Euro Concert Tour # 3: Music With Diana

Wednesday brought another unique concert event, as we were taken by bus from our cruise ship to the Schloss Engers at Neuwied, a suburb of Koblenz.  This palace was originally a hunting lodge (though hardly a rustic cabin in the woods) for the Prince-Archbishop.  Its intended use in the hunting season explains why the large upstairs salon features a vaulted ceiling with a fresco painting centred on Diana, the goddess of the hunt.

It was in this "Diana Hall" that we had our concert.

Schloss Engers is now the home of Villa Musica, an ongoing series of programmes which bring young professional musicians together with senior artists for a week of intensive music-making and sharing, culminating in a concert performance.  

The concert we heard featured three string players from the current Villa Musica programme group: Niklas Liepe, violin; Lilya Tymshychyn, viola; Olivier Marger, cello; Kathrin Klein piano -- along with clarinetist James Campbell, one of the touring artists on our cruise.

The first work was Beethoven's String Trio No. 3 in G Major, Op. 9, No. 1.  There are often moments in early Beethoven which can sound almost as much like Mozart or Haydn, and certainly don't fit in with our immediate image of the titan of music that Beethoven would eventually become.  But this work, which was new to me, seemed to be full of moments which anticipated the style of the mature Beethoven: repeated brief melodic or rhythmic figures, dramatic crescendos or diminuendos, and above all a sense of impending symphonic scale in the sonata-form first movement.

The strings gave a strong performance which matched the score in anticipating rather than becoming the symphonic Beethoven which still lay in the future.  I enjoyed the clean articulation of the first movement, the lyricism of legato in the slow movement, and the energy of the scherzo and the presto finale.  The balance at times worked against the violinist, as the viola and cello leaned into their parts with almost too much energy.  A rewarding performance of a work not often heard.

Campbell then joined with Tymshychyn and Marger in the Trio for Clarinet, Viola, and Piano in E-Flat Major, K.498, by Mozart.  The nickname "Kegelstatt" was applied to this score in the first edition of the Köchel catalogue of Mozart's works in 1862.  The name signifies a place where the game of skittles could be played.  It apparently refers to a letter in which Mozart described himself composing the Twelve Duos, K.487 "while playing skittles."  No such reference to this trio has been found -- but there's no tradition so strong as a totally unfounded tradition!

One of the curious features of this work, for me, comes in several spots where the clarinet, supposedly the treble instrument, dives below the viola.  The effect is similar to the equally rare instances in choral or vocal music where the soprano part dips below the alto -- and it gives some moments of the trio an unusually mellow, even autumnal sound, which is definitely appealing.


Although I had no quibble with any of the player's performances, individually, there were again issues of balance with the piano and viola both becoming a little too robust and energetic in certain passages.  In light of this, it's interesting to note that Mozart seemed uncertain whether he wanted the work played on a fortepiano or a harpsichord -- the markings vary on the different movements in his autograph score.

This is not to say that the performance was a write-off; far from it.  There were moments of true serenity in the opening andante, and a nice upbeat dance feeling in the minuet.  The varying character of the multiple themes in the final "Rondeaux" movement was clearly brought out by the performers, and gave this movement a most engaging character.