Last night was Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov in an all-Bach program at the Grosses Festspielhaus. For me, these kinds of programs, entirely devoted to one composer and avoiding the fashionable and transitory are an important part of concert going and last night filled the bill very well. I was very much looking forward to hearing Trifonov in the festival last year where he was scheduled to do a survey of contemporary piano music, but this was equally attractive.
The program last night, which started at the very late hour of 9 pm, consisted of only three pieces: the Chaconne from the D minor Partita for solo violin, arranged for the piano left hand by Brahms, the Art of Fugue (or most of it) and the chorale Jesus bleibet meine Freude ("Jesus, joy of man's desiring"). There was a solitary encore, the Musette from the Anna Magdalena Notebook, used as a theme for a set of variations--by whom I don't know. Trifonov himself?
Listening to the program I am convinced once more that the Chaconne, the longest single instrumental movement from the entire Baroque, is also the finest piece of non-vocal music by Bach. The version for the left hand alone by Brahms works very well. Trifonov launched into the Art of Fugue directly without a pause and played the first eleven Contrapunctus to complete the first half. Yes, we got an intermission this time. The second half was the two pairs of fugues in which one is the inversion of the other--a contrapuntal feat unmatched to my knowledge. Then the final fugue which incorporates Bach's name in musical notation. I didn't have the score handy, but Trifonov played a version that completes the fugue, which Bach left unfinished.
I said the program was "most of" the Art of Fugue because there are also four canons, not played last night, of which the first is my favorite piece from the Art of Fugue, the Canon per Augmentationem in Contrario Motu in which the comes or following voice is a fifth lower, inverted, and in double note values. For the second half, the two voices invert! Students of counterpoint courses will know how remarkable this feat is.
So how was the performance? Excellent, of course. Very famous pianists who venture on a program like this tend to do a very good job. I enjoyed the evening heartily (but, just between you and me, I prefer the transcendent performance by Grigory Sokolov from decades ago).
The Grosses Festspielhaus was not quite sold out--at 2,200 seats it is the largest venue of the festival. The intermittent drizzle might have kept some at home.
This 2016 performance will give you an idea of the concert last night:
Thanks, Bryan. Enjoying all of your reporting on this amazing festival!
ReplyDeleteI've been enjoying all the posts about your Austrian sojourn as well. I have to say that the most heartening thing about them, for me, has been simply to hear that concerts are happening and lots of people are attending them. I sometimes wonder if we'll ever get back to that here in Canada, where the nanny state loves treating us all like babies. "Stay safe!"
ReplyDeleteYes, I am going to compose an email to the director of our local festival to encourage him to get back to normal, or as close as possible. Salzburg managed to offer a full-blown festival, with full concert halls and filled them. I would guess at least 90% of capacity. I think this was so important because, frankly, music festivals are Salzburg's main industry!
ReplyDeleteI'm sure Canada could do the same, but they sure don't show signs of doing it!