No phones were kept open during this time. Igor Levit – Russian-born, German-born pianist – and two other senior soloists, French violinist Renaud Capuçon and Austrian cellist Julia Hagen, played Brahms’ entire piano trio last weekend. Despite Wigmore Hall’s restrictions on the use of electronic devices, all seats were sold. The audience of all ages sat still and concentrated intensely throughout. At the end they shouted and cheered and some took photos. These three trios, written during Brahms’s lifetime, have no program in the sense of added stories. The listener’s ears and mind weave their own narrative.
Relating to: Igor Levit: ‘These concerts saved my life’
Until two weeks ago, any observations of disruptive use of mobile phones at concerts would have been dismissed as the bluster of the classical elite. A long-thorny issue has been in the news after the head of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra said he was happy for phones to be used at concerts. A week later, there was some pushback, with complaints coming from all sides: turn down the brightness, don’t use flash, artists’ opinions will be respected, some concerts may be more suitable than others.
More information on this coming soon. First, Brahms. Levit, keen on assets – full Beethoven sonatas, full Bach partitas – played all four sets of Brahms’ late piano works in London in January. Two months later, at the Heidelberg spring music festival of which he was co-artistic director, he explored chamber music with Capuçon and Hagen, among others. Levit style immersion is always complete. As a solo pianist, he is used to being in the spotlight. Here he shared, surrendered, collaborated, giving freedom to Hagen’s lyrical cello playing and the grace and intensity of the violinist Capuçon.
The notes flowing may be huge but none are wasted
In Trio No 1 in B major Op 8 (written earlier and revised later), the piano stands out on its own. The cello joins once and then the violin, all flying away together and separately in a joyous exchange. You see Brahms’s point: Three speak as one. There is melancholy in Brahms – try the slow movement of No. 2 in C – and there is also anxiety: the prickly, tense scherzo of No. 3 in C Minor. Every now and then a little slip of the finger here and there was a reminder of the demands this composer placed on the players. The notes spilled may be huge, but none are wasted. Levit said that playing Brahms made him happy. We agree loudly.
Manchester Camerata, performing at the city’s Albert Hall and calling the programme. Externalpredators, was another example of the power of listening without needing a phone. It was conducted by Karen Ní Bhroin, a young Irish musician with a rising reputation. In the huge old chapel, all columns, stained glass and Victorian gothic, this creative troupe deftly transitioned between the world premiere of Beethoven and a HideOut Youth Zone Market Club collaboration with youngsters from Gorton in the south-east of the city. A former monastery in that area is now the home of Camerata. The community’s outreach work is extensive: last week, with £1 million in funding from the city’s mayor Andy Burnham, Greater Manchester was announced as the UK’s first music and dementia centre, hosted by Camerata in partnership with the Alzheimer’s Society.
New work, Actions Speak LouderWritten by Manchester composer Carmel Smicersgill, still in his 20s, it humorously engaged us (via spoken instructions over a skipping score) and intelligently questioned where authority lies in music. If you’d rather the musicians keep playing without all that audience participation, shout “huh,” she asked. Only a single “huh” sound was heard. The enthusiastic participants of the Youth Zone sang with enthusiasm. To wake upA work they created about the challenges and opportunities of getting up in the morning.
In addition to giving an explosive, rapid-fire account of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 8, the Camerata showed its mastery in the Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major, with Ethan David Loch as soloist. Loch, 19, who is also a composer, won the keyboard final of BBC Young Musician in 2022. He has been visually impaired since birth. The primary method of learning and memorizing music is to hear the music repeated rather than using braille. Loch makes grand gestures with his shoulders and hands to establish the rapport needed between soloist, orchestra and conductor. Otherwise, it might be in the lap of the gods, but it is not. As in all music, except here, each player needs to feel how Loch wants to shape a phrase, where to step forward or back. Directed with keen empathy by Ní Bhroin, these actors did this brilliantly.
Loch, perhaps the only one among the soloists, remained indifferent to the spontaneous phone calls in the audience. (I haven’t seen any of them.) Implicitly, he made the case as strongly as anyone could that we should turn off the rest of the world (including our phones) and trust in the incredible possibilities of the mind’s eye. The echoing footsteps he made on the wooden floors as he picked up his bow with a foldable cane in his hand told that the young soloist was victorious.
Star ratings (out of five):
Igor Levit, Renaud Capuçon, Julia Hagen ★★★★★
destroyers ★★★★★