The prevailing Beethoven craze knows barely any limits: the public 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. We have meanwhile learned that we should see him as an ordinary human being. But at the same time, that ordinary person is revered as a true hero, yes as a god, who changed music forever! So we remain stuck, just like previous generations, in a greatly 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 the 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 knows how to reach that group. That bodes little good for the future. The older generation seems to hold on until the bitter end, but unless a miracle happens in arts education, we must fear that Ludwig's 300th birthday celebration will look very different.
Claire Chevallier took on three sonatas. She began with the well-known Waldstein Sonata. My expectations were tense, but the exciting character of the ever-recurring theme with repeating notes did not come through because of her slow tempo. The numerous contrasting themes were presented in short phrases, the dramatic arcs were missing, making her playing seem short-winded.
Also in the lesser-known sonata 22, a laborious work built around scales, but with a possessed ending, her playing was too little flowing. Perhaps that was because she was sight-reading? Her interpretation of sonata 23, known as 'Appassionata', could not really convince me either. She did not sweep me along in the story, through somewhat lacking contrast, somewhat muddled playing (especially in the last part), and she had the instrument tuned between two sections because there was a radio recording. Also, the instrument did not always sound equally clear, especially not in the somewhat louder passages in the low register, where the sound sometimes became dull to a heavy 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. Four sonatas were his responsibility: 24, 25, 26 and 27. And although I would not 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 rendering of sonata 26 'Les Adieux' a pleasure. His playing flowed and left a positive impression.
The real work was still to come. Fritz was taken away and Conrad - a replica of an instrument by Conrad Graf - was put in its place. Anyone who has visited the Beethoven House in Bonn cannot have missed the original. A substantial instrument with a range of just over 5 octaves. Olga Pashchenko took on sonatas 28 and 29, the so-called Grosse Sonate für das Hammerklavier, for her account. This proved to be a good choice. Pashchenko, who knows how to handle everything with keys and is considered one of the greatest talents of this moment, gave an impressive reading of both works.
Sonata 28 shows well how Beethoven's ideas about sonata form changed over the years. Here he charges like an elephant in a musical china shop and indulges fully in a succession of themes and their sometimes dizzying elaborations. A fine example is the four-part fugue in the final section, which was executed by Pashchenko with sovereign brilliance. From the first to the last note, there was tension and excitement in her playing. Pashchenko tells a story, and that is what we missed with Chevallier and Koch.
It became even better with the Hammerklavier Sonata, which was richly presented in terms of contrasts, tone colors and dynamic differences down to the finest details. All themes were clearly presented, with the colossal fugue in the last section as the highlight. There Pashchenko once again demonstrated the brilliant technique she possesses, and - more importantly - how she knows how to couple that with musical intelligence.
The audience remained dazed after so much musical display and the decibels that came with it. However, they were given little time to recover, because within a quarter of an hour Abdel Rahman El Bacha was already ready to finish the job. Anyone who thought things could only go downhill after Paschenko was sorely mistaken. Rahman El Bacha surpassed all his colleagues with his restrained, integral performance, stripped of all outward display. A joy to see and hear. Under his hands, Beethoven's last three sonatas sounded almost as a unity. An idea further reinforced by the short pauses between the works. Surprising timbres he conjured from his instrument, sometimes feather-light as a harp, sometimes dark with rumbling bass strings. A convincing plea for the fortepiano! Sometimes meditative, sometimes agitated, always compelling.
And then, finally, at the end of the afternoon an element made its entrance that we had sorely missed that afternoon: emotion. We had already heard much beauty, 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 itself from its chains: freedom! In the succession of ever further developing variations on a theme that typifies this sonata, time as it were comes to a standstill and the sonata as 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 deserved accolade 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