July 28, 2009: One accompanist, two soloists

When I read that pianist Hillary Nordwell, violist Alexa Beattie, and soprano Ann Moss would be giving a Noontime Concerts™ recital at Old St. Mary's Cathedral, I had hoped that I would again hear them as a trio, as I had when they performed song settings by Vartan Aghababian last May at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.  This was not to be the case:  In the first half of the program, Nordwell accompanied Moss in songs by Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, and Felix Mendelssohn.  This was followed by a performance of Johannes Brahms' F minor viola sonata, Opus 120, Number 1 (originally composed for clarinet).

In the absence of more thorough program notes giving the dates for the specific songs, one would assume a chronological ordering that placed Mendelssohn between Schubert and Schumann;  but the ordering Moss selected (as above) was more appropriate.  The Schubert selections ("Im Frühling," "Heidenröslein," and "Ganymed") provided an excellent sense of the composer's inclinations for the provocative, not only in his choice of texts but also through settings that shift between following those texts and opposing them (usually through rhythmic variety).  From that point of view, one could listen to the Schumann selections ("Die Lotosblume," "Der Nußbaum," and "Jasminenstrauch") as appreciations of Schubert's technique while taking his approach to the next level.  The Mendelssohn settings ("Frage," "Frühlingsglaube," "Ferne," and "Die Liebende Schreibt"), on the other hand, were not part of this "exchange," directed more at capturing the moment of the text than in adventurous explorations of that moment.  Moss approached all of these songs sensitively;  and she and Nordwell found the right "chemistry" to give each composer his respective due.

Unfortunately, the same could not be said for the chemistry between Beattie and Nordwell in the performance of the Brahms viola sonata.  Much of the problem was a matter of balance.  Using a full stick for the piano lid provided the right balance for Moss' soprano voice, but Beattie's viola sound was more subtle.  I have always found this particularly appropriate in the first movement, whose use of short phrases gives the sense of the solo instrument trying to find its voice, eventually settling securely into that voice in the final Vivace movement.  In the initial clarinet version of this sonata, that effect could probably have been achieved with the lid fully raised;  but in this setting there was the slightly uncomfortable feeling of the viola trying to inject itself into a piano sonata, which hardly represented Brahms' composition in the sort of light intended for it.  Sadly, this is not the first time I have been disappointed with Nordwell's approach to Brahms, having had a similar experience with her presentation of his Opus 78 violin sonata in a Eusebius Duo performance two years ago.