EIF: Ronald Brautigam, Esther Hoppe, and Christian Poltéra
Queen’s Hall - 08/08/22
This morning concert was a departure for me. No singing, no big orchestra, just a violin, a cello and a piano, and an unusual piano at that. We were able to see on the podium a brown, obviously old, piano, clearly different from the normal concert Steinway of the Festival. This was an Érard, built in London in 1832, and the oldest example of that firm’s output. It is very similar to that used by Mendelssohn, and now resides in Kent, but was brought here to Edinburgh for this fascinating concert by the Dutch fortepianist Ronald Brautigam, with Esther Hoppe (violin) and Christian Poltéra (cello), two Swiss musicians.
There were three works in the programme, and it would be fair to say that they increased in quality as they proceeded. Firstly, we had the Piano Trio in D Minor by Fanny Mendelssohn, the elder sister of the more famous Felix. Born into a wealthy family in Berlin in 1805, Fanny was encouraged as a child to indulge her musical fantasies, but in her teens the family made it clear that composition was not an occupation for young ladies of her class. Only after marrying the artist, Wilhelm Hensel, in 1829 was she able to write and play more, and her Piano Trio, written in 1846 for her sister’s birthday, is a delight. Our trio, after a few early balance problems, settled into a fine ensemble, and it was interesting to hear the quite unique sound of the Érard piano.
Next, the trio played the Fantasiestűcke Op 88 by Robert Schumann, written in 1850, a set of free form pieces, clearly showing the influence of Haydn and Bach, composers Schumann had studied intensively in periods of depression when he could not compose himself. I particularly enjoyed the movement, Duett, where the string instruments sing a love song to each other, with both players vying to play ever more beautifully. The piano part was noticeably more reticent in this piece, but Mr Brautigam’ s playing was a model of careful balancing.
The Schumann was a clear step up in quality from the Mendelssohn piece, and after the interval Schubert’s great Piano Trio No 2 in E Flat Major brought us face to face with genius. This piece, written for a benefit concert for the composer in March 1828, is an enormous undertaking, lasting almost 50 minutes, and entailing vast concentration from the performers. The Trio was magnificent in this work, revealing fine technical playing but also a quasi-magical empathy among themselves, taking us right to the heart of Schubert’s inspiration and revealing once again the supreme genius of a composer whose early death, shortly after the work’s first performance, remains one of music’s great tragedies.
The audience greeted the end of the piece with great cheers, acknowledged by the musicians, especially Mr Brautigam with his splendid mane of white hair!
Cover photo: Andrew Perry
