Reviewed by Ewart Shaw, Saturday 26th July 2014
Music flowed out of Franz Schubert like the rivers and streams of Germany, babbling with joy, deep with contemplation, sometimes surging with rage, and sometimes marked by a consciousness of mortality enhanced for us by his early death.
Each year the Elder Conservatorium mounts a
Schubertiade, with cake, coffee and, most welcome in the depths of winter, mulled wine. Each year the celebration takes a new form and focuses on new aspects of the composer's oeuvre. This year, the party was marked by a rather eccentric development. You know that remark about answering difficult questions with interpretive dance. Something like that happened on Saturday evening.
Let's start, as that other Austrian songbird reminds us, at the very beginning. The first work on the program was the
Arpeggione sonata D.821 played, as is customary nowadays, on the 'cello and not on the short lived arpeggione, a relative of the guitar which was played, as is the 'cello, with a bow. It's one of those works, which, the first two movements certainly, elicit the 'oh so that's what that's called' response. It's an elegant work, and was played with elegance by
Rachel Johnson and David Barnard. For the performance Rachel played a new instrument, a carbon fibre 'cello, commenting in the program notes that its tone was closer to the thinner, nasal sound of the original instrument.
She returned to the more traditional 'cello for the a series of songs of Schubert's in various arrangements for 'cello and piano. These were beautifully executed but , while especially the Piatti transcription of
Am meer/At The Seaside went beyond merely copying the vocal line, for many people Schubert's lieder are about the words and the music, and one without the other is seriously deficient.
This is where the eccentricity crept in or, rather, marched across the stage dressed in a vivid red costume. British actor, Craig McArdle, now an Adelaide resident, read the translated lyrics of the lieder in a flat voice, almost devoid of emotional content.
In the second half of the concert, the stage of the Elder Hall was furnished with elegant couches, potted plants, and eight very fine local singers. There was a piano accordion on the table at the back, and you know that the rule for piano accordions is the same as the rule for guns and knives on stage or in the movies. If you produce one you have to use it. Fortunately, that rule obviously didn't apply on Saturday Then Craig McArdle returned, stripped off his velvet jacket and began, plume in hand, to write.
His muse, Daniela Taddeo, interpreted the seventeen Ländler D.366, dancing lightly across the stage, while David Barnard gave the short and charming dance tunes a really excellent performance. A little kitsch, maybe, especially when she dragged him to his feet and they did their little thigh slapping routine.
While many of Schubert's songs express love longing and invoke the muses of nature and music, he was generally believed to be gay, and his inspiration probably wore lederhosen and not a peasant skirt and dirndl.
Then the singers produced their music stands and sang some of the part songs Schubert wrote for domestic music making. It was a beautiful end to the evening, and their final number summed it all up. 'Anyone with a lust for life will not remain alone, ... a trusted circle, a heartfelt kiss... the soul's delight'.
Next year? More lieder maybe? The magnificent last quintet? The late piano sonatas? There'll be cake and wine of course.
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