East Neuk Festival: Bach and Beyond
Crail Church - 01/07/23
Sofia Ros, accordion | Diyang Mei, viola | Krzysztof Chorzelski, viola
The East Neuk Festival’s afternoon recital of 1st July was back in Crail Church for a programme of music for solo accordion, solo viola and viola duet. This was significantly different from the advertised programme, due to the last-minute withdrawal of Norwegian violinist Vilde Frang from this year’s festival. Apart from rendering the programmes mostly useless, this was, however, no privation.
Accordionist Sofia Ros is a newcomer to the festival. Born in the Canary Islands, she was awarded scholarships to study at St Mary’s in Edinburgh and the Royal Conservatoire in Glasgow, where she continues her studies with Serbian maestro of the instrument, Djordje Gajic. She plays a Pigini ‘Super Compact’ bayan (Russian-style chromatic button accordion),
Sofia opened the recital with a brisk Scarlatti sonata in a minor key (stab in the dark: K386 in F minor: Presto) and it was agile with limpid phrasing and sweet bayan tone. Purists who sniff at classical repertoire being rendered on non-classical instruments should be required to explain how a jangling harpsichord is preferable. Just saying. It was delightful, a perfect concert-opener and palate-cleanser.
The Adagio and Presto of Bach’s BWV 974 transcription/arrangement/re-imagining of Marcello’s Oboe Concerto in D minor displayed more of the expressive possibilities of the bayan. Both the gorgeous slow movement and the expertly articulated finale finished with a tierce de Picardie. Scrumptious.
Ukrainian composer, teacher and accordionist Volodymyr Zubytzkyi’s Carpathian Suite; a fusion of original Eastern European folk-inspired elements with 20th-century tonal music, in a number of contrasting linked sections played with two breaks, was very engaging and characterful, and beautifully played. The dynamic and tonal range of the instrument was impressive, including a facility for vibrato, as was Sofia’s interpretative skill despite the obvious technical challenges, all surmounted. Excellent.
Chinese violist Diyang Mei, whose playing in the Brahms sextets and the quirky “Quartet for One” had delighted in the three Belcea Quartet concerts, then tackled Bach’s Suite No.6 for Solo Cello in D major in an arrangement in G for viola. It is a sunny piece and it received a fine performance with delicious tone from his Antonio Mariani instrument. It is a typical baroque suite with, after the Prelude, an Allemande and Courante, a Sarabande, a double A-B-A Gavotte and a concluding Gigue. All were scrumptious, but I have a particular soft spot for the double Gavotte, with its cheeky simple melodies. The festival audience awarded it such enthusiastic applause that a substantial encore was prompted: a three-movement modern work that I did not recognise, but it was played characterfully and skilfully. Lots of rapid sul ponticello and double-stopping, leading two dancelike movements with Spanish gypsy and Middle Eastern sounds. Exciting.
The cordial musical partnership between Diyang Mei and Krzysztof Chorzelski, the violist of the Belcea Quartet, already evident in the Brahms sextets, had a final outing in Frank Bridge’s ‘Lament for 2 Violas’, which closed the concert, Krzysztof playing his Amati instrument. As the name suggests, it is an elegiac piece. It was beautifully played and I found it profoundly moving, having only the evening before heard of the death of the actor Alan Arkin.
This was an eclectic, if somewhat ad hoc, programme, but it worked and I found it immensely enjoyable.