Piano Concert, The Four B’s, with Robert Taub
Saturday evening 12 th October 2024 at the Levinsky Hall, Plymouth University
A Musica Viva concert
As always Robert Taub began with a lively and informative talk, demonstrating each
point by playing short sections from each work about the choice of programme. The
four Bs of the concert’s title being, in the order of performance, Bach, Bartok,
Beethoven and, after the interval, Brahms. The principal link between the disparate
genius of these four is the experimental nature of each of the chosen works.
Taub is a charming host and a natural teacher. As a pianist I have always admired
the aura of absolute concentration he builds round himself – that communicates its
intensity to the audience too. And he needed that – all four of these works are
ferociously difficult.
Johann Sebastian Bach’s Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue
Playing Bach, Taub makes each of the separate voices of the piece sing. I have
always admired his left-hand work especially: it is balanced and clear, especially
important with this composer as the hands appear to compete at first but then weave
a harmonious melody. There were dramatic changes of tempo in this fantasy. It is the
nature of fantasies to be playful with pace, balance and structure. The pace was
often very fast indeed and then leavened by contrasting moments of seemingly
thoughtful hesitation. The last moment of this fantasy stays in the memory, ending
with a lovely slow resolved chord held for a long moment before breaking into the
fugue section.
Of course Bach was a master of the fugue form. The balance of the two hands,
which are separate voices, is imperative and was beautifully and evenly executed.
The whole keyboard is used, lending the piece at times a haunting distance as both
hands work at different ends of the keyboard. This is a three-voice fugue, lending
extra richness to the effect. It ends in a memorable run up to the final triumphant
chord.
Bela Bartok, Sonata [1926]
Bartok follows the classical three movement sonata form, with a slow movement
sandwiched between two variations of allegro, the final movement being set at a
cracking pace.
Seemingly Bartok’s work contrasts the preceding Bach, but there is a lot in common
between the two masters. The differences lie in the strongly emphatic discords and
modernist phrasing but this piece is as playful as Bach’s and as daringly
experimental. As in the previous piece Taub’s hands moved around the whole
keyboard. Individual notes were suddenly emphasised and repeated and the whole piece was driven by extraordinary energy. It my not be as easy to listen to as the more familiar classical modes, but the drive of it compels and the sudden melodious phrases charm.
Individual repeated notes appear again in the contrasting slow movement, leading
into slow darker-toned chords. Adding to its thoughtful, sombre mood is the new
minor key in contrast to the first and last movements. There is a simplicity to the end
of phrases, which often end in single next-door notes, taken slowly and dwelt on, as
if an idea is being tentatively worked out. Which it is, as the piece asserts with loud
outbursts that lead into the final movement.
Here the energy of the first movement is recaptured and repeated in staccato notes.
The hands fly apart along the keyboard and back together again, each time with witty
variations as the music turns into a folk melody and Taub’s hands mimic the
stamping of the dancers.
Ludwig van Beethoven, Sonata in A-flat major, Op.110
Composed towards the end of his life, this piece shows the composer pushing the
form of the sonata in experimental ways. Once again, the entire
keyboard is used, delighting in the range and variety of which this instrument is
capable. It is in total contrast to Bartok, or so it seems, with its clear melodies and its
more familiar intervals and yet it isn’t. This movement is full of little threads of
melody, followed by runs up and down, snippets of chromatics, thoughtful pauses, as
if the composer is testing himself, seeking to break out of the mould.
The first movement resolves beautifully before moving straight into the slow
movement, full of repeated and sometimes long-sustained notes that feed into
melodious, often single-note phrases. From here we move seamlessly into the final
fugue, with its separated hands suggesting question-and-answer, its
swooping between bass and treble and its steady pace so that we can savour the
precision of each hand’s individuality. Some of the themes of the first movement are
echoed and the movement becomes meditative, using single separated notes and
chords that grow louder and fade away to turn back into fugue mode, with more
variations. These work up to a fast crescendo, full of echoes of past motifs from the
rest of the work.
Johannes Brahms, Variations on a Theme by Paganini, Op.35, Books I and 2
The piece begins with the well-known Paganini tune, embellished by extra flourishes,
which moves quickly into a series of variations. These begin by playing recognisably
with that opening theme but quickly spin away into more and more fantastical
versions of the melody, until each new tune becomes a playful re-invention of the
starting-point.
It is extraordinary how many inventions Brahms could find. There are melodic ones,
tricksy jokey ones, some very short, some fast, some slow, all leading to a repeat of
the main Paganini tune. This ends the first Book, but in the second which follows on
immediately, Brahms discovers even more variations he can play with. In this second
set lovely melodies abound. There are more jokey ones and some where the time
signatures of the right and left hand are different. One has both hands in unison,
another has them in contrary motion. They get more and more delightfully
outrageous! Some variations deconstruct the previous one but in the end, with a
mighty flourish, the triumphant end arrives.
How the audience – quite rightly – cheered and gave Robert Taub a standing ovation,
in response to which he finished with a pretty Scriabin Nocturne as an encore.
Congratulations to Taub for a challenging and thought-provoking programme. These
composers may seem far apart in style and content but these particular pieces share
particular motifs: chromatics, fugues, drama, playfulness, use of the entire range of
the piano and above all a daring experimentation.
