East Neuk Festival 2014

[David-G]

I am off shortly to the East Neuk Festival, based in Crail in Fife. Six days of concerts with Sean Shibe, the Belcea, Elias and Ebene Quartets, Kristian Bezuidenhout and Ensemble Marsyas in the delightful churches of the East Neuk. This year, being the tenth Festival, we have a Schubertiad led by Christian Zacharias, together with the Gould Piano Trio, the Belcea Quartet and Llyr Williams.

Lots of goodies, but I am particularly looking forward to Bezuidenhout playing the Mozart C minor sonata, and (together with the Marsyas Ensemble) the piano quintet K452; and Zacharias playing the Schubert B flat sonata, and (together with Krysztof Chorzelski on the viola) the "Arpeggione" sonata.

What a wonderful week in prospect, I do hope it's up to your expectations - if you can be bothered I'd appreciate a report when you return

A particularly enjoyable event at this year’s East Neuk Festival was the four-concert "Schubertiad" on the Saturday. The concerts were all held in Crail church. Crail is a delightful and picturesque small town on the Fife coast. The church has beautiful honey-coloured stone columns and Gothic arches, but a suprisingly domestic flat ceiling which I suspect contributes to the superb acoustics. It is surrounded by a spacious churchyard with large ancient stone memorials; there are roses outside the church and red-flowered valerian growing on the churchyard walls.

Proceedings started at 11.30, the Gould Piano Trio played the E flat trio D929. There was just time for lunch with friends back at our B&B at the centre of the town, and then back at 2.00 to hear Llyr Williams playing the D899 Impromptus, followed by the Belcea Quartet playing the "Rosamunde" Quartet. Wonderful music and a lovely performance.

At 5.00 we had a set of lieder, sung by Malin Christensson, a most delightful soprano who was new to me, accompanied by Llyr Williams. She sang, most expressively, "Der Musensohn", "Das Rosenband", "Liebe schwarmt auf allen Wegen", "Die junge Nonne", "Du bist die Ruh", "Lied der Mignon", "Die Forelle", and "Ganymed"; and then, joined by Maxmiliano Martin on the clarinet, she sang "Der Hirt auf dem Felsen". All this was a real treat. But this was just the first half of the concert. After interval drinks in the church hall (with an exhibition of 10 years of Festival posters), we had the wonderful D898 Piano Trio, played by Corina Belcea and Antoine Lederlin of the Quartet, together with Christian Zacharias. Zacharias has come to East Neuk every second year, and his concerts have always been memorable. He is a very serious and sensitive pianist.

Back to our B&B, passing yet again the full-size rhino with baby, sculpted in sand, a feature of the Festival. Just time for a quick picnic supper in the garden, surrounded by flowers and the quaint roofscape of Crail sunlit under a brilliant blue sky, and then back to the church for the final concert at 8.00. The first part consisted of the Arpeggione Sonata, played by the charismatic Krzysztof Chorzelski of the Belcea Quartet (on viola), together with Christian Zacharias. It is such a wonderful piece, I can still hear the tunes going round in my head. After more interval drinks, back to the church for the final piece – the B flat D960 sonata played by Zacharias. A truly magnificent rendering which brought the day to a fitting conclusion.

These delights may be sampled this week on Radio 3; from Tuesday to tomorrow Friday the Lunchtime Concerts consist of excerpts from the Schubertiad day. Needless to say, the concerts are rather chopped up. I do wish that they were broadcast intact! But in fact the only losses are two of the songs and the Arpeggione Sonata. Not broadcasting the latter is a very great pity.

There are still a few days to catch these performances on the iplayer, and I strongly recommend it.

(Amateur – if I find time I will try to report briefly on the rest of the Festival.)

[amateur51]

Bravo David-G and very many thanks for your report of a clearly wonderful event and for the i-player alert. it's many years since I've eeen Christian Zacharias 'live' and from what you report I should make an effort to hear him soon.

:bubble:

[aeolium]

Thanks for the detailed report, David-G. I think the Scots are very fortunate in some of their festivals and this sounds like another good one in a lovely setting. I don't like the way the Lunchtime Concert chops up concerts these days but I will try to listen to some of the performances you've mentioned. I thought the concert of Beethoven violin sonatas given by Zimmermann and Zacharias at Edinburgh was one of the broadcast highlights of that festival so I look forward to hearing Zacharias in solo and chamber works here.

[gurnemanz]

I think the Scots are very fortunate in some of their festivals and this sounds like another good one in a lovely setting. I don't like the way the Lunchtime Concert chops up concerts these days

I hadn't thought about that too much until you pointed it out and agree completely with you. I've checked the archive and found the programme. It is a concert I would love to have a attended. We got the songs split up and not all of them.

Der Musensohn, D764 (Goethe)
Das Rosenband, D280 (Klopstock)
Liebe schwärmt auf allen Wegen, D239 No 6 (Goethe)
Die junge Nonne, D828 (Jachelutta)
Du bist die Ruh, D776 (Rückert)
Lied der Mignon: Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt (Goethe)
Die Forelle, D550 (Schubart)
Ganymed, D544 (Goethe)
Der Hirt auf dem Felsen, D965 (Müller/von Chézy)

Piano Trio in B flat, D898

[aeolium]

The first part consisted of the Arpeggione Sonata, played by the charismatic Krzysztof Chorzelski of the Belcea Quartet (on viola), together with Christian Zacharias. It is such a wonderful piece, I can still hear the tunes going round in my head.

I don't know whether you know this work from other versions, David-G, but I would like to know whether you think the music comes across better in the transcription for viola as opposed to cello. I definitely prefer the cello arrangement, but perhaps that preference is influenced by hearing, decades ago, the recording by Rostropovitch and Britten. The playing in that recording is quite astonishing and it has remained for me to this day one of the most outstanding chamber music performances on disc. I have also heard broadcast performances of the work played on an actual arpeggione with fortepiano accompaniment but, though interesting to hear, it did not come across as a very impressive instrument.

I listened to the first of the East Neuk broadcasts yesterday and greatly enjoyed the Gould Piano Trio's performance of the Schubert E flat trio. The last movement sounded as though it might have been using the "manuscript" version of the score rather than the more commonly used published version which incorporated cuts made by Schubert (both versions can be heard on the Florestan Trio's recording of the work).