A three-day celebration of Schubert
Vancouver Recital Society focuses on composer’s orchestral offerings
Festivals and specials are a growing part of the music marketing scene. For example, next week the Vancouver Recital Society offers listeners a three-evening celebration of late works by Franz Schubert.
The recital society has developed a reputation for assembling big projects. But back in the early days of the organization, that kind of energy went into the summertime Vancouver Chamber Music Festival, which ran between 1986 and 2006. This year’s more specialized event looks similar: mix-andmatch programming that includes works for unexpected combinations, based around a loose resident company of fine chamber players.
Is this a rebranded return of the Chamber Music Festival? “No, not at all,” said recital society founder and artistic director Leila Getz. “Well ... yes. Sort of.”
In its prime, the festival ran over six evenings, with pre-concert recitals and other add-ons drawn from a broad spectrum of composers. By definition, a celebration of a single composer is a different proposition, even if the strategy of mix-and-match performers is roughly the same — and the event is scheduled for April, not July.
At the centre of the Schubertiade — a term coined by the composer’s friends to describe informal gath-
erings for group performances of his music — is pianist Inon Barnatan, now artist-in-association with the New York Philharmonic, and one of the more intriguing younger piano players.
I’ve heard Barnatan in solo recitals, concertos, and chamber music: he invariably demonstrates a nicely considered approach, with real emphasis on music first, last, and always. He’s curated both the concept (a selection of late works written from 1827 until Schubert’s death the following year) and the team of like-minded performers, including pianists Jonathan Biss and Kuok-Wai, violinist Benjamin Beilman, cellist Gary Hoffman, baritone Randall Scarlata, and the Doric String Quartet.
I suppose one could ask, Why a festival of Schubert? Don’t we get enough of him in regular concerts? Well, no. At the recital society already this season there have been memorable performances of piano works by Igor Levit and Andras Schiff. Friends of Chamber Music rarely goes a season without a Schubert quartet or two, and singers, both local and visiting, regularly program his lieder.
But there it tends to stop. Other than his so-called “unfinished” symphony, Schubert’s orchestral music is neglected, as are his masses for choir and orchestra and myriad other works for vocal ensembles. Individual Schubert songs are staples of lieder recitals, but his great song cycles are harder to present. Then there are the many non-conforming chamber works, often for unexpected groupings.
Here is the biggest draw of the Schubertiade. Who but Schubert would have created a supreme masterwork for piano, four hands (the Fantasy, D. 940)? Or a quintet for two violins, viola, and two cellos? These two sublime works are featured, along with performances of the great (and long) Trio in B-flat major, D. 898, the Fantasy for Violin and Piano, D. 934, and the song collection posthumously titled Schwangesang, D. 957.
Programs like the Schubertiade supply context and demand concentration — the whole becomes much more than the sum of its combined parts. This sampler of Schubert’s late achievement in a trio of almost back-to-back concerts should make many connections clear; it should be a rewarding exploration of the astonishing, delightful and moving harvest of late works — by a still-young master.