我如何准备芳尼.孟德尔松的三重奏
[size=3][b][i]preparing and performing the Fanny Mendelssohn Piano Trio[/i][/b][/size]All music lovers are familiar with the works of Felix Mendelssohn. His violin concerto in e minor is one of the most beloved in the standard repertoire, and his chamber works (including his most often performed, the piano trio in d minor) have enjoyed constant and undiminished popularity throughout the centuries. What is not as commonly known is that Felix’s sister, Fanny Mendlessohn-Hensel (1805-1847) was both a respected performer and composer in her own right. Born to an educated and musical Jewish family in Hamburg, Germany, both siblings received early musical training from their mother, and from C.F. Zelter among others. Fanny was not encouraged to publish, in part because of prevailing attitudes against women entering professional fields, but she eventually did so on her own initiative and with some success. Her works became known during her lifetime primarily through the Mendelssohn “Sunday concerts” which became a fixture of elite musical life in Hamburg.
Her instrumental works include an orchestral interlude, a string quartet, piano quartet, and the piano trio which I will be discussing today, and will be performing with my colleagues from Southeast Missouri State University at Shanghai Normal University in June.
By far her most prolific genre is that of art song (leider) of which there are more than 250 examples still extant and were the only genre published in her lifetime. The lyric quality of leider permeates everything she writes, and is evident throughout the piano trio from the soaring opening melody in the first movement, to the title and song-like quality of the 3rd movement “Leid” and the heroic melodies of the tumultuous final movement.
It is always a treat, and a challenge as a performer to prepare a relatively obscure work. It offers a refreshing degree of freedom because there are not established ‘typical’ interpretations, and the audience does not already have the work in their ears. It can also be a bit daunting as one cannot simply rely on tempi and phrasing ideas from this or that recording. For me, the piano trio offered a real treasure, a completely new work from the Romantic period, and one that is an absolute joy to play. It is well crafted as a chamber work, and the violin part lies comfortably on the instrument. Our audiences so far have all responded very well to it, and I’m looking forward to see how it does in China.
The Fanny Mendelssohn trio shares a technical challenge with other works from this period by composers who were pianists. I find that the way pianist-composers (Felix Mendelssohn, Brahms, and to an extent Beethoven) mark slurs can often be confusing to violinists because we tend to confuse bowing with articulation. This makes sense as a violinist because they are often one and the same thing, but the important thing to remember when interpreting compositions by pianists is that they often use slurs as phrase marks, or as an indication of legato, rather than simply an indication of how often to change bow direction.
What this means in more practical terms is that we often see long slurs over legato, melodic passages which, being conscientious interpreters of the composer’s markings, we try to play in a single bow. This is a wonderful technical exercise, but usually (not always) yields unsatisfactory results in performance because we end up either with a forced sound, or a sound which is covered by the piano and cello. Sometimes it’s easy to recognize when we need more bow because what is marked would be simply impossible (say a slur over an entire 4 bar phrase in a slow movement of Brahms) but often it’s a bit more subtle, such as a slur over a long run up to a climactic moment in the phrase. What I’ve come to understand in my own performance is that the end result is more important than the mechanics of how you get there. The audience will not be impressed that you played the ‘right’ bowing. In fact, they wont know, and shouldn’t care. What they care about is that it sounds legato, and leads the ear in a pleasing way to the climax.
Here’s the good news, folks. You can use more bow. Really you can. It’s okay. Lightning will not descend from the heavens and burn you to a crisp because you took two bows in a Beethoven sonata legato run. In fact, you’ll have more fun… and so will the audience. What you cannot do, what we have to be ever vigilant for (and especially aware of when we start changing bowings) is we cannot change the articulation intended by the composer. If she wanted a long legato run over three bars, that’s what you have to give her. So by all means take a few bows, but make sure you can do so completely seamlessly. If you were in the audience with your eyes closed, you shouldn’t be able to hear the bow changes.
So go practice your collé, then give yourself the freedom to make the sound you really want. It’s the one your audience probably wants too.
I ran into this issue in a number of places in the Fanny Mendelssohn trio. If I get the chance to meet any of you in June, I’ll show you what I mean. Until then, I encourage everyone to get outside the standard repertoire every once in a while. Play something by an unknown composer, or a friend, or something for an unusual combination of instruments. (French composers from the first part of the 20th century did a lot of this). And by all means explore the works of female composers like Clara Schumann and Fanny Mendelssohn. They were pioneers, and it’s worth the extra work to find and prepare their compositions.
Brandon
[[i] 本帖最后由 lowendal 于 2008年8月16日 00:03 编辑 [/i]] 谢谢小猪的辛苦翻译，忍不住先占个楼层然后慢慢看。:lol Thanks for the translation! Note that I mis-spelled "Lied" as "Leid". my appologies for any confusion. 演奏显为人所知的作品，常常是一种冒险。但Brandon版主独辟蹊径，特立独行，从心所欲，体现了一位艺术家应有的特质，令人敬重，也值得那些整日为市场而重复演奏的人们的思考。Brandon分享给大家的是一份国内绝无仅有的演奏和独特心得，特别感谢vs的翻译，否则俺得看半天。也希望能在这里看到演奏的录像片段。
欣赏Brandon版主这句话——“你去练习吧，自由的发挥你想要的声音吧，也许这也是听众想听到的。”
回复 13楼 violin_sophy 的帖子
楼上做的补充非常有意义，我们学习西方的音乐艺术，就应该连同他们的文化一起搞清楚——至少在该领域。许多术语因为翻译的问题，在我们中国学者看来，许多字眼儿都是可以互通和相互调换的，实际上并非如此。楼上的文字就是一个证明。页:
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