Shame on the audience!

An edited version of the following review is uploaded on my webpage at http://www.seenandheard-international.com/tag/jiten-s-merchant/

Mahler Chamber Soloists: Henja Semmler (violin), Christian Heubes (violin), Anna Puig Torné (viola), Delphine Tissot (viola), Antoaneta Emanuilova (cello), Olivier Patey (clarinet).
Presented by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), Tata Theatre, National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), Mumbai, India. 24.01.2012

Good things can come in small packages; and this was made evident at the concert by the Mahler Chamber Soloists, a group of six players from the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, in Mumbai. Presented as part of the celebrations honouring 60 years of friendship between Germany and India, it was certainly a success, though one that was somewhat qualified.

The major hurdle in making this a special evening was the audience. Typical of these sponsors, there was a large number of Indian and European government and corporate types among the invitees, which probably explained the bursts of applause after each movement, clicking of cameras, loud coughing and constant traffic of latecomers and premature departees….but mercifully only one interruption from a cell-phone. The genuine music-lovers and regular concert-goers among those present must surely have wondered what kind of impression this audience had made on the hapless musicians; and wished the organisers had included a handbook of concert-etiquette with the brochure.

Even so, the players coped valiantly. Opening with Dvorak’s Terzetto in C Major, they displayed impeccable co-ordination and fine contrast between the cantabile and marcato passages, though the syncopations in the Furiant could have had more rhythmic bounce.

Mozart’s String (Viola) Quintet in G minor followed; and from the start it was apparent this performance was going to be different. The opening Allegro was taken at a clip, establishing a nervous, febrile energy, with sharply angular dynamics and agogic pauses, though the stabbing chords in the following Menuetto could have been made more emphatic. The Adagio was also a shade too fast, lacking gravitas; and it was only in the last movement that the performance struck the right note of grief (especially in Henja Semmler’s soaring violin solos underpinned by pizzicati from the cello) for this was written by Mozart when his father was dying. It has been suggested that the work’s ending, a jaunty Allegro, represented his freedom from paternal tyranny; and here it was appropriately tentative, halting and (again) nervous, bringing us full-circle to the opening.

Brahms’ Clarinet Quintet, after the interval, was undoubtedly the concert’s main event. Its opening promised sylvan shades and autumnal mood….shattered alas in the very first forte passage, the clarinet’s tone hardening acerbically under pressure, exacerbated by the “shouting” quartet. However, clarinettist Olivier Patey’s soft playing thereafter was exquisite, leading up to an ending that was magically hushed. This promise of lyricism was amply fulfilled by the players in the ensuing Adagio; and its rhapsodic “aria” for clarinet was rendered passionately by Mr. Patey, with ravishing pianissimi. The following Andantino was lively, while the last movement’s contrasts were well-realised (for instance, in the clarinet’s flawless legato during its arching phrases, backed by the rhythmic accents of the quartet) with a sombre and very moving end.

Fresh from their concert in Goa, the Soloists offered a charming encore, a medley of Goan folk-songs arranged specially for their ensemble. It proved, unequivocally, that Indo-German collaboration is indeed a happy marriage.