KATHARINA WOLPE
Dr David C F Wright
How soon we forget!
How prejudiced we can be! We are so
quick to erase things from our minds
and overlook great artists of the past.
We devalue the legacy they have left
us and some who are still happily with
us must reflect on their days of approbation
and now mourn their neglect!
But it goes deeper
than that. Some of our best performers
are not household names. Those performers
and conductors who are international
stars are not always the best performers
or conductors and it is only marketing
that elevates them not their skill or
talent!
Katharina Wolpe is
a stunning pianist. The Daily Telegraph
wrote that her performance of the Mozart
Piano Concerto K595 had a moving eloquence
in the larghetto and crisp playing in
the outer movements and that she showed
great musical insight. The Times spoke
of another performance being of noble
breadth of phrasing and that the song-like
tenderness of her cantabile which made
this a performance to treasure. The
Sun in Vancouver commented on one of
her recitals showing her gifts as a
master with a keyboard command of fascinating
evenness, power and polish. Her performance
of Beethoven's Opus 111 rose to the
level of exalted interpretations. The
Guardian spoke of her Mozart, K491,
as being played with superb finesse
and quality and that in every way her
interpretation, exquisite in tone and
breadth took in the subtlety of phrasing
which made this Mozart memorable.
She was born in Vienna,
her father being the distinguished composer,
Stefan Wolpe. The Nazi regime made her
family refugees and her people, people
without a country.
She is incredibly versatile.
Her playing of the classics is legendary.
She has recorded all the piano works
of Schoenberg on Symposium, piano works
by her father on the German Largo label,
the Schubert Impromptus, D899 and D935,
on Symposium and two works of Iain Hamilton
namely Palindromes and Le jardin de
Monet on Symposium with an Arts Council
Grant.
Elisabeth Lutyens wrote
her Symphonies for piano, wind and percussion
for her as well as the Bagatelles and
the Music for Piano and orchestra. David
Bedford wrote his Piano Piece 1 for
her and Iain Hamilton wrote his Piano
Concerto no 2 for her as well as the
two solo pieces already mentioned. Her
father wrote three pieces for her to
play, namely Form 1959, For piano and
16 instruments and Toccata.
One of the grossly
unjust attitudes among some who call
themselves music-lovers is their hostile
and repugnant attitude to 'modern' music.
I can hear people say that because she
has played Schoenberg and these other
moderns (can't you hear the cynicism?)
she must be a pianist lacking in taste.
What people do not understand is that
these modern works are far far more
difficult to play than most of the classics
and romantic repertoire and call for
a higher degree of skill, interpretation
and technique. I was playing Mozart
concertos before I was in my teens but
Schoenberg is so very difficult it took
many more years for me to play his music
and I am not sure I played it that well
then. This does not decry Mozart or
any other classic or romantic composer
nor do I lessen them. The point is that
the moderns are far more demanding to
play and there are many pianists who
say that they dislike these modern composers
whereas the truth is not so much a dislike
but the fact that these pianists are
unequal to the skill and demands these
newer works require.
I suspect that Katharina's
favourite concertos are Mozart K271
in E flat and K595 in B flat as well
as Beethoven 3 and 4 and the glorious
first concerto of Brahms. She admires
Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Berg, Webern,
Bartók, Varèse and Messiaen,
all exceptionally fine composers. She
points out that a composer's function
is "to astound us to move us and to
inspire us and every composer's way
is different at various stages of his
life. The division of intellectual versus
emotional is, in my view, a false one.
We are one and the same person whether
we are thinking or feeling, particularly
in the creative field."
She adores Mozart,
Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann and Brahms
because they "transcend the purely pianistic
limitations of the instrument and take
it beyond itself."
I once asked her if
she suffered from nerves before a performance.
She replied, "Generally less now than
when I was young and playing everything
for the first time. The remedy lies
in preparation since a concert is as
good as the preparation for it. If the
mind is free for imagination and fantasy
there is no room for nerves."
I also asked her what
makes a good performance. She answered
at once, "Realising the composer's intentions.
Once you play it your way it is not
the composer's way. Too many soloists
and conductors want to perform music
their own way and the composer 's wishes
are secondary."
How true that is but
I will not give examples here although
examples are legion.
Notwithstanding those
remarks, Katharina went on to say to
me, "I detest superficial mechanical
playing." What I think she meant was
the performers are not to be machines
so technically perfect and precise that
the music is only clinical.
She is a very courteous
speaker. She did not criticise any performer,
composer or conductor but did admit
that she would have given anything to
have been born earlier so that she could
have worked with Furtwängler who
is her ideal conductor. She did say
that some conductors were unsympathetic
in concertos (how right she is) but
did not name them. Her honesty is also
noted when she admitted to have given
a few disastrous performances.
She is an admired teacher
having piano classes at Morley College,
given master-classes in many universities
and colleges as well as summer schools
and festivals in England, the USA and
Canada. For two years she was artist
in residence at the University of Toronto
and similarly at the University of North
Carolina.
But what of her neglect?
Stoically she says, "The public is the
victim of huge industries of Public
Relations, sales technique and the mistaken
theory that classical concerts can be
made to make money if they are vulgar
enough. The music public is treated
like any other consumer and great music
marketed like shampoo or margarine and
if music lovers can't tell the difference
between margarine and butter one can't
blame them."
