Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, KV 466 - No. 23 in A major, KV 488
Olga Pashchenko (fortepiano), Il Gardellino conducted by the soloist
Exactly two years ago I discussed here Olga Pashchenko's interpretation of Mozart's Piano Concertos KV 271 and KV 453. Now this new album features the already frequently tested combination of KV 466 and KV 488.
On her previous album she used two different fortepianos: for KV 271 a replica by Paul McNulty based on a J.A. Stein model from 1788, and for KV 453 a copy after an Anton Walter from 1792, also by McNulty.
For KV 466 and KV 488, Pashchenko again chose an instrument by McNulty and, unlike in the preceding piano concertos, wrote the cadenzas for KV 466 herself, in line with famous predecessors such as Beethoven, Hummel, Alkan, Brahms, Busoni and Clara Schumann. However, for KV 488 – I quote from the booklet – Pashchenko could not resist the temptation to play Mozart's (fully written-out) cadenza.
Copy of an Anton Walter fortepiano (1792) made by Paul McNulty
Pashchenko (*1986) studied at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow with Alexei Lubimov (piano), Olga Martinova (harpsichord and fortepiano) and Alexei Smirnov (organ). Elsewhere she attended numerous master classes with, among others, Trevor Pinnock, Malcolm Bilson, Bob van Asperen, Bart van Oort and Andreas Staier. In 2011 she took lessons at the Amsterdam Conservatorium with Richard Egarr. From March 2017 she taught there herself as a fortepiano instructor.
Is the fortepiano in general the most suitable instrument for performing Mozart's piano concertos at all? From the perspective of historically informed performance practice, it certainly is, and the aforementioned McNulty replicas almost self-evidently meet this requirement.
Starting with Anton Walter (1752-1826): he was undoubtedly the best-known and most valued builder of fortepianos in Vienna, this 'Kays. Königl. Hof Orgel und Instrumentenbauer'. Walter brought about many innovations and his mechanisms were even regarded as a standard for a long time. This included the flawless catching of the hammer on its return (which prevented unintended bouncing, especially during forceful strikes). As far as is known, some seven hundred instruments left his workshop. One of them was purchased by Mozart in 1782 (Beethoven was keenly interested in it in 1802, but backed out at the last moment.) According to Carl Thomas Mozart (1784-1858), his father had a preference for the wing-shaped fortepiano. The instrument was not only placed in his (Viennese) study, but Mozart also insisted that only such a Walter instrument should be used in his concerts, regardless of where they took place: palace halls, theaters, casinos, courts, and so on.
As far as Mozart's appreciation is concerned, the knee levers certainly played a role – the precursors of the pedals as we know them: the right lever served to sustain the sound, the left as a moderator (a felt layer that was mechanically inserted between hammer and string to dampen the sound). As early as October 17, 1777, Mozart wrote enthusiastically from Augsburg to his father Leopold about such a mechanism:
'This time I shall start at once with Stein's fortepianos. Before I had seen any of his make, Spath's keyboards were always my favorites. But now I much prefer those of Stein because they even damp much better than the Regensburg instruments. […] This apparatus, which you operate with your knee, works better on Stein's than on other instruments. I need only touch it and it works: whenever you shift your knee even slightly, you hear not the slightest reverberation.'
Excerpt from the letter of October 17, 1777
In an impressive video on YouTube (click
) South African fortepianist Kristian Bezuidenhout explains the special significance of the fortepiano in relation to Mozart's music, also discussing the Steinway concert grand.KV 466 (scored for flute, two oboes, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani and strings) was completed in Vienna on February 10, 1785 and performed almost immediately thereafter at the Mehlgrube Casino, with Mozart as soloist and conductor. In connection with this, Father Leopold wrote to his daughter Nannerl that the copyist was still working on the orchestral parts until the very last moment and the composer therefore did not even have time to rehearse the Rondo with the orchestra: he preferred to give priority to checking the work delivered by the copyist.
