Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Twelve Variations on “Ah vous dirai-je, Maman”, K. 265
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K. 467 (Andante)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Fantasia No. 4 in C Minor, K. 475
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major, K. 448 (375a)
Rebecca Chaillot: Piano
Edna Stern: Piano
As summer is coming to an end, days are getting shorter and temperatures are finally going down—but not without a last flare-up this past weekend for good measure, of course—there is a lot going on in the petit palais de Chaillot, the stunningly renovated and constantly bustling home, performance space and art center of piano virtuoso and fearless entrepreneur Rebecca Chaillot, in the sleepy little village of Colonzelle.
That said, since I love listening to piano four hands, I love listening to anything written by Mozart, and I love listening to anything played by Rebecca Chaillot, I quickly zeroed in on a concert that would serendipitously combine the three ingredients. Even better, it would take place on a Saturday evening, which meant that there wouldn’t be any last-minute work-related interference from across the pond, and while it would start at the ungodly hour of 8:00 PM in distant territory, it was only supposed to last one hour.
That’s how my mom and I, along with our current friend and neighbor Anne-Marie and our new friend and future neighbor Brigitte, ended up in the petit palais de Chaillot on a lightly breezy Saturday night that would have in fact been ideal for a concert in the lovely courtyard, except that setting up two grand pianos in there seemed next to impossible. So, we took heart and climbed the rustic stone staircase to join the masses in the large upstairs concert room, which presented the double advantage of being well-ventilated (Hello cool air!) and copiously sprayed with citronella (Good-bye mosquitoes!).
Starting a concert with a particularly remarkable work is always risky—Where are you gonna go from there?—but that did not stop Rebecca Chaillot and her guest Belgian-Israeli pianist and teacher Edna Stern, who was in town to host a week-long masterclass, to go for it with one of the most sublime movements ever written by Mozart, namely the Adagio of his Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major, K. 488, with Stern in the soloist part and Chaillot in the orchestra part. And sure enough, Mozart’s understated yet extraordinary expressive music soon wrapped us all up in its immaculate perfection.
Being a child prodigy, Mozart by default did not have a traditional childhood, or even any childhood at all, really, so it is not that surprising that he eventually turned that missing part of his life into the truly enchanting Twelve Variations on the French folk song “Ah vous dirai-je, Maman” (known in the U.S. as “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”), K. 265, when he was about 25 years old. On Saturday evening, Chaillot treated us to a wonderful solo performance of it that expertly highlighted both the brilliance and the playfulness of the still young but fast-maturing composer.
Next came the smash hit of the evening in the Andante of the Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K. 467, which features one of those classical music phrases that get a life of their own after having made an appearance in pop culture, in this case the 1967 Swedish film Elvira Madigan. But seriously, how could one resist the serene beauty and dream-like atmosphere that Chaillot and Stern delicately brought to life in their respective soloist and orchestra parts?
Since Chaillot had gotten her solo turn, it was only fair that Stern got hers too. Luckily for us, she had chosen Mozart’s irresistible Fantasia No. 4 in C Minor, K. 475, an exciting experiment displaying a wide range of rapidly shifting emotions, including agitation, anxiety and tenderness, that often feels improvised on the fly despite its expertly built structure. It takes a bold musician to take on such a bold composition and succeed, and we had just the right person in Edna Stern on Saturday night.
To conclude this fantastic Mozart-centric evening, his Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major, K. 448, which is essentially a splendid concerto for two equal piano partners sans orchestra, had been chosen. It took the two ladies a little while to get settled because there had been no rehearsal, which led to some confusion regarding the position of Stern’s page turner. But once they got started, there was no stopping them. They navigated the three challenging movements—bubbly, gentle and athletic—in perfect harmony down to the tiniest details, including a delightfully fun Turkish-style cadence. Bravo!
And that was it. And that was enough, as the musicians had gone far and beyond the expected hour of gorgeous music, but who’s counting anyway? So, we skipped the informal post-concert get-together in the courtyard and hit the dark and lonely country road, our heads still happily buzzing with the most exquisite melodies.
