REVIEW: Cooper's mouthwatering Haydn-Mozart marathon
FORGET the title —it will not have mattered to anyone who chose this compelling programme on the power of its popular content in rarely-heard combination outside Vienna drawing rooms of the late 18th century.
It was romantic enough to hear characteristic Haydn chamber masterworks, especially the cherished 'Gypsy Rondo' trio in G, alongside Mozart's own instrumental reductions of two of his flowering mid-period concerti.
But then to be presented with these pieces on a fortepiano with period strings from the principals of The Hanover Band amounted to a mouthwatering bolt-on concert to the Old Market's own 10th Coffee Concert chamber music series that ran through the winter.
Its position as an independent presentation in the middle of the Brighton Festival, plus cool and showery weather, meant the effects of the recession and the need for audience selectivity conspired probably to dampen the footfall thought the door.
But those who came were either true aficionados or the hungrily curious. Awaiting them in the middle of the floor was Dr Stephen Cole's Rosenberger fortepiano. Modelled on a 1795 example, spectacularly cased in cherry wood, the size of a large harpsichord, with five and a half octaves in reversed black and white keys, it in turn awaited soloist Gary Cooper.
Cooper seems a horse bred for heavy workloads. The combination of his recording output, solo work and directing engagements across Europe, North America and Asia, which loom among his college teaching commitments in Wales, Birmingham, York and London's Royal College of Music, looks an onerous annual itinarary.
And as a Bach and Mozart specialist, to play not one but two of Mozart's catalogue in the same two hours as two Haydn trios — which, by the composer's own admission, are piano works with string duo accompaniment — Cooper set himself a complete morning at the keyboard.
The nature of the authentic balance of the instruments was the most striking overall impression. There could never be the modern domination such as by a concert grand and Cooper considerately recommended the audience in-the-round behind the raised piano lid to find vacant seats in front or the side. Just as well, because even in the best-placed seats, the audience had to concentrate to pick out the piano from the strings.
The performances were therefore completely absorbing, and the music never truly loud, although the swell of Mozart's opening tutti to his vigorous Concerto No 13 in C, with pianoforte bass continuo, aspired startlingly to the orchestral scale of the fully-scored version.
This and the melodic Concerto No 12 in A K414 were written consecutively in 1782. In this domesticated version of No 12, Mozart goes without his pairs of oboes and horns. In No 13, it is these, plus braces of bassoons, trumpets and drums that are omitted.
Cooper explained the limitations of the fortepiano's dynamic range, his physical onus lying therefore on fingerwork, but this laid down a tougher challenge that demanded character from his playing.
His decorations were sufficiently interesting and stimulating, and his cadenzas in the C Major K 415 had their rewards. But one wondered if his imagination suffered from the sheer amount of notes he had to get through in this special concert.
If Cooper was never out of the spotlight, he compounded that by choosing to be a host and to read from Haydn's contemporary letters.
But just what was with that title, "Haydn In Love"? I don't remember being given an explanation, and when Cooper announced that Haydn's writings, of his first fascinating impressions of London in 1791, were to his patron Frau Marianna von Gesinger, I think he neglected to tell us that she was a close friend of Haydn, who himself was a genuine friend of her family.
Not a love interest, though. Haydn hit London at the age of 59, but there he came to regret not being legally liberated to marry a widow in her 40s called Rebecca Schroeter.
Woolly links, if any, with the music. But if it needs only to be a tenuous connection, then Haydn and Mozart were in a kind of love. When Haydn left for London, Mozart fade farewell and wept, knowing he would never meet again the first truly great composer to assess fully and treasure his (Mozart's own) talent. And, sure enough, Mozart was soon dead.
The mutual admiration led naturally to two-way influence.
The trios we heard contained Haydn's beloved employment of the unusual and surprising. Mozart's C major concerto, concluding the concert, ends most unexpectedly. Quiet, calm, yet logical; no playing to the galleries. Had Mozart been writing it with Haydn in mind, there would have been no need.
It felt like a knowing, probably conspiratorial wink between the two.
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Tuesday 14 February 2012
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