Inspiratio Ensemble - Beethoven

 Inspiratio Ensemble, An Afternoon with Beethoven, 

St. Mary's, Hayling Island, September 29

Bravely, I took on the vagaries of the Sunday afternoon bus timetable. To continue with what has been a great Beethoven year for me, a rare chance to hear some of his songs meant it was necessary and it was good to see that so many others took the opportunity, too.

Alex Poulton's programme was narrated by Piers Burton-Page in an epistolary biographical account of Beethoven's troubled life and with Valentina Seferinova and Mikhail Lezdkan as accompanists and additional instrumental pieces it made for an insightful as well as musically various show.

Beginning with three lieder, Alex's expressive dramatization was modulated through erudite diction and enunciation, ideal in the intimate acoustic of St. Mary's. For all of our stereotype image of Beethoven as the muscular Romantic bent on heroism, yes, he could do that, but the emphasis of what Piers read and these songs was on vulnerability and an openness to such feelings. Valentina might also be renowned for her high-octane performances of Rachmaninov and Joachim Raff but she can do decorous restraint, too.

In the finale of the Pathetique Sonata she was poignant but not unplayful before the song cycle, An die ferne Geliebte (To the distant beloved), Op. 98, was simpatico with nature until the last of them took off into a celebration of song itself as art provides some release from the torments it expresses.

It all seemed to fit when it transpired that Alex works in music therapy and suddenly it becomes obvious that that is what music is and does, whether as part of a programme designed to do so or whether one subconsciously puts on Josquin des Prez rather than Siouxsie and the Banshees.

It's not easy to think of a greater meeting of music and literature than Beethoven meeting Goethe but they did, not only by letter but in person, the poet reflecting later that,

His talent astounded me; nevertheless, he unfortunately has an utterly untamed personality, not completely wrong in thinking the world detestable, but hardly making it more pleasant for himself or others by his attitude. 

In the second half, Alex sang the rhythmic, Neue Liebe, neues Leben, op. 75, no.2, 'New Life, New Love', which in many ways was a recurring but unrequited theme and one of the 25   ( !!! ) Scottish Songs, op. 108. Not everybody knew that Beethoven might have been as well known for lieder as Schubert had he not done a mountain of other things as well. Like Für Elise, for example, that Valentina played so delicately to a rapt audience.

The 'big ticket' instrumentally, though, was Mikhail's Cello Sonata no. 4, op. 102, no. 1 with its plaintive, slow exchanging of trills with Valentina before a more unsettled Allegro Vivace and then, again, the deep, sonorous cello with lingering piano giving way to an impulsive, robust conclusion. 

It was for the most part about the songs this afternoon, though, and Sehnsucht, op. 83 no. 2, was a shadowy thing, translated as something like 'yearning' but, Wikipedia says, about all facets of life that are unfinished or imperfect, paired with a yearning for ideal alternative experiences.  And if that is what Beethoven is ultimately about, he made a very good job of it, not least in Busslied, op. 48, no.6, moving from minor to major, with Valentina providing something approximately akin to Bach organ music behind the celebratory anthem that, given his usual symphonic grand climaxes, Beethoven simply stopped. Valentina had to turn over her music because nobody thought it would do that and then came the applause. Clever trick, that. 

It was a brilliantly thought-out afternoon, pressing for a place to be short-listed on what is a long list of wonderful Events of the Year attended by me this year. Done with such care and attention and for art's sake, my one and only reservation would have to be that some sort of handout would come in useful, mainly for me admittedly, but for everybody else, too. It's not only something to guide you through but something to remember it by which we will surely want to do.