Angela Zanders and friends in the Menuhin Room

 Angela Zanders and Friends, Menuhin Room, Portsmouth, December 7

 

Whenever one hears Schubert at his best it's hard to establish why he's not counted as the greatest composer of all time. I'm sure that for a good many of exquisite taste he is exactly that but the dreary compulsion to make lists at least means one can only have one favourite. I'd be alarmed by, and suspicious of, anybody who can keep Schubert out of their ten, though, even given the intense competition.

Concerts made up of a selection of shorter pieces make for interesting comparisons and contrasts but one big, 'proper' masterwork makes one feel as if one's been somewhere and done something. And such a piece is Schubert’s Piano Quintet in A Major, The Trout, especially with Angela's introduction to de-mystify the process.

 It's something to be most grateful for how the coterie of wonderful musicians within Portsmouth's catchment area mix'n'match so well that they turn up in almost as many combinations as were available on a Rubik's cube to provide the sort of music their audience want to hear.

The Trout is a happy piece, the Allegro sprinkled with glitter and full of lithe energy in both Angela's piano and Catherine Lawlor's violin. The Andante is serene but still busy, propelled by Janis Moore's viola and everybody is involved in the exuberant Scherzo. The Theme and Variations are decorated first by the violin part before Jenny Kimber's cello theme is elaborated on by the piano, the ensemble making a whole far greater than its parts over Philip Batten's often pizzicato bass. The Allegro giusto might more properly have been marked 'allegro with gusto' and is by way of further variation, teeming with life like the flow of the stream our merry fish inhabits. 

Quite fittingly in an appreciative exchange of thanks all round, Andrew McVittie highlighted the individuals in what was a local supergroup much more than Angela and her augmentation. It was a joyous occasion indoors compared to the inclemency of the outside conditions and brought another successful year of Menuhin Room recitals to a hugely enjoyable end with plenty already to look forward to in 2025.