Cadogan Hall
Suk – Serenade for Strings in
E-flat major, op.6
Bach – Piano Concerto no.2 in
E major, BWV 1053
Bach – Piano Concerto no.4 in
A major, BWV 1055
Dvořák – Serenade for Strings
in E major, op.22
A slightly odd programme,
this: two Bach piano concertos sandwiched by string serenades by two Czech
composers. Still, it doubtless made sense in the sense that there was no need
for the Academy of St Martin in the Fields to field any non-string players.
And, whilst the Academy has always fielded excellent instrumentalists across
the board, the foundation of its excellence since its founding by Neville
Marriner has always been its string playing.
There was certainly no
gainsaying that excellence in the performances of Serenades of Strings by
Dvořák and his son-in-law, Josef Suk. Perhaps it is simply the nature of the
ensemble for which both composer call; perhaps it is being English, whether in
my case or the Academy’s (despite the international provenance of its players,
ably led throughout by Tomo Keller). Whatever the reason, I could not help but
note on several occasions something in the sound that put me in mind of Elgar’s
Serenade for Strings, op.20. That most prolific of recording artists, Sir
Neville, has certainly recorded both the Dvořák and Elgar works; I do not know
whether he has also left a version of the Suk. Hand on heart, it would be
difficult to regret its loss too strongly. It is an amiable enough work, but
its bland pleasantness, even with such gorgeous violin tone as we heard here,
in a model performance of chamber music writ large, soon outstays its welcome,
especially during the slow movement and finale. Dvořák’s work, unsurprisingly,
has more character, although there is little that can be done about the
abruptness of the finale’s transitions, a little too obviously attempting
‘cyclic’ recollection. That said, each of its five movements received sharp,
attentive performances, the ASMF players clearly communicating their enjoyment
in music-making. The lilt of the waltzing second movement was finely judged, as
was the ‘singing’ of the melodies in the first. Rhythmic definition in the
third did not lead to driving too hard, a splendid performative balance having
been struck.
Would that one could have
said the same for Jeremy Denk’s rendition of Bach’s E major Concerto. Every
movement seemed a good few notches too fast: not necessarily a disaster, since
most works can adapt to different choices of tempi. What Bach, at least to my
ears, can withstand far less easy is hard-driven performance, in which the
music is not given space to breathe and the harmony and its implications are
not permitted to tell. At times, the playing simply sounded garbled. For the
most part, it did not, but we found ourselves once again in the situation
outlined by Adorno more than sixty years ago: Bach reduced to the level of a
generic Baroque composer. ‘They say Bach … mean Telemann.’ As Furtwängler wrote
in an essay on Bach, the ‘astonishing superiority of Bach’s music clearer … than
when one compares him with other composers of his time and environment’. Not
necessarily so here. Moreover, it was a pity that the ASMF players, whilst far
from eschewing vibrato, did not lavish such resplendent string tone on Bach’s
music as they had and would upon his Czech companions. The A major Concerto
fared better in every respect. Tempi, especially during the first and second
movements, remained fast, but harmony was not neglected; nor were piano bass
lines merely stabbed. The slow movement had true gravity, especially on account
of searching string playing, whilst the finale, both in tempo and articulation,
was perhaps the finest judged Bach movement of the evening.
