The Parisian Salon Comes to Østerbro
anmeldelse
D
David Hackett16. December 2023
Concert Review:
Østerbro Koncertforening
Parisersalon pa Østerbro
Date: Tuesday 5th December
Venue: Unitarian House, Copenhagen
If the Opera House, DR Koncerthuset and Royal Danish Theatre represent the beating heart of classical music in Copenhagen, then its soul is surely to be found among the city's innumerable churches, semi-private function rooms and old municipal halls, where first-rate performances take place every week.
It was at one of the latter that I enjoyed the latest offering from the Østerbro Koncertforening (Østerbro Concert Series), a piano trio recital held at the city’s Unitarian House.
A beautiful, but lesser-known landmark in Copenhagen, the Unitarian House Chapel is situated just a few hundred metres from Østerport Metro station, along a windswept boulevard lined with important looking foreign embassies.
Although you enter the chapel by a grand stone staircase, the main hall is surprisingly compact. No matter where you sit you feel in close proximity to the performers.
The discreet, elegant décor and the dimmed lights invoked an immediate feeling of repose and even informality among the audience members. One women sitting on an aisle seat quite close to me was clambering around on the ground during the performance to film the musicians with her phone. Others chatted amiably in the short breaks between movements.
Even the musicians seemed relaxed. They were arranged in front of the altar, next to a stylish little canapé – at times you half-expected them to break off their playing and retire to the latter for a cup of tea. On the altar wall behind them, offering a suitably feelgood backdrop, was a large fresco by Oscar Mathieson, depicting the Parable of the Good Samaritan.
Leading the concert (and providing some lively narration) was Ole Bartholin Killerich, a music educator and host on DR P2 radio when not performing on the piano. Joining him was Chicago-born violinist, Emma Steele, currently concert master at Copenhagen’s Royal Chapel and German-born ‘cellist Dorothea Wolff, a soloist with the Odense Symphony Orchestra and a regular chamber music performer in both Denmark and the US.
They had titled their concert Parisersalon pa Østerbro (Paris Salon in Østerbro), and much of the programme reflected this French connection. Each half of the concert was topped and tailed with several specially arranged songs (for piano trio) by Francois Poulenc (1899 – 1963), whose sassy tones readily evoked jazz, cabaret and smoky Parisian bars from the 1930s.
The programme however commenced with something closer to home: the Piano Trio in F Major op 42 by Niels Gade (1817 – 1890). Arguably less familiar to international audiences, Gade was nonetheless a key figure in establishing a Romantic nationalist style of music in Denmark during the nineteenth century, and he was an important influence on several later Scandinavian composers, including Grieg and Nielsen.
The three musicians showed a fine understanding of the Trio, and not least in bringing out its best attributes – its classical balance, inventive contrasts and continually blossoming melodies. The main substance of the work was found in its first and last movements, proving a nice foil for its short inner movements – an exuberant scherzo and briefly heartfelt adagio.
The next work was my favourite item of the whole evening – the little-known Violin Sonata in D Minor op 36 by French composer Gabriel Pierné (1863 – 1937). Written in 1900, it sits precariously on the fault line between two violently different musical eras, while still following in its own stylistic course. Fully suggesting the fin de siècle Paris of Debussy, Fauré, Renoir and Hector Guimard, the sonata is an exquisite kaleidoscope of impressionistic colours, bright instrumental textures, and subtle cross-rhythms.
Steele and Killerich gave a masterful rendition of the work and all of its contrasts, deftly applying vigour whenever required, while also evoking the sweetest delicacy in the Sonata’s more subdued moments.
The second half of the concert comprised the mighty ‘Cello Sonata in G Minor op 65 by Frédéric Chopin (1810 – 1849), the kind of music that defies the popular image of Chopin as an inspired miniaturist. A late work, the Sonata appeared to mark a new phase in Chopin’s creativity, with his old translucent brilliance now combining with an ever-more intricate and contrapuntal form of keyboard writing – the latter influenced in no small part by JS Bach. The first movement in particular contains dialogue of unprecedented sophistication and virtuosity between the two performers.
Although both piano and ‘cello were made to work hard throughout the work, particular praise should go to Woolff for her wide technical range, and not least her exquisite sotto voces during the music’s softest passages.
The clock was already creeping towards 22.00 at the conclusion of the Chopin, but still the musicians had enough energy to treat us to two more songs by Poulenc.
The only slight disappointment of the evening was the relatively small audience of around 50, in an auditorium that could have held at least 200: one hopes that more people will get to hear about the Østerbro Koncertforening over time. They usually have two or three events every month at the Unitarian House.
You can find a full listing of their concerts here
Danmarks største nyhedsbrev om klassisk musik
Få overblik over kommende koncerter, festivaler og udvalgte anbefalinger fra hele landet.