East Neuk Festival: Queyras Plays Bach
Kilrenny Church - 29/06/23
Jean-Guihen Queyras, cello
The East Neuk Festival 2023 kicked off on the afternoon of 29th June in Kilrenny Church, a bright airy venue with excellent acoustics, and pews whose legendary hardness is compensated for, in this reviewer’s opinion at least, by a slant shelf on the back of the pew in front, designed no doubt for hymnals and prayer books, but just as ideal to accommodate a programme (these were uniformly excellent) and a reviewer’s pen and notes, freeing up hands, the better to applaud. Virtuoso cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras set the ball rolling with a programme of works by Kurtág, Marais, Saygun and J. S. Bach. He plays a Gioffredo Cappa instrument made in 1696 and this was my first time hearing them both live. As with all chamber music offerings in the festival, the audience was welcomed (and implored to silence their mobile devices), and the programme introduced, with a few words from the Festival Director, Svend McEwan-Brown.
A selection of 5 characterful miniatures from György Kurtág’s ‘Signs, Games and Messages’ were introduced by Jean-Guihen. All were clearly technically demanding, yet delivered with apparent ease, with such special effects as double-stopped glissandi and rapid pizzicato runs. The middle piece had a muted, elegiac otherworldly tone that had me thinking of the films of Stanley Kubrick.
An anonymous French baroque piece, possibly by Marin Marais, ‘Les Regrets’, was played next. Bach-like with the feel of a chaconne, it exploited the cantabile possibilities of the instrument fully and Jean-Guihen awarded it great purity of tone with very selective use of vibrato and a huge dynamic range. A very brisk episode/variation was impressive, while the pianissimo end of the piece was breathtakingly lovely.
Turkish 20th-century composer Ahmet Adnan Saygun’s 5-movement ‘Partita for Cello’ was written for a ceremony of remembrance of the German poet Schiller in 1955. Previously unknown to me, I found the composer’s fusion of western and middle-eastern musical language very attractive, being frequently reminded of the music of Ernest Bloch. The opening Lento was harmonically complex, intense but also rhapsodic. The Vivo was rhythmic and energetic with a calmer drone-emulating central section. The central Adagio was songlike with an oriental feel and very lovely. The Allegretto was folksong-like with a lilting rhythm, incorporating some rhapsodic runs and other diverse elements, and was quite delightful. In the closing Allegro moderato, a rhythm set up by pizzicato introduced a dancelike melody, incorporating a slower double-stopping episode. The piece concluded morendo. Jean-Guihen awarded it the fullest advocacy and I am grateful for the opportunity to have heard it played so beautifully.
An undisputed Marais miniature, ‘La Rêveuse’, was dreamy indeed and quite delicious. Tone and phrasing were perfect, while the ornamentation of phrase endings was elegant and characterful. The closing pianissimo had me on the edge of my hard pew. A perfect palate-cleanser before the Bach.
As Bach’s Suite for Solo Cello No.5 in C minor requires scordatura tuning, where the A-string is tuned down to G, and old instruments need time to ‘settle’, this afforded Jean-Guihen a moment to speak in praise of the venue (agreed) and of how nice it was to be back in the East Neuk (no argument from me). Pausing only to remove the music stand, he launched into the 6-movement masterpiece from memory. This was Bach at its very best, familiar yet sounding fresh and vibrant. Tone and phrasing were as flawless as in the preceding programme, but with an added radiance. Pretty special.
In conclusion, this was a magnificent start to the festival. As Jean-Guihen was performing later as a ‘friend’ of the Belcea Quartet in both of the Brahms sextets, it whetted the appetite for the goodies to follow, secure in the knowledge that this particular partnership of player and instrument was a “marriage made in heaven”.