a festival. But all the fuss surrounding Beethoven also has something paradoxical about it.
In recent years, the great artist has increasingly been stripped of his heroic status. By now we have learned that we should see him as an ordinary human being. But at the same time, that ordinary human being is revered as a true hero, yes as a god, who changed music forever! So we remain stuck, just like previous generations, in a strongly distorted Beethoven perception. Admittedly a different one, but is it a better one?
In Antwerpen AMUZ came up with a special concert series Beethoven in Primetime: a Beethoven marathon of all thirty-two piano sonatas, performed in one weekend by different pianists on original instruments. Too much is too much. To avoid an overdose, I decided to limit myself to two double bills on Sunday afternoon with my favorite late sonatas. Still twelve pieces!
Curious about the performances of our own Claire Chevallier, the German Tobias Koch, the Russian Olga Pashchenko working in the Netherlands and Belgium, and the Lebanese-French-Belgian Abdel Rahman El Bacha, I took a seat in Sint-Augustinuskerk among a predominantly older audience. Unwittingly, I was thus confronted with the aging of our classical culture. It is worrying that twenty- and thirty-somethings are so absent. Beethoven apparently no longer reaches that group. That bodes little good for the future. The elderly seem to hold out until the bitter end, but, unless a miracle happens in arts education, we must fear that Ludwig's 300th birthday celebration will take on a very different appearance.
Claire Chevallier took on three sonatas. She began with the much-known Waldstein sonata. My expectations were high, but the exciting character of the constantly recurring theme with repeating notes did not come across due to her slow tempo. The numerous contrasting themes were presented in short phrases, the tension arcs were missing, making her playing seem short of breath.
Also in the lesser-known sonata 22, a laborious work built around scales, but with an obsessive ending, her playing was too little fluid. Perhaps that was because she was sight-reading? Her interpretation of sonata 23, known as 'Appassionata', could not really convince me either. She failed to sweep me along in the story, due to the little contrasting, somewhat messy playing (especially in the last part) and she had the instrument tuned between two movements because there was a radio recording. The instrument also did not always sound clear, certainly not in the somewhat louder passages in the low register, there the sound sometimes got muddy to a dull rumble.
Under the hands of Tobias Koch, that same pianoforte – a replica of an instrument by Johann Fritz, built by Chris Maene – came to life. He took on four sonatas: 24, 25, 26 and 27. And although I would not want to call Koch the most inspiring Beethoven interpreter, he acquitted himself well of his task. There was tone color, the dynamic contrasts were present, his playing was light and full of humor. That made his rendition of sonata 26 'Les Adieux' a pleasure. His playing flowed and left a positive impression.
The real work was still to come. Fritz was removed and Conrad - a replica of an instrument by Conrad Graf - took its place. Anyone who has visited the Beethoven House in Bonn cannot have missed the original. A sturdy fellow with a range of over 5 octaves. Olga Paschenko took on sonatas 28 and 29, the so-called Grosse Sonate für das Hammerklavier, for her account. That turned out to be a good choice. Paschenko, who knows excellent how to deal with everything that has keys and is considered one of the greatest talents of the moment, gave an impressive reading of both works.
Sonata 28 shows well how Beethoven's views on sonata form changed over the years. Here he charges like an elephant in the musical china shop and fully lets himself go in a succession of themes and their sometimes dizzying elaboration. A fine example is the four-part fugue in the final part, which was presented by Paschenko with sovereign brilliance. From the first to the last note there was tension and excitement in her playing. Paschenko tells a story and that is what we missed with Chevallier and Koch.
It became even more beautiful with the Hammerklavier sonata, which, rich in contrasts, tone colors and dynamic differences, was presented down to the last detail. All themes were presented clearly with the highlight being the colossal fugue in the last part. There Paschenko once again showed what brilliant technique she possesses, and - even more importantly - how she knows how to combine that with musical intelligence.
Murw left the audience drained after so much musical display and the accompanying decibels. However, the audience did not get much time to recover, because within a quarter of an hour Abdel Rahman El Bacha was already ready to finish the job. Anyone who thought that after Paschenko things could only get worse was mistaken. Rahman El Bacha surpassed all his colleagues with his restrained, integral performance, stripped of any outward display. A pleasure to see and hear. Under his hands, Beethoven's last three sonatas sounded almost like a unity. An idea that was further reinforced by the short breaks between the works. He conjured surprising timbres from his instrument, sometimes as light as a harp, sometimes dark again with rumbling bass strings. A convincing plea for the fortepiano! Sometimes meditative, sometimes agitated, always captivating.
And then, finally, at the end of the afternoon, an element made its entrance that we had sorely missed this afternoon: emotion. We had already heard much that was beautiful, but Rahman El Bacha was the first to touch the heart. His interpretation of Beethoven's last sonata became the true highlight of the afternoon. Here the composer is like a bear freeing himself from his chains: freedom! In the succession of ever-evolving variations on a theme that characterizes this sonata so well, time comes to a standstill as it were and the sonata as an art form and genre is laid to rest. The end of an era.
It is Rahman El Bacha's great merit that he made his soul available as a conduit to Beethoven and thus, as a true medium, offered the audience a direct glimpse into the rebellious and heroic soul of the maestro. A standing ovation was his reward. A well-deserved reward for an impressive performance!
- WHAT: Beethovenmania
- WHO: Claire Chevallier, Tobias Koch, Olga Pashchenko, Abdel Rahman El Bacha
- WHERE & WHEN: AMUZ, Antwerpen, Sunday afternoon 2.2.2020
- IMAGE MATERIAL: © mt