La Schubertiade

On September 4th, 2005 I attended La Schubertiade here in Neuch. This music festival takes place every two years in a different city in the Swiss Romande region of Switzerland. The festival was on for the whole weekend, however I only attended concerts on the Sunday, although I did listen to some of the street performers on the Saturday while I was downtown at the market. It was such a wonderful atmosphere. Being back here in Europe, walking the streets of little town Neuch, walking from stall to stall looking for fresh produce (although funnily enough I only bought groceries from the newly opened Coop City that day because I wanted to see what it was like and they were having huge sales) and being serenades by relaxing classical music. Lots of people were milling the streets, standing, watching and listening to the performers. It was pretty wonderful.
I’d seen a couple posters about the festival since I’d arrived back in town, but didn’t really look into the details of it. From my lovely RCM History courses, I knew what a Schubertiade was, and as much as I love to sit and listen to classical music played in an intimate environment, the style of music at a Schubertiade isn’t my fav. Still, walking around on Saturday made me intrigued enough to want to venture out on my own and take part in the festivities and soak up as much classical goodness as I could.
On Sunday, I paid for a day pass which allowed me to listen to any of the concerts that would be taking place at 14 different venues around the downtown area. The 45 minute concerts started at 1pm and ended at 5:45pm except for a couple special concerts that started earlier and ended later. So with 15 minutes to travel from concert to concert, one could attend five different concerts that day. Out of a possible 60-ish concerts to choose from, I decided on my 5:

1. Christian Chamorel, piano at the Hotel DuPeyrou
Programme:
Frederic Chopin: Ballade No. 2, Op. 38
Franz Schubert: Drei Klavierstuke D946

The one Chopin performer of the festival, of course I would want to attend this concert. The last time I heard this Ballade being played was at a student concert and I remember feeling really stressed out for the performer. The fast part of the piece wasn’t very steady and I was worried for the well-being of the performer. A can’t really think of a better description than that. This time, I felt a lot more comfortable as the performer easily went through the difficult passages. His playing was very smooth and I wished that there were other Chopin performers, but was thankful for getting at least one Chopin piece in for the weekend.
The venue was perfect. A small chapel-esque concert room with the performer playing on a Steinway on the circular stage at the front of the room.

2. Suzanne Klowsky, piano at the Theatre du Passage (Petite Salle)
Programme:
Wolfgang-Amadeus Mozart: Sonate en do mineur KV 457
Johannes Brahms: Kalvierstucke Op. 76

In almost all concerts that I attend, about an hour or so into the programme I get a little tired. Since this concert was about an hour into listening to music for the day, I started to get a little tired during this concert. Nothing against the pianist by any means, but I’ve never been a Mozart fan (to tell you the truth, I was actually starting to get a little tired during the Schubert from the last concert – also not one of my favs…at little problematic as the festival is entitled “La Schubertiade”). I guess when I was going through the schedule of concerts for the weekend, I didn’t have too many problems narrowing down my choices of concerts to attend. There was a lot of Schubert and other similar composers, so when it came down to the concerts I actually wanted to listen to, I had a list that was very easily manageable.

3. Camerata La Stravaganza (Carole Haering, violin/direction, Louis Pantillon, violon/direction, Daniel Meller, violin et Roumen Kroumov, piano) at the Temple du Bas
Programme:
Johannes Brahms: Danse hongroise No. 5 en sol mineur
Boris Leopold: Echos de Russie (Fantaisie sur des theme populaires russes)
Anton Dvorak: Humoresque
Milan Skoric: Melodie ukrainienne
Jo Knumann: Airs bohemians pour violin solo et orchestre
Pablo Sarasate: Airs bohemians pour violin solo et orchestre
Dimitri Chostakovitch: Prelude – Valse

I had actually been to a concert where this ensemble had played, and quite enjoyed it…strange thing though is that they had exactly the same programme this time as the last. Hmmm. Good thing I liked the pieces. The Temple du Bas was PACKED. By the time I got there (10 minutes early), there were no seats left, so I stood near the side. A little bit into the performance, I felt adequately tired, and plopped myself on the ground. Sure, I could hardly see the musicians, but all I really cared about was being able to hear the music, and of course I could do that just fine. It was just such a relaxed atmosphere, people even going to sit on the stage, people singing along…good times. I love classical music and fun community spirit building events!
The soloist was great. I love ethnic Russian/bohemian-eqsue pieces. They have such strength and character to them. Someone should skate to these pieces. I know the first couple are way to popular and have been skated to many a time, but the other ones are great too.

4. Pascal & Gerard Desmeules, piano at the Conservatoire
Programme:
Franz Liszt: Concerto pathetique
Maurice Ravel: La Valse
Witold Lutoslawski: Variations sur un theme de Paganini

I don’t know if it was the acoustics of the room or what but I found the playing WAY too loud. It was a two piano, four hands with the grands open, but I wouldn’t think that would make a big difference. I mean that’s usually how it is. Something about the playing just gave me a little bit of a headache.
The last piece was really neat. Everyone knows Rachmaninoff’s famous variations, but this one was sort of jazzy in feel. Of course you could make out Paganini’s theme, but it was just a different take on it. What makes that theme so famous to use anyway?

5. Piano Quattro (Francois Creux, Alexandre Loeffler, Vanessa Lenglart et June Allender) at the Conservatoire
Programme:
Menu special "Schubertiade":
Petite marche pour ouvrir l’appetit, recette Franz Schubert – Presto du pere Joseph, sauce Hoboken – L’allegretto rafraichissant de la maison Bartholdi – Notre fameux Petrouchka facon Igor – Riz “Goletto” alla Verdi – Le supreme de Dvorak servi dans une garniture slave – Le parfait symphonique si vous aimez Brahms – La surprise du chef

This was a fun concert. The programme was delivered by the performers in the form of a menu. My favorite pun is the Verdi. Yuk yuk yuk. The concert was a two piano, eight hands romping good time. The room was absolutely packed (luckily I was seated comfortably) and there were people standing anywhere that there was space and they even spilled out onto the balcony where they couldn’t see the performers, but of course could still hear the wonderful music being played.
And even though I was in the same room as the previous concert and there were more “hands” playing away on the same two pianos, I didn’t get a headache like the last concert. Maybe it was because there were more people to suck up the sound, but for some reason I don’t think that more people would make THAT much of a difference.
It was a great concert to eat on. Light, casual, with a touch of humour…just how a Schubertiade should be!

It was great to see a diversity in the audiences. Different languages, age groups and cultures being represented. I definitely felt comfortable and enjoyed having some alone time to just soak up the beautiful music. Everyone was so friendly and there was such a nice community feel all day. Seeing everyone milling the streets and speaking with strangers was another one of those unexplainable calming feeling.
In two years, La Schubertiade will be held in Fribourg…I wonder if I’ll be around to attend???

-picture courtesy of www1.rsr.ch