Press
Music of the Grand Tour
The appeal of the Grand Tour as a rite of passage, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, is often understood in visual terms: young adults needed to see the art and sites of Europe's great cities in order to become men and women of the world. The Aspect Foundation for Music & Arts answers the question of what music those lofty-minded tourists might have encountered in their travels—Venetian songs by Hasse, a flute concerto by Vivaldi, a cantata by Pergolesi—with a concert by the Four Nations Ensemble and the soprano Pascale Beaudin.
ArcHDUKE RUDOLPH
Some gigging musicians wait tables, but, for many, pedagogy pays the bills. What balm, then, to know that even the great Beethoven was a piano teacher. The ASPECT Foundation, which uses illustrated lectures to spotlight the dimmer corners of music history, presents a program of two urbane, generous pieces that the composer dedicated to his most illustrious pupil, Archduke Rudolph of Austria. The pianist Ignat Solzhenitsyn gives the talk and, with Korbinian Altenberger, plays the Violin Sonata No. 10 in G Major; the cellist Na-Young Baek joins them for the Piano Trio in B-Flat Major.
Tolstoy and Music: Kreutzer Sonata
“The Taneyev Piano Quintet which followed was an astonishing revelation to me. It is known among musicians as a serious challenge and an ambitious, even monumental work, and that it is. These musicians, led by Philippe Quint, who has played the piece before, truly mastered it. I heard a performance by highly reputed players at Lincoln Center a few years ago, and I recognized the greatness of the music, but there seemed to be something missing. In this performance the musicians were alert to the changing textures of the writing. Parts of it are symphonic and massive, and others are transparent, even extremely delicate. Alexander Kobrin made sure to play certain light piano lines with special delicacy. To adopt a current cliché, I believed they “nailed” it. For the first time, I heard what Taneyev had in mind with his complex, contrapuntal writing and the color and texture of the score. ASPECT achieved something important in bringing us a complete and convincing picture of the score. I have not heard every recording of the Piano Quintet, although it is a favorite of mine, but I did think this performance was a breakthrough.”
BRITTEN AND SHOSTAKOVICH: A REMARKABLE FRIENDSHIP
“The Aspect Foundation’s concert series ‘Music in Context’ continued with a pairing of cello sonatas by Britten and Shostakovich, introduced and illuminated by Iain Burnside with a useful account of the triangular relationship between the two composers and their instrumental inspiration, Mstislav Rostropovich. Even so, it was cellist Moray Welsh who offered the priceless insights of the evening, with anecdotes and photos from his time in the crucible of Rostropovich’s class.”
BAROQUE LONDON. MUSIC FOR COURT AND SALON
“Podger is perhaps the Martha Argerich of the Baroque violin, in that she is always keen to turn the spotlights on her colleagues and even play second fiddle to Beznosiuk. When not playing she sat stage right, paying rapt attention to her friends. Her tone was sweeter than Beznosiuk's more nutty-flavoured sound but they blended well in the two-violin works. Handel and Purcell formed the concert's backbone but there was also music by Geminiani (which was charming despite Podger's comment, "Mention Geminiani to Baroque violinists and it's like, "ugh!") and a teasing ground-bass encore by Nicola Matteis that sent us all off into the West London air with irrepressible grin.”
CLASSICAL VIENNA
“The Orion Quartet proved themselves excellent conversationalists in their performance of his Op. 50, No. 2, a quartet from 1787 that presents Haydn’s democratic composition style at its most polished. The members of Orion have been performing together for more than thirty years—and the brothers Daniel and Todd Phillips, who share first violin responsibilities, have likely played together for much longer than that. These two, with the violist Steven Tenenbom and the cellist Timothy Eddy, produced a delightfully unified sound.”
BACH AND MOZART, A LASTING INFLUENCE
“Bringing the audience and the artists together, it seems the reception does fulfill an important objective, perhaps by balancing the emotional impact of the music, perhaps by affirming that audience members have become individual members of this newly-created social environment, or perhaps just by allowing that audiences continue to nourish and nosh.”
PRAGUE: CZECH ROMANTICS
“Notting Hill, as the Hugh Grant character in the film of that name can attest, is full of surprises. Another of them is a venue now called the 20th Century Theatre but which once played host to Henry Irving, Laurence Olivier and Charles Dickens, among others. This listed building is a characterful space with excellent acoustics suitable for both the spoken word and musical performance. A series under the aegis of Irina Knaster’s Aspect Foundation for Music and Arts aims to bring the two together, setting innovative chamber repertoire in a broader cultural perspective.”
Schubert’s Octet
“A “music in context” concert, put on by Aspect Foundation for Music and Arts, feels like how you might imagine those 19th-century salons associated with literary and artistic milieus to be: both amusing and intellectually stimulating. Having conversations over drinks or listening to discourses and chamber music in a relaxed, informal atmosphere—this synthesis of music, history, and social culture—is perfectly geared to pique your curiosity.”
FLOWERS IN THE CONCRETE
“ASPECT presents a new concert format – one that transforms the traditional recital into an intimate, engaging, and thought-provoking blend of performance, speech, and image.”
When Tchaikovsky Met Brahms
“The pair related its ostinatos, unexpected key changes, galloping folk rhythms, exposed pizzicatos, and wind-chime piano figures with spirit and skill. They then encored with a somber and sweet minuet by Schnittke, charmingly played. I can’t speak highly enough of these lecture-illuminated concerts from the ASPECT Foundation.”
RUSSIAN ELEGY
“The musicians’ fine sense of collaborative balance was evident from the start as they vividly realized Glinka’s wonderful textural writing. All three musicians displayed a mature melding of feeling and technique that cast a thoroughly affirmative light on the music. There was nothing showy, no displays of ego or too eager virtuosity.”
J.S. BACH. THE ART OF FUGUE
“A recently established series offering first-rate music-making and enlightened discussion continues with a presentation of one of Britain’s most distinguished early-music groups. The gambist Richard Boothby, a founder of the ensemble, introduces and performs in the viol consort’s arrangement of Bach’s “Art of Fugue.”
MOZART, SCHUMANN & THE TALES OF HOFFMANN
“Fittingly, then, first on the program at Bohemian National Hall was Mozart’s Quintet in G minor (K 516), a piece composed in 1787, decades before Hoffmann jump-started the Romantic period. But its sound is almost Romantic in its tragic tone, colored by its key of G minor, which Mozart saved for his most dramatic Kreislerian moments.”