Thursday, July 16, 2020

Peter Serkin on Sony: Mozart and Beethoven

My second account of the 35-CD Sony Classical release of recordings of pianist Peter Serkin entitled The Complete RCA Album Collection will basically parallel my first account of the 33-CD anthology of recordings by conductor Herbert von Karajan entitled The Complete Decca Recordings. However, while the “category title” for the Karajan article was “First Viennese School,” there are no recordings of the music of Joseph Haydn in the Serkin collection. Thus, this article will be limited to performances of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven.

Furthermore, Mozart gets most of the attention in the package. There are three CDs that account for six of the piano concertos, all of which Serkin performs with the English Chamber Orchestra conducted by Alexander Schneider. Another two CDs account for seven solo piano compositions, only two of which are sonatas. Chamber music is represented by a single recording featuring the Tashi quartet, whose other three members are clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, violinist Ida Kavafian, and cellist Fred Sherry. Ironically, Serkin performs only one of the two selections on this album, the K. 452 quintet for piano, oboe, clarinet, horn, and bassoon in E-flat major. (The other selection is the K. 581 “clarinet quintet” in A major.) Finally, there is the Marlboro CD cited in the first Serkin report for the performance of Bach’s BWV 1064 concerto in C major, originally scored for three harpsichords, string ensemble, and continuo. This album was basically a showcase for Serkin’s father Rudolf and also includes the two of them as co-soloists in the K. 365 concerto for two pianos and orchestra in E-flat major. Schneider is again the conductor, this time leading the Marlboro Festival Orchestra.

I must confess that I found little in this collection to excite my attention. However, I suspect this is a matter of personal experience. Those that have followed me for some time know that I was an avid member of the audience for the Midsummer Mozart Festivals prepared and conducted by George Cleve. During that period of time, I do not think there was a Festival in which a piano concerto was not performed.

As a result I came to appreciate the prevailing rhetoric of spontaneity that cut across the entire breadth of the Mozart piano concertos. Even though every performance involved Cleve conducting a guest soloist, I found myself reflecting on the fact that Mozart himself would have been both soloist and conductor when each of these concertos was performed for the first time. Thus, while the recordings of both Serkins made it clear that they were attentive to how even the slightest detail should be phrased, there was little sense of an in-the-moment experience, which would quickly etch itself into memory without any prospect of ever being repeated.

In the new Serkin collection that sense of spontaneity is most evident in the Tashi account of the K. 452 quintet. This comes close to conveying the intimacy of an amicable conversation among five friends, all of whom have their own characteristic tendencies towards enthusiasm. Left to Serkin’s own devices as a soloist, that sense of a personality behind the music seldom emerges. One might almost say that, while Serkin is sensitive to both the syntax and the rhetoric of every mark on the paper, that sensitivity is more for abstraction than for the flesh-and-blood dispositions of the composer that put those marks on the paper in the first place.

If there are fewer Beethoven offerings, they are decidedly more satisfying. As readers know by now, this collection includes two different recordings of the BWV 988 “Goldberg Variations.” Beethoven’s Opus 120 set of variations on Anton Diabelli’s waltz was recorded only once, but the result definitely deserves attention.

Those that have followed me for some time know that nothing annoys me more than the “scowling Beethoven” stereotype. Beethoven had a lively and highly imaginative sense of humor (prompted possibly by his desire to rival Joseph Haydn) at the very beginning of his career as a composer; and that sense of humor remained with him all the way to the end of his life. The mere fact that he would grind out 33 variations on an almost trivial waltz theme should be a clue that he embarked on the project for the fun of it.

Serkin approaches Beethoven’s score with a light touch. He never tries to underscore any of the gags, but he allows each one to tweak the listener with just the right amount of good humor. Thus, while too many pianists tend to approach Opus 120 as if it were a marathon that had to be run, Serkin lets its play out at a relaxed pace, allowing the attentive listener all of the necessary time to giggle whenever Beethoven is exercising his wit.

That sense of humor is also clearly evident in the Tashi CD of Beethoven’s chamber music. In this case Serkin is performing in both of the selections, the Opus 16 quintet in E-flat major for piano, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and horn and the Opus 11 piano trio in B-flat major in which a clarinet replaces the violin. There are, of course, recordings in which a violinist takes that part; but the clarinet does a better job in accounting for the many witty turns in Beethoven’s score, particularly in the final movement, when the piano is dragged into the raucous romp.

There is only one CD of Beethoven piano sonatas. It presents the two Opus 27 sonatas, the second of which, in the key of C-sharp minor, is more familiar with its “Moonlight” nickname. The final sonata on the album is the Opus 57 “Appassionata” in F minor. These present a more serious side of Beethoven’s rhetorical skills, and Serkin’s interpretations are both convincing and compelling. However, as was discussed above about Mozart’s piano concertos, I have come to believe that the Beethoven piano sonatas, particularly those on this album, still have more impact in the immediacy of performance, rather than the detachment of recording technology.

The Beethoven selection on the “Serkin family” album is the Opus 80 (“Choral Fantasy”) in C minor. Beethoven composed this to serve as the “grand finale” of the four-hour concert that he conducted on December 22, 1808, known as the Akademie concert. (Readers may recall that Michael Tilson Thomas reconstructed the entire Akademie program for San Francisco Symphony performances that took place in June of 2015.) When I listen to this piece, I inevitably find it impossible to suppress a fit of the giggles; but I have never really come to terms with whether I am laughing at Beethoven or with him! On this Music from Marlboro album, Rudolf is the piano soloist; and Peter is the conductor, leading six vocal soloists as well as his father, all performing with the Marlboro Festival Orchestra and the Marlboro Festival Chorus (hence the nickname of the composition).

Taken as a whole, there is far more satisfaction to be mined from these eleven CDs of Mozart and Beethoven than from the six CDs of First Viennese School composers in the Karajan collection. Nevertheless, the period of this repertoire is not really Serkin’s “sweet spot.” I anticipate that there will be many far more interesting approaches to interpretation in the remaining recordings in this collection.

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