Schubert’s song cycle gets a time-worn touch
Die Winterreise will be performed on a 19th-century Broadwood piano
Early Music Vancouver hosts a performance of Schubert’s Die Winterreise (A Winter Journey) Nov. 2 with bass-baritone Philippe Sly and Michael McMahon at the keyboard.
This alone would be great fall fare: an impressive Canadian duo heard in a commanding masterwork. But the performance has a value-added component. McMahon will be playing on Early Music Vancouver’s 19thcentury Broadwood piano, which Early Music Vancouver artistic director Matthew White believes gives a far more authentic keyboard sound for Schubert than modern instruments.
I’d agree wholeheartedly. Indeed, the issue of “authentic pianos” in what we think of as standard repertoire is something of a keyboard revolution.
Presenters once innocently saw the modern grand piano, dating from the first years of the 20th century, as the pinnacle of keyboard evolution, just dandy for all periods of music history: Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, and Bartok were all heard on the same instrument.
Music scholars were inclined to be a bit unhappy about this, but the ahistorical convention held as far as most performers and most audiences were concerned.
In the last third of the 20th century, things changed. We started hearing historical keyboards, first as a novelty, then as a more regular occurrence.
Not surprisingly, Early Music Vancouver has been on the authentic keyboard bandwagon for years; but so has the Vancouver Recital Society, which decades ago presented a recital by fortepianist Melvin Tan and, more recently, a memorable special event focused on Beethoven’s cello sonatas with cellist Steven Isserlis and pianist/ musicologist Robert Levin using two different period keyboards.
Last season the Chopin Society presented a landmark concert comparing and contrasting Chopin on period and modern instruments sharing the same stage.
Can it be that Metro Vancouver will one day have something akin to a full suite of performancequality instruments from the late 18th century on? We will if Matthew White has his way.
His blunt assessment: “The available early instrument pool in Vancouver is inadequate. We don’t have access to the full range of instruments needed to cover the history of the piano.”
But a good start has been made. “We do have access to an 1870 top-of-the-line Broadwood,” said White. “It’s not quite the right instrument for Schubert, but not all that different from the instruments Chopin played on, and not all that far from the sound world of Schubert.”
White notes that Vancouver is blessed with several fine locally owned historical instruments.
“Some generous owners do lend us private instruments. But people understandably get nervous about lending because moving these instruments is very tough on them.”
And there’s a nice Mozart-era fortepiano at the University of B.C. “What we’re missing is a second straight-strung Viennese piano for Schumann, and a comparable French model of the period.”
Of course, not every pianist wants to play on historical instruments. “But hearing someone who really knows these instruments, playing them really well, essentially makes the argument for owning them,” said White.
Many players are uncomfortable with the perceived limitations of early instruments. “Personally, I love these limitations,” said White. “Just because they show you how later technology solved those problems. It is fascinating to see performers grappling with the inadequacies that, for example, Beethoven hated.”
Beethoven railed against the pianos of his era, while Schubert seems to have accepted the instruments of his day. It will be fascinating to discover how our response to his great Winterreise song cycle will be informed by hearing the Broadwood piano instead of a modern concert grand.
And for those who are particularly intrigued by the event, Early Music Vancouver offers a pre-performance chance to hear from the performers and the Broadwood, on Nov. 1, 5 p.m. in a free presentation at UBC’s Green College. It’s a chance for the performers to discuss the music, and play and sing some excerpts, and for the audience to observe the Broadwood piano up close.