Classical Interludes Goes "HIP"

Pianist Steven Vanhauwaert, violinist Andrew McIntosh, and cellist Eva Lymenstull play Schumann, Schubert, and Mendelssohn on period instruments in First Lutheran Church and School, Torrance.

REVIEW

Steven Vanhauwaert and friends, Classical Interludes, First Lutheran Church, Torrance

BARBARA GLAZER, Guest Reviewer

Classical Crossroads’ Saturday afternoon “Classical Interludes” series—which from this season has replaced the previous "First Fridays at First!~fff"—was a rare pleasure even by the exalted standards normally achieved by this organization and its chosen artists.

On this occasion, though the early Romantic repertoire may have been relatively familiar, it was given the historically informed performance (HIP) treatment. The piano was a modern copy (right) of an 1836 Viennese Conrad Graf fortepiano, built by Paul McNulty in Divišov, Czech Republic, and generously loaned by Dr. Charles Metz, while the violin and cello were equipped with gut strings—Editor.

Barbara Glazer, local Rancho Palos Verdes resident but global concert attendee and lifelong classical music student, writes: "This concert started 2025 atop Mount Everest—in every respect: three consummate musicians (Steven Vanhauwaert, piano; Andrew McIntosh, violin; Eva Lymenstull, cello) playing an excellently chosen (and interconnected) program on gorgeous period instruments for historically informed performance of works by Robert Schumann, Franz Schubert, and Felix Mendelssohn.

"I very much appreciated the informative and articulate discussion by the musicians of their period instruments—so different in sound and color from modern ones which cannot replicate what the composers intended and what their audiences heard, as compared with what we are accustomed to hearing on modern instruments. If you listen to the same program on modern instruments—YouTube is filled with examples—you can hear the qualitative difference from what this music would have sounded like in the early to mid-19th century.

"My exposure to such performances began at the Schönbrunn Palace (right) in Vienna, so many, many years ago; after that, upon maturity, I signed up for baroque and later period ensembles wherever I lived. (There are many such fine groups in our LA area, including those in which today’s string instrumentalists play).

"As I listened to this magnificent concert, I recalled a quotation from Beethoven, in a letter he wrote in response to a student on how they should practice: 'Continue, do not just practice art, but also penetrate into its inner being; it deserves it. For only art and science elevate man to the level of divinity…' Only then can one be faithful to the music, and become a companion in its creation. That is what I heard throughout the concert—the purity of the music, and it was an electrifying experience."

Robert Schumann in 1844.

The year 1842 saw Schumann focused more on chamber music than in any other, before or after. Intensive study of the string quartet medium resulted in three completed by July, and his Piano Quintet and Piano Quartet followed in a comparable late autumn creative burst. In December he turned to yet a fourth chamber genre, the piano trio, but though he completed the work that month, he set it aside. Only in 1850 did it re-emerge, not as a numbered Piano Trio but as four Phantasiestücke, Op. 88. The concert opened with the second of these, entitled Humoresque.

"The (folk) theme from the opening Romance (not played) is repeated in the Humoresque in a more lively manner, so that this is really connected to the first piece as a linked pair. But the Humoresque has a circular pattern with the opening march returning at the end, interrupted by a coda which allows the march to fade away. It's a brilliant device and the performance had absolutely appropriate fantasy touches."

Next came Schubert’s Piano Trio in E-flat major, Op. Post. 148, D. 897 “Notturno.”

Franz Schubert, 1827.

"This has been thought by some to be a rejected slow movement of the Piano Trio No. 1, but it is a sublime stand-alone piece…. too often neglected. It's in the ABABA form. The main thematic material shares common characteristics with some of Schubert's other melodic ideas, including the first movements of the C major String Quintet and the Unfinished Symphony.

"The Notturno was used in the background for the BBC serialization of Henry James Portrait of a Lady, as well as in some episodes of the American TV series "Hannibal". The performance was dazzling—those piano trills of the opening theme as appearing for the third time were one of the incredible highlights of an exquisite performance throughout by the trio."

The main work was Mendelssohn's Piano Trio No. I in D minor, Op. 49, MWV Q 29, composed in 1839.

Felix Mendelssohn, 1837.

"Again, we see the influence of Schumann, as in the Schubert. Mendelssohn is said to have taken the advice of the pianist/composer Ferdinand Hiller and completely revised the work’s piano part, making it more romantic, more Schumannesque. The various key transitions in the first movement are stunning—so too those triplet arpeggios on the piano.

"The Andante second movement references several of his songs without words in the use of melody in the right hand and the accompaniment divided between the hands, and most beautiful is the violin's repeat of the main theme with the counterpoint played on the cello. The Scherzo third movement is actually a sonata form, with the rhythmic motif of the main theme played throughout to great effect. The Finale, the most revised movement, gives the piano a 'work out,' so to speak, with close chords to arpeggios and chromatic octaves. And Steven does masterfully!

"This is a concert for which I am most grateful to have the video on Vimeo—to re-visit, and to be enthralled again and again. Prepared by Classical Crossroads’ tech wizard Jim Eninger, it’s one of their best video recordings yet, truly brilliant in making one feel in the presence of the performers. Kudos all around, and what a debut for Classical Crossroad's 2025 season! Thank you, and a standing ovation to those on stage, and behind the camera."

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Classical Interludes, First Lutheran Church and School, Torrance, Saturday, January 4, 2025, 3:00 p.m.

Images: The performers: Classical Crossroads Inc; Fortepiano: Paul McNulty; Schönbrunn Palace, Schubert, Mendelssohn: Wikimedia Commons; Schumann: www.schumann-portal.de.

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