Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: “Deh, vieni alla finestra” from Don Giovanni transcribed for cello and piano
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Pamina’s aria from The Magic Flute transcribed for cello and piano
Franz Schubert/Franz Liszt: “Der Doppelgänger” transcribed for piano
Frederic Chopin: Nocturne No. 20 in C-sharp Minor, op. posth. (Lento con gran espressione)
Johannes Brahms: “Feldeinsamkeit”, “Wie Melodienen zieht es mir”, Wiegenlied”, “Minnelied” transcribed for cello and piano
Johannes Brahms: Cello Sonata No. 1 in E Minor, Op. 38
Pascal Amoyel: Piano
Emmanuelle Bertrand: Cello
After two fabulous off-the-beaten-track all-women concerts on Friday and Saturday nights, my mom and I were ready to move on to our annual rendez-vous with the annual Festival Mozart dans la Drôme, formerly known as the Saôu Chante Mozart, ou Saôu sings Mozart(’s praises), which after humble beginnings in Saôu in 1989 — Hence the original name — has been steadily growing to encompass nowadays a respectable number of concerts and other events featuring Mozart and many other worthy composers in various towns and villages of the Drôme region.
On Sunday evening, however, we were going back to where it all began, in Saôu, another lovely nearby village that, with its almost 600 inhabitants, almost felt like a bustling metropolis after Colonzelle and Manas. The concert was titled “Chants d’amour pour violoncelle and piano” (Love Tunes for Cello and Piano) and starred highly regarded cellist Emmanuelle Bertrand and pianist Pascal Amoyel, a couple on and off stage, who would be performing in the beautiful courtyard of the smallish but regal Chateau d’Eure.
Rain started to fall intermittently on Sunday afternoon, but it thankfully subsided by 8:15 PM, just as we were considering heading for Saôu’s church, which was the back-up plan in case of inclement weather, for the 9:00 PM concert. On their ends, the festival’s leadership had stuck to the original location, maybe because they had more faith in Mother Nature than we did, maybe because they simply could not be bothered with the hassle of moving everything and everyone to a much smaller space, and, lo and behold, they were right.
Once the rain had stopped, the remaining hurdle was the last-minute clean-up of the seats and site, which meant that we had to cool our heels in the wet grass outside the door for an inordinate amount of time, find our seats in the packed and chaotic courtyard, and then sit through a couple of unavoidable and mostly inaudible speeches before the music finally started, at the truly ungodly hour of 9:30 PM.
One part of the speeches that was audible informed us that the playlist had been reorganized, and that consequently the arrangement of Franz Schubert’s lied would be performed first, making it the third time in a row that our evening would start with Schubert, but who could argue with that? Nobody, especially after hearing the exquisite transcription for cello and piano of “Du bist di Ruhe”, “Im frühling”, “An die Musik” that Bertrand and Pascal gorgeously played for us.
But this was Mozart’s festival after all, and the transcriptions for cello and piano of both “Deh, vieni alla finestra” from Don Giovanni and one of Pamina’s arias from The Magic Flute turned out to be a clever homage to the Viennese master in large part thanks to musicians’ easy-going rapport, which felt firmly based on mutual trust and admiration. The cello’s scrumptious chocolaty sounds made a wonderful substitute for the human voice, and the piano proved to be the perfect reliable accompaniment for it.
There’s no wonder Franz Liszt came up with a particularly atmospheric transcription for cello and piano of “Der Doppelgänger”, Schubert’s piano and tenor voice composition from Heinrich Heine’s otherworldly poem, the story certainly oozing enough darkness and mystery to appeal to him. On the other end, there’s plenty of quiet introspection in Frederic Chopin’s moody Nocturne No. 20 in C-sharp Minor, whose deceptive simplicity hides many conflicting emotions. Amoyel found himself alone on the stage for those two pieces, which is not an unusual situation for such an in-demand soloist, and readily delivered poignant performances that undisputedly demonstrated that less is indeed more sometimes.
The official program wrapped up with the return of Bertrand for two works by my dear Johannes Brahms, first a nice short lied, and then his ambitious Cello Sonata No. 1 in E Minor, whose three distinct movements brilliantly look backwards while resolutely moving forwards. The Allegro non troppo was tumultuously Romantic, the Allegretto quasi Menuetto was classically refined (Hello Mozart!), and the Allegro was an exciting nod to The Art of Fugue (Hello Bach!). For this very special occasion, the duo reconnected seamlessly and treated us to a superb interpretation that even a couple of raindrops during the first movement could not spoil.
Truth be told, since we all had kept the faith and showed up ready to attend the concert regardless of the weather or venue conditions, we kind of felt entitled to an encore, which the artists provided without too much pleading on our part, wrapping up our evening with a soulful take on Sergei Rachmaninoff’s ever-popular “Vocalise”. Even better, we made it back home by 11:30 PM.
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