Posts Tagged ‘Allerheiligen Hofkirche’

Gloom, Doom from the Arcanto

Tuesday, May 10th, 2016

Arms of Antje Weithaas, Daniel Sepec, Tabea Zimmermann and Jean-Guihen Queyras

By ANDREW POWELL
Published: May 10, 2016

MUNICH — As if to unify its program of late Beethoven and Schubert last week (May 4) at the Court Church of All Saints, the Arcanto Quartet stressed gloom wherever possible. Playing of intensity and integrity supported this approach, and, to be sure, the Heiliger Dankegesang String Quartet, Opus 132, and the C-Major String Quintet, D956, do at least contemplate the end of life. It was a little much though. Beethoven intends an expression of thanks; Schubert toys with irony, perhaps accepting fate.

Partnered by cellist Maximilian Hornung after the break, the musicians projected a dark dreamlike picture of the quintet’s 17-minute first movement, guilefully detailed and relaxed, with ample soft passagework. This they paid off in the concluding Rondo, lending it surreal salon elegance. In between they plunged to grim depths. Schubert’s Adagio, sustained with formidable concentration around Tabea Zimmermann’s viola, proceeded grave, a Deathly Hallows without the wizards. Much the same was true of the Scherzo’s Trio. Anyway, great listening.

An obvious sense of purpose marked the Beethoven, with first violin Antje Weithaas adding affable stylish touches. But this reading was a tad short on energy, and in the somber guise imposed on it the central movement managed to be both sedate and precious, not as unsettling as usual. Marketing note: although Munich is saturated with chamber music, people were turned away at the door of this sold-out Bell’Arte event.

Photo © Marco Borggreve

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Festive Sides

Friday, August 29th, 2014

West relief and mosaic tympana of the National Theater in Munich

By ANDREW POWELL
Published: August 29, 2014

MUNICH — Staged works and the legendary Lied evenings hold the limelight here at the annual Opernfestspiele, begun 139 years ago. But veins of chamber music and, since 2008, choral programming run through the five-week schedule, lending scope and affirming organizer Bayerische Staatsoper’s depth of musicianship. The chamber offerings can be hit or miss, depending on the precise collaborations of Staatsorchester members and their scores; string trios on July 24 proved a hit. The choral initiatives attempt to thread back to the company’s 16th-century roots as a Kantorei, drawing on Staatsopernchor members passionate about church repertory; Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle on July 23 proved a stretch.

David Schultheiß (violin), Adrian Mustea (viola) and Allan Bergius (cello) teamed collegially at the ornate Cuvilliés Theater. Their nervous way with Beethoven’s C-Minor Trio from Opus 9 left the 1798 piece sounding brittle and oddly pale, but in Dohnányi’s charming, unpredictable, five-movement Serenade in C (1902) things shifted into vibrant high gear underpinned by Bergius (who once had another career), peaking in the chromatically salted Scherzo. Mozart’s E-flat Divertimento, K563 (1788), with its searching Adagio and rich minuet movements, served as flattering vehicle for the stylish and technically assured work of Schultheiß, one of the orchestra’s concertmasters. Mustea’s unusually resonant viola, here and throughout, provided a firm sense of ensemble and ensured a memorable night.

The 1863 Mass was a feasible festival choice for the reborn “Münchner Hofkantorei,” not needing an orchestra. Even so, its ironic jolts and the matter of choral direction versus leadership by the principal piano tended to defeat efforts at the Court Church of All Saints. Staatsopernchor member Wolfgang Antesberger aptly paced the score and directed robust performances of the Gloria and Credo choruses. But Rossini leaves much of the initiative to the first pianist, requiring bold propulsion and phrasing that Sophie Raynaud at times lacked, although her Prélude religieux took good shape. Solo singing varied widely in quality and approach.

Photo © Wilfried Hösl

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Arcanto: One Piece at a Time

Friday, January 31st, 2014

Arcanto Quartet

By ANDREW POWELL
Published: January 31, 2014

MUNICH — The 11-year-old Arcanto Quartet, heard here last Friday (Jan. 24), is everything a chamber group shouldn’t be for promotional purposes. There are no family ties. Their instruments don’t match. They share no doctrine about period practice. They don’t grind out whole cycles of anyone’s music. Not surprisingly their U.S. debuts in 2010 passed with only modest fanfare: the Washington Post reviewer found himself split yet intrigued while The New York Times gave no coverage at all. Happily the Arcanto’s record label, Arles-based Harmonia Mundi, favors substance over flack and has documented their work in Mozart, Schubert and Bartók. The latter disc took a Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik.

