By Lyn Bronson
Well, the flamboyant Robert Levin was in our midst again last night. On this occasion Chamber Music Monterey Bay presented him at Sunset Center in Carmel as a soloist with the New York Philomusica in the Beethoven Fourth Piano Concerto in a version for piano and string quintet. This newly discovered arrangement contains a reworking of the solo piano part by Beethoven himself (with some startling new passages) and an orchestral reduction for quintet by Franz Alexander Pössinger. Dr. Hans-Werner Küthen, who reconstructed the score of this arrangement from the manuscript, and the Beethoven Haus in Bonn have granted Robert Levin and the Philomusica the rights to its American premiere performances.
The first question you might ask is, did we miss not hearing Beethoven’s glorious orchestration? Was it a little bit like being picked up at the airport in a Volkswagen when you were expecting a Cadillac limo? The answer is no, we didn’t miss the full orchestration, and we also didn’t miss that little man who is always standing out in front waving a stick, either. It was amazing how the quintet, composed of violinists Todd Phillips and Carmit Zori, violists Ah Ling Neu and Kirsten Johnson and cellist Melissa Meell, provided such a rich and satisfying musical ensemble that the integrity and musical purpose of the orchestration sounded new and fresh to our ears.
The quiet G Major chord that opens the first movement of the Concerto can be surprisingly difficult. There was a lovely story circulated by Artur Rubinstein some years ago about how the late Rudolf Serkin would worry over the voicing of that first opening chord. He would angle his right hand, stiffen his pinky finger to bring out the top third of the chord, pull up slightly on his second finger to minimize the effect of the fifth of the chord, and then hope as he slowly brought down his hand that all the notes would sound simultaneously. This tortured process took an agonizing eight to ten seconds. Serkin was in the audience one time when Artur Rubinstein was playing this concerto. Serkin was disconcerted to see that without a moment’s hesitation, Rubinstein depressed the damper pedal and casually brought down his hands and produced a fantastically beautiful opening chord. Rubinstein was astonished when among the backstage visitors, there was Serkin all in a huff and a puff because during the whole performance all he had been thinking about was the offhand way Rubinstein played the opening chord (Rubinstein always told a good story, although I am sure Serkin might have told it a little differently).
It turns out that Robert Levin did them both one better, for he arpeggiated the opening chord, and startling as it was, it worked beautifully. He also arpeggiated many of the chords in the sublime slow movement, and again it was very successful. In fact, I have to say that overall his performance was one of the most successful I have ever heard. There was a crisp vitality and spiky approach in his conception of this concerto. Many passages that contemporary pianists tend to smooth out suddenly commanded our attention in Mr. Levin’s forceful hands. Mr. Levin played this concerto with considerable authority throughout and won us over to this arrangement, which will no doubt be adopted by many pianists who have access to smaller ensemble groups.
There was a down side, however, for he chose to improvise cadenzas to the first and third movements, and these alas, were less satisfying and in no way came up to the high standard of Beethoven’s original score. And they were too long. In the last movement cadenza, the string players looked hopelessly perplexed as Mr. Levin noodled on and on, and they looked relieved when it finally ended.
There were some interesting changes to Beethoven’s original piano part. Among of things, we heard some new double note trills and an octave passage in the bass sounding a bit like the opening motif from the Fifth Symphony. This was a performance we would like to hear again, and thanks to KUSP FM at 88.9 on your dial, you will have an opportunity to hear it broadcast on Sunday, March 28 at 10:00 a.m.
Opening the evening’s program was the Brahms Clarinet Trio in A Minor, Op. 114. This work received a rather cool performance from clarinetist David Krakauer, cellist Melissa Meell (who, incidentally, owns one of the most beautiful looking cellos I have ever seen) and pianist Levin. There was a lot of very fine playing from each of the musicians, but there was a feeling that as an opening work it did not find the three musicians quite at ease. I had the feeling that if this work had ended the program it would have been another story.
The other work on the program was the Mendelssohn String Quintet No. 2 in B-flat Major, Op 87. This was a surprisingly effective performance. The program notes told us that Mendelssohn was unhappy with the final movement and “so were the critics who have singled out that movement ever since the Quintet’s posthumous publication.” If this is correct, we have to especially admire the fine performance by Philomusica, for the final movement sounded really very fine indeed, as indeed so did all the movements, and especially the lovely slow movement. Philomusica contains some first class musicians who exhibit high standards of musicianship and technical mastery.