Mozart completed KV 488 on March 2, 1786, two months before the premiere of Le nozze di Figaro. Despite its optimistic A major, it is a work full of contrasts, scored for only flute, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns and strings. The interplay of light and shadow is crafted phenomenally, as is the melodic and harmonic invention driven by ingenious motifs. Moreover, the balance between colorful virtuosity and lyrical expression testifies once again to great mastery, as does the orchestration, exemplary despite its modest means.
Contrary to what is sometimes assumed, KV 466 is not a 'dark labyrinth' but a pivotal point characterized by strict clarity, pairing superior tension-building with seemingly boundless subtlety, with both soloist and orchestra under virtually continuous high tension. Even the lyrically spun out Romance does not escape this in its furious middle section.
That there is a clearly demonstrable correlation between these two concertos and Mozart's operatic world has already been convincingly shown by many musicologists. Pashchenko also recalls this in her (brief) commentary:
'Thinking about these concertos as operas, where all the instruments are non-verbal heroes, strenghtened our idea of performing them without a conductor for a great chamber music-like interaction between all the personaggi. Altogether we wanted to create a play, a dialogue, such that both concerti would tell their own special story. [...] In KV 466 the cadenzas are fantasized by your humble servant and one might hear the shadow of Il Commendatore and the Requiem touching us with its ominous wing.'
It is crystal clear: this has been Pashchenko's most important point of departure for her interpretations, that inimitable connection between these two piano concertos and opera, but without imposed theatricality. The expressive power that lies hidden in her fascinating discourse manifests itself primarily in the sublimely drawn blend colours that are synonymous with rhetorically shifting emotions, emanating from fear to warm lyricism, from passionate intensity to exuberant joy. The Flemish Il Gardellino proves itself once again to be the ideal, extremely responsive ensemble that is driven forward with great elan by Pashchenko – conducting emphatically from the keyboard and of course in collaboration with concertmaster Evgeny Sviridov. It works perfectly well without a conductor, as great predecessors of Pashchenko have undoubtedly demonstrated, including Andsnes, Barenboim and Uchida.
The interpreter passes, the genius remains. Pashchenko is of course aware of this, and thus humility is fitting. The knowledge too that no single musician can illuminate every aspect of these exceptionally rich scores. She comes very far in this extremely driven performance, free from any routine, the probing exploration of the inner and outer, the – albeit merely suggestive – intuitive that also characterizes her playing, alongside the nearly etching-like relief, also thanks to the fortepiano excelling in this regard with its naturally parallel strung strings.
To dwell on this last point for a moment: until 1835 the strings ran parallel to each other. It was Johann Heinrich Pape who came up with the idea of stringing the bass strings diagonally in the piano, in such a way that they crossed the treble strings. This allowed him to build a piano with a reasonably powerful tone, with a maximum string length of 133 cm and a height of no more than about 100 cm.
Around 1870 Steinway came out with a cross-strung grand piano. The advantage of this was the much more powerful tone with a string tension of as much as about 25,000 kg (which could be neatly distributed thanks to the triangular shape). It proved to be a successful concept that was soon followed by other piano makers. The inevitable consequence was the standardization and thus the uniformity of piano tone. However, with the emergence of historically informed performance practice in the sixties of the last century, the search also got underway for greater diversity and clarity of sound. The Belgian harpsichord, piano and grand piano manufacturer Chris Maene brought a grand piano with parallel strung strings to the market not so long ago. As a compromise between the fortepiano and the traditional concert grand.
In the concert hall, the fortepiano often loses out to the orchestra in terms of volume. The only solution then is to thin out the orchestral parts, which in itself cannot raise any objections because in the eighteenth and partly nineteenth centuries such a modest instrumentation was not only customary but often also performed in smaller venues.
Pashchenko's sparkling and flashing playing is extremely detailed and sonorously recorded, as is the case with the many blend colours and the equally flawless balance between fortepiano and ensemble (which without recording technical tricks rarely succeeds). I already praised the fervent musicians of Il Gardellino who form the ideal partners for Pashchenko (and vice versa, no doubt).