We liked the programme for this year’s Mozartfest and got to four concerts.
The Nash Ensemble just brought their string players this time. I enjoyed the Mozart (G minor string quintet) and Strauss (prelude to Capriccio) in the first half, but the concert really took off with Mendelssohn’s Octet in the second half. The following day others in the family went to hear the Vienna Piano Trio play Mozart (K496), Ravel and Beethoven’s Archduke. It was felt that this trio played French music rather well, and didn’t strive for beauty of sound at the expense of other musical qualities.
On the Thursday I got to hear Kate Royal and Mark Padmore in a joint vocal recital. I just arrived in time as I’d not really taken in that it was in the Guildhall not the Assembly Rooms. This concert was a real treat. The first half was a selection from Schumann’s Myrthen, including Der Nußbaum (love using that HTML), which is possibly the only song where I am more familiar with the accompaniment than the vocal line. (I once had to accompany it offstage in a school production of Time and the Conways). After the interval there were duets, by Handel, Monteverdi and Schumann again. I felt the Monteverdi, beautifully performed though it was, didn’t really fit in the programme. Even Roger Vignoles couldn’t disguise the fact that the accompaniments weren’t written for a piano or anything like it, and this got shown up even more by Schumann’s highly pianistic writing in the surrounding pieces. The vocal highlight was Mark Padmore’s stunning pianissimo control – but I felt that both singers were addressing every word to me, although I was sat quite a way back.
The last concert we attended was the final one, with Charles Mackerras conducting the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in the Forum. The first half was based around music from Le Nozze di Figaro with the soprano Rebecca Evans. She appeared in different dress for her two arias, and this was explained as being because the arias were sung by different characters; but my daughter observed that she was playing respectively Susanna, and the Countess disguised as Susanna, so she should have been wearing the same clothes! After the interval came Beethoven’s Pastoral; my husband was less happy with this, because he felt it didn’t really benefit from period instruments. A discussion of where the authenticity movement has got to with regard to music of this period will have to wait for another post.