James Ehnes

Guest review by Anthony Hardwicke

Rosendal chamber music festival – Day 4

Context is always welcome in a festival devoted to a specific composer and the penultimate Rosendal concert highlighted how actively Brahms subverted the expectations of his late 19th century audience. We heard Clara Schumann’s Piano Trio yesterday and this morning (Sunday) we were treated to some very unfamiliar but also very wonderful chamber music by Brahms’ contemporaries. Sharon Kam (clarinet) and Bertrand Chamayou (piano) played Marie Elisabeth von Sachsen-Meiningen’s elegant and tuneful Romance and then Andsnes made a strong case for Robert Fuchs’ second Piano Quartet in B minor Op.75 supported by James Ehnes, Tabea Zimmerman and Sheku Kanneh-Mason. This was a well-rehearsed and musically satisfying performance, with Kanneh-Mason playing the Thema from the second movement with angelic sweetness and plenty of tasteful flexibility in the tempo of the third movement. If you would like get to know this piece, I was going to suggest you start by listening to the beautiful chord progression in the last minute or two of the opening movement, however it’s such an obscure piece, I couldn’t even find a version of the whole quartet on YouTube! Hopefully Andsnes will do a recording soon.

Back to Brahms in the second half with sparkling rendition of the Op.40 Horn Trio. David Guerrier is a superb horn player with very clean sound and he blended beautifully with the middle register of the piano. Although Guerrier sounded fantastic, I wanted more communication from him. Do you need to sit very still to control the horn? You probably do, but I was concerned that he didn’t seem to be returning the energy and intensity from Bertrand Chamayou (piano) as much as James Ehnes (violin) was. At the heart of this performance was a passionate reading of the slow movement – a magnificent, spacious, evocative nocturne. I’m sure the players were inspired by the moonlight on the fjords with the mountains covered with pine trees that they have seen in Rosendal throughout this week.

David Guerrier

Betrand Chamayou

James Ehnes

A superstar baritone singing a hefty Brahms song cycle accompanied by the festival’s artistic director, Leif Ove Andsnes, would have been a very fitting end to the 2023 Rosendal festival. But disappointingly, Matthias Goerne cancelled at short notice. With tickets already sold, Andsnes had the unenviable task of cobbling together a completely new programme. Not ideal. Everyone is a loser when artists cancel at short notice. I was sitting behind a lady who had travelled all the way from San Francisco to hear Goerne.

The composer-theme for the 2024 Rosendal Chamber Music Festival hasn’t been unveiled yet, but the tickets should go on sale in the new year. I enjoyed the 2023 festival immensely and would certainly love to return in 2024.

Find out more about Rosendal Chamber Music Festival here

Guest review by Anthony Hardwicke

Rosendal Chamber Music Festival – Day 3 afternoon

Some of the highlights from Saturday afternoon’s concerts at the Rosendal Chamber Music Festival included a symphonic Brahms string quintet Op.111, a fresh and compelling performance of Clara Schumann’s G minor Piano Trio, and a memorable and overwhelming Brahms Piano Quartet No. 3 in C Minor Op.60, with Tabea Zimmerman calling the shots, but Sheku Kanneh-Mason predictably stealing the show with the big cello tune in the slow movement.

An all-star cast of James Ehnes and Guro Kleven Hagen on violins, Tabea Zimmerman and Ida Bryan on violas and Julia Hagen on cello enjoyed Brahms Op.111. The blend and balance was excellent and the overall sound was like an excitingly agile string orchestra. The dynamic range was impressive, especially in the outer movements. Zimmerman was at the centre of all the good communication. The last movement grew steadily to a bustling climax.

Clara Schumann’s G minor Piano Trio sounded light and fresh in the hands of an all-female trio of Yoel-Eum Son (piano), Guro Kleven Hagen (violin) and Julia Hagen (cello). The strings were very together in the unison passages in the first movement. There was plenty of detail in Guro Kleven Hagen’s beautifully shaped melodic phrases. She is not a showy player, sparing in her use of vibrato and always tasteful. Son didn’t have much to do in the slow movement, but got a chance to say more in the last movement with some deliciously judged arpeggios and graceful pedalling.

As the Artistic Director of the Rosendal Chamber Music Festival, Leif Ove Andsnes attracts the most astonishingly superb musicians every year. Every one of the 11 concerts features several chamber works with different combinations of players and I have found it fascinating to see who plays well with whom. One particularly successful grouping was Bertrand Chamayou (piano), Guro Kleven Hagen (violin), Tabea Zimmerman (viola) and Sheku Kanneh-Mason (cello) and they served up a sumptuous Brahms C minor Piano Quartet to die for (actually it’s all about death). The first movement was rich and orchestral, with the strings competing to see who could produce the darkest, most malevolent tone. The piano gets more thematic material in the second movement and it was delivered immaculately by an authoritative Chamayou. And then comes the big cello tune at the beginning of the slow movement. Kanneh-Mason allowed it to speak and grow with intuitive emotion. It was a beautiful moment of discovery and the audience were holding back the tears. The last movement had shape and structure. Zimmerman controlled the strings with her dark tone, leading towards the exhausted and desolate final page.