Sir András Schiff, fortepiano; Erich Höbarth, violin, and Christophe Coin, ‘cello. Joseph Haydn : Two piano sonatas and two trios
This was meant to be part of a Haydn chamber music festival going on at the Wigmore Hall throughout the week (I was just attending one of the performances) with an intended programme of 2 string quartets by Haydn plus one each of his piano trios and sonatas. Unfortunately, the violist of Quatuor Mosaïques, scheduled to perform with Sir Andras Schiff, tested positive for Covid a week or so ago, and so they were unable to leave Austria to join the concerts. This in turn necessitated a last-minute rethink and programme changes, in order for the festival to go ahead.
Sir András Schiff agreed to play additional Haydn Sonatas in order to save the festival. This concert, as with the others, ended up including two of the six Haydn Piano Trios previously advertised across the week. The Trios were performed by Sir András, Erich Höbarth and Christophe Coin. All this meant that there was a fair amount of uncertainty as to what was going to be played each evening. We learned, as there were no programme sheets, from Sir Andras Schiff’s introductions to the programmed works what we were hearing. So I can’t give chapter and verse on what I heard – the two piano sonatas I recall were dated to the 1770’s – so fairly early – and the two piano trios were from his London period or later. Sir Andras was playing a fortepiano made by Paul Mcnulty after Walter & Sohn from an original of 1805, so pretty contemporary to Haydn. Its thin, tinny and unresonant tone took a bit of getting used to, but, when the ear did adjust, it was remarkable how clear and transparent it made the music and how relevant the performing styles of musicians like Alfred Brendel and Paul Lewis, who emphasise clarity in their performances on ‘normal’ pianos, are to Mozart and Haydn. Sir Andras made the piano sonatas sound somehow more delicate, more nuanced in emotion. I thought all the performances were absorbing and left me constantly attentive to what was happening in the music. None of them were particularly conventional ‘jolly’ Haydn – they all had dark undercurrents, particularly the first sonata played, a product of Haydn’s Sturm und Drang period
The 85 minutes of this concert, without an interval, went astonishingly quickly. I thought this was a great evening – and so did the audience, who cheered loudly!
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