BY CHRISTOPHER WAINWRIGHT
La Gaia Scienza
Adelaide Festival
Adelaide Town Hall, 8 Marcy
As a young university student, I remember Barrie Kosky programming three revelatory concerts of classical piano trios by Beethoven, Mozart and Haydn, with then-Ensemble of the Classic Era led by Australian fortepianist Geoffrey Lancaster. Since then, to the best of my memory, Adelaide audiences have scarcely if ever heard classical albeit romantic piano trios and other chamber music performed on period instruments.
When the 2017 Adelaide Festival of Arts announced the visit of the acclaimed but relatively unknown Italian chamber ensemble of fortepiano, violin, viola and cello, La Gaia Scienza to Adelaide, I looked forward to hearing their performances of Brahms and Schubert. La Gaia Scienza, founded in 1981, is without question a leader in its field, whose pedigree is based on the experiences of working and studying with early music specialists such as Gustav Leonhardt, Anner Bylsma and Christophe Coin. These experiences and curiosity led them to perform and reconsider how classical and romantic chamber music is performed with HIP (historically informed performance practice) and period instruments, with gut strings and the different precursors of the modern grand piano.
To enjoy a chamber music program of Schubert and Brahms, as more often the pairing is Schumann and Brahms, because of the close friendship and compositional involvement with Robert Schumann’s wife, Clara. That aside, the pairing of Schubert and Brahms is one that worked well as it allowed one to appreciate and celebrate their compositional voices and to observe the role of story-telling and thematic ideas in music. In chamber music, it is often more a case of supposition, but hearing the music and appreciating the dramatic energy and dynamics can and does give great depth to the notes annotated by these two German greats.
Opening the program was Franz Schubert’s often-performed Notturno in E flat D897, and what I immediately appreciated was the different colours the Conrad Graf replica fortepiano brought to the music. For starters, it sounded lighter, it seemed less percussive and there seemed to be greater room for the pianist in terms of chord voicing, dynamics and to be more a lyrical, rather than a percussive force. Joining the fortepiano were two beautiful (probably period) instruments strung with gut and played with a period bow, the change in sound on them deeper and more resonant with greater warmth than steel strings.
Having great instruments is one thing, but being able to command and create a performance which stands out from the crowd is another. La Gaiai Scienza quickly confirmed this in the Notturno through the precision of phrasing, articulation and the ability through stretching the rhythm in very few examples to heighten the drama, the music’s rhetoric and to shape and build the character of the music’s sections. On paper this sounds simple, and these musicians also made it look like a walk in the park, which isn’t the case either. What they created as the opener was a Notturno which for the first time in my memory fully captured the eeriness of its darkness, pin-drop soft dynamics and a sense of deepened serenity.
What was achieved in a mere 10 minutes was just the tip of the iceberg of what I discovered, appreciated and enjoyed. For some, seeing live music is about the drama and the persona of the musicians, on this occasion this was not needed, as what their performances were about was the development and nurturing of the audience’s aural curiosity.
Following Notturno was Brahms’ dramatic and expansive Piano Trio in B, Op. 8, performed using the revised version. In programming this work, one heard and discovered the dynamic range and carry of the fortepiano and the violinist and cellist’s ability to tackle and bring life to a major work of the piano trio repertoire. They achieved precision and tightness in how they played and that travelled through more than rhythmic control – perhaps stemming from years of working together and discovering, trialling and questioning different musical territories.
Brahms is often perceived as a serious grand master. It was delightful to hear the musicians revelling in the joyous, fun and perhaps even humorous rhythmic or melodic devices.
The third work in the program was an incomplete and young work by Schubert who, if I hadn’t been informed by in the program, I would have immediately thought was Mozart or Haydn. There is a good reason for that: in writing the string trios, he was channeling and celebrating his classical music heritage. While being an early work, it is a delightful piece, which allow the violinist, violist and cellist to show off their huge range of dynamics, the ability to make their instruments sing and the attention and love they give to every note they play.
Closing this concert was the less-often-heard Brahms’ Piano Quartet No. 3 in C minor, a work in which the music alone is sheer delight. It is a work, a lot like the Op. 8, where Brahms’ frequently moves between moments of darkness and angularity and then out of nowhere, often with some grandiose or virtuosic moments, moves to joy, brightness or stateliness. La Gaia Scienza’s performance of this work furthered the cause in how impressed and appreciative I was of their ability to question and bring new ideas and flavours to a masterpiece, all while utilising their instruments to create amazing sounds.
One moment I’d love to capture and remember are the opening bars of the third movement in which cellist Paolo Beschi brought out from his instrument a most beautifully rich and warm phrase with clarity and precision. What it was that made it stand out, it is hard to pin-point, but I think it’s just another of this ensemble’s amazing unspoken spirit, which encourages and nurtures the audience’s aural curiosity.
After two hours of being taken to a different world of romantic music, it had to end. I do sincerely trust that before long, we can tempt these musicians to come back to present many more concerts.
Image supplied.
