Tales of the unexpected - September-4-2002

Steven Osborne (photo: Saunders)

A tiny village on the north German coast has become the focus of

an annual pilgrimage for pianophiles worldwide.

For its nine-day duration the Festival in Husum, a two-hour train journey from Hamburg, is alone among a myriad other piano fests in being dedicated to the rarely performed works of the keyboard literature.

Invitations from the Festival’s founder and artistic director Peter Froundjian to play at Husum go only to adventurous pianists. They come on the strict understanding that there will be no Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann or Brahms included in their programmes – or any of the other over-played staple diet of the German concert circuit. Froundjian, himself a good pianist, enjoys cocking a snook at the conservative tastes of his fellow countrymen. His Festival provides a healthy and much-needed kontrapunkt to the insular German musical world.

This year, it was the rising British star Steven Osborne (see interview in the October issue of Gramophone) who opened proceedings with some exquisite Esquisses (book four of Alkan’s Op.63 miniatures), two Medtner Fairy Tales, and George Crumb’s Processional (a piece you only need to experience once) before launching into a silly improvisation on Joplin’s The Entertainer and a thrilling recreation of Oscar Peterson’s Indiana. And that was all before the interval. Five of Kapustin’s Jazz Preludes, Op.53 and Rachmaninov’s 13 Preludes, Op.32 were followed by three jazz encores.

If that is a typical Husum recital, then Konstantin Lifschitz’s the following evening would be equally unacceptable for the average European venue: how about Frescobaldi (three Toccatas, Ricercar con Toccata and Bergamasca in C) and five substantial pieces by Martinu as a first half? The eccentric Russian was, perhaps, less secure in Scriabin’s 12 Etudes, Op.8 after the interval, though Medtner’s Sonata-Ballade met with huge acclaim, before further Martinu as brief, bleak encores.

Perhaps the most eagerly awaited recital was from the French-Canadian virtuoso Marc-Andre Hamelin offering the Godowsky Sonata (all 53 minutes of it) and a comparably rare outing for Szymanowski’s Second Sonata. The technical difficulty of both works put them beyond the reach of most pianists, the Godowsky also having almost insurmountable architectural challenges. At the interval, one pianist in the audience (himself a Husum regular) confided ‘This was genius. There is no other living pianist who could play the Godowsky Sonata like that. It was one of the three great recital performances I have attended in my life.’

Concerts are held in an upper room of the Schloss vor Husum – only 160 seats. There is a long waiting list. However, the Danish label Danacord is at hand to offer annual highlights as it has done since the festival’s inception in 1987. Though neither of Hamelin’s mammoth works is likely to feature on the 2002 selection, there will doubtless be contributions from Enrico Pace, Nicholas Walker, Kolja Lessing and the Duo Tal & Groethuysen, the other artists invited by the canny Froundjian to delve into the piano’s bottomless treasure chest.

This year's Husum Festival ran from the August 16 to 24

Jeremy Nicholas