Lammermuir Festival: Coffee Concert VIII - Viviane Hagner
Holy Trinity Church, Haddington - 16/09/22
On offer are 3 Bach solos and two modern tributes to Bach. The Partitas are familiar to me from recordings but attending a whole concert of solo violin will be a new experience. Festival director James Waters proposes a minute’s silence before the start. For the Queen? To still the chatter and open our ears? Anyway, it is fitting. It’s a grey day so Trinity Church looks more subdued than yesterday, but as Viviane appears, in formal full-length dress, the sun streams in, highlighting her violin, its bow-strings and her sparkling belt.
She begins with Partita 3. It sounds like an entire string orchestra in triumphant flow. The second movement simpler, sadder. Her eyes are closed or concentrated on the point where bow meets strings. The third movement is dance-like; she sways from the waist, and while her face is quite still, her eyebrows dance with the music. A momentary smile and a brief glance at us as she comes to the end.
Then the ‘Kurtág Hommage’ with support from the score on a tablet. It’s short, sounding distant, with a touch of the Orient.
She returns to Bach with Sonata 1. It’s as if this has everything the violin was invented for, all the fiddle sounds of the world: Irish jigs, lonely buskers, grand 19th century concertos, harsh modernist experiments. Viviane’s figure is austere: black hair and dress match the concert grand from yesterday still in place behind her; the wood of her instrument echoes the timbers of the church.
A short interval. Too short; some people get caught up with going to the loo and are not allowed to re-enter till the next piece has finished.
It’s by Korean composer Yun. The sliding notes and plucked strings take us to Asia. But any reference to Bach is beyond my unskilled ears.
Partita 2. For me it’s a relief to come back to the master. The music tells its wordless abstract story: first warm and slow, then fizzing, then introspective, a confident turn towards home and last, a majestic procession again with the sound of a massed orchestra.
One of the pleasures of the Lammermuir is its informality. My only reservation about today’s presentation is that I would have liked a brief introductory word to each item. This would help to orientate those less musically informed amongst us and give an extra human link with the performer. So I was delighted to have a brief chat with her afterwards. She’s relaxed and charming; no sign of having just done the equivalent of climbing the North Face of the Eiger, without ropes. (Director James’ words in his intro). I mention to her Hugh Kerr’s story of asking YoYo Ma how he managed all that without a score. The cellist had replied “I’ve been playing it since I was five”. Viviane admits she has indeed played the Bach since she was very young. And her violin? Of course, a Stradivarius.