Anchored by Jean-Guihen Queyras’s nimble cello and the resonant viola of Tabea Zimmermann, the group produces a centered, refined, light sound. Three centuries happen to separate the instruments used by these two members: Queyras, longtime soloist at IRCAM in Paris, plays a 1696 Cappa. But this detail seems incidental. Antje Weithaas, artistic leader of the Camerata Bern, and Daniel Sepec, concertmaster for the Deutsche Kammer-Philharmonie Bremen, are the sweet-toned violinists. Twenty-five months ago, here at the Prince Regent Theater, the Arcanto achieved minor miracles in Ravel’s Quartet in F Major before partnering Jörg Widmann for an ardent, haunting traversal of the Brahms Clarinet Quintet. The finicky Bavarian crowd roared its approval.

Last Friday’s visit, with the final quartets (1826) of Beethoven and Schubert, took place in the cool vaulted milieu of the Court Church of All Saints, diligently filled by presenter Bell’Arte. Versatile, nuanced playing proved that each work had been considered on its own terms: the F-Major Beethoven (Opus 135) characterized by nonchalance, the grander G-Major Schubert (D887) by an emphasis on fractionalized ideas that shadow late initiatives of the elder composer.

Beethoven’s Lento assai, cantante e tranquillo ruminated in a contented, consoling way. Queyras launched the lyrical second subject of the Muss es sein? movement with spry point, matched by Zimmermann. As Weithaas danced gleefully over the music’s last measures, after the shared pizzicato, the ensemble built cheerful true resolution not only of the immediate material but of the whole score. The Schubert received an intriguing performance. Ghoulish drama laced its Andante; delicate understated voices emerged lucidly in the Trio. In the passionate sections of the last movement, Allegro assai, the players found power in especially intense collaboration. The same composer’s Quartettsatz of 1820 (D703) served as recital opener, guided with spontaneity and considerable elegance by Weithaas.

Photo © Marco Borggreve

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Horn Trios in Church

Sunday, June 2nd, 2013

Court Church of All Saints, Munich

By ANDREW POWELL
Published: June 2, 2013

MUNICH — A short walk separates two of this city’s four opera houses: the Cuvilliés Theater, where Mozart conducted Idomeneo, and the National Theater, where Hans von Bülow led the first Tristan und Isolde. Ensconced half way stands the Court Church of All Saints, an 1837 neo-Romanesque, quasi-Byzantine former glory — bombed and burned in 1944, later re-domed, secularized, sandblasted, and finally re-opened in 2003 as a performance space. Here, in happily clear, generally non-reverberant acoustics, members of the Bavarian State Orchestra regularly make chamber music. This morning (June 2) — three weeks before the summer solstice, yet a cold day of heavy rain and wind, with half the city center roped off to greet UEFA Champions League champions Bayern München — intrepid listeners savored horn trio music of distinction.

Markus Wolf (violin), Johannes Dengler (valve horn) and Julian Riem (piano) found good balance in Lennox Berkeley’s reticent but neatly crafted Horn Trio (1952), an ample work capped by variations, ultimately jaunty, on a dry theme. This segued with guileless aplomb into the disparate sound world of Charles Koechlin: the Quatre petites pièces (1906), plangent in their miniature tunefulness, Impressionist or saccharine by turns, and agreeably concise. Again the players worked together with obvious affinity.

After the Pause, Brahms’s familiar E-flat Trio (1865, natural horn) threw the attention at Dengler, whose nimbleness and clean intonation served the composer faithfully (turning a blind eye to the valves on his magnificent instrument). As in the Berkeley and Koechlin, Wolf’s flexibility and aptitude for finding the weight of a phrase compensated for occasional wiry tone. Riem never dominated: a virtue, except when the score wanted a smidgen more personality, for instance in the Adagio mesto.

It turns out that these same musicians recorded the Koechlin and Brahms back in 2008, the latter on a reconstructed 1803 Halari natural horn, a 1722 Stradivarius, and a restored 1862 Bechstein. (Only the Strad showed up today.) For reasons unclear, this effort did not surface until 2012, when the resulting CD drew praise. Robert Markow, writing in Fanfare: “This may well be the best recording ever made of the Brahms Horn Trio.” And in Germany the team took an Echo Klassik Award.

Photo © Bayerische Schlösserverwaltung

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