To take up her point,
PR says that Elgar is a wonderful composer,
the alleged best butter you can buy,
whereas Schoenberg is a cheap margarine
and people are so naive as to believe
this propaganda, this false information
and virulent promotion. I should add
that this example is not hers but one
tendered by another famous musician.
Another point she made
was that the Tchaikovsky violin and
piano concertos had rocky beginnings
and so it is hoped that in time shallow
music lovers will value the modern concertos.
Edgar Varèse once said that "composers
are not ahead of their time but, rather
it is music lovers who are so far behind."
She also makes another
salient point about reviewers. All reviewers
of music and performances whether live
or on record or CD must be musicians
themselves, must be someone who you
can take seriously as a musician. If
a review of any of her performances,
or anyone else for that matter, whether
live or on CD, is written by a non-musician
that review is worthless. She prefers
to play live rather than in the recording
studio.
Katharina does not
smoke or drink. She loves gardening,
viewing art and reading. She told me
that the people who have most impressed
her in the arts are not musicians but
the sculptor Alberto Giacometti and
the writer Samuel Beckett. She opines
that both carried an aura of spiritual
strength and both were unaffected and
kind, Beckett in particular. Her other
interest is the environment, conservation
and the protection of animals and their
habitat rather than in politics. She
is a vegan and a member of the Green
Party but is disappointed that the party
is not more successful or supported.
She has no religious persuasion.
I warmed very much
to this wonderful lady who went on to
express another vital truth. She said,
"The performer, or performers, is the
path between the composer and the listener
and this road must be clear. Often it
is full of junk and debris like the
vanity of the performer/ conductor,
or nerves or bad technique or a lack
of rehearsal or understanding of the
piece. I would like to think that my
performance is always an uncluttered
road that leads the listener to the
genius of the composer whether it be
Mozart or Schoenberg, Beethoven or Berg."
After one concert the
Vienna Express wrote, "Katharina Wolpe
played the Beethoven of one's dreams,
pure, profound and passionate." Another
concert resulted in this review from
the Toronto Star, "A most extraordinary
recital. There is no doubt that she
has complete mastery over her medium.
Her nuances are exquisite, her pacing
and sense of rubato are quite wonderful,
her musical line clear through every
bar." Music and Musicians of London
wrote of yet another concert, "Having
listened to inexcusable performances
by three internationally famous pianists
on the South Bank this month, it was
both refreshing and indeed humbling
to hear playing from Katharina Wolpe
of the most striking sensitivity and
perception."
It is amazing how music
lovers can be so naive on many issues.
Some honestly believe that an internationally
famous pianists can only perform well
and, as with some of these modern conductors,
can do no wrong.
In the first months
of 1997 she gave a grand romantic tour
of Saturday morning coffee concerts
at St George's, Brandon Hill, Bristol
in which she highlighted music associated
with Vienna, Leipzig, Dresden, Budapest,
Prague, Warsaw, St Petersburg respectively
and the final concert took us back to
Vienna. She played Beethoven (op. 109),
the Schubert Impromptus (D935), the
Variations Sérieuses by Mendelssohn,
Davidsbundler Tänze opus 6 by Schumann,
Petrarch Sonnets 104 and 126 by Liszt,
On the seashore by Smetana, In the Mist
by Janáček,
Chopin mazurkas Op 17 /4, Op 24/ 4 and
Op 67/2 and the Ballade no. 1 in G minor.
By the time she had reached Russia she
played Tchaikovsky's Barcarolle and
Christmas from The Seasons, the Nocturne
no 5 in B flat by John Field and the
24 Preludes op 11 by Scriabin.
The final concert returning to Vienna
heard the E flat Intermezzo from Brahms's
Op 117, the Berg Sonata, the Three Pieces
op 11 of Schoenberg, and the fantasy
Pieces op 116 by Brahms.
Vienna, which is highly
critical of pianists, loved her. The
Volksblatt wrote, "Miss Wolpe was the
star of the evening. Her playing has
poetry, beauty and intensity - she renders
unto Beethoven that which is Beethoven's."
Another naivety of
some music lovers is their view that
great pianists only play great music
and that is the criterion for allowing
what is great music. The same misconception
is attributed to other instrumentalists
and conductors with this selfsame notion
that great performers only perform great
music; this is the nonsense perpetrated
by PR. Katharine Wolpe made her London
debut with the Schoenberg Piano Concerto,
which she learnt at short notice - an
amazing feat, and this was not appreciated.
Even when Alfred Brendel recorded this
concerto naive music lovers were stunned
because it contradicted their preconceived
and ridiculous ideas.
Early in 1998 she appeared
with Vanessa Redgrave in five evenings
of literature and Music at the Theatre
des Champ-Elysées in Paris and
in the summer took part in the International
Stefan Wolpe Festival in Toronto.
She was married to
the conductor, the late Lawrence Leonard.
Katharina is a splendid
artist and lady and more people should
take an interest in her playing. They
will not be disappointed.
She is appreciated
and highly valued by the professionals
and deserves all this approbation. Music
lovers, affected or infected by PR and
the opinion of the less informed, have,
apparently, yet to discover this stunning
pianist.
Dr David C F Wright 1998
This article or any part of it, however
small, must not be copied, quoted, used,
downloaded, stored in any retrieval
system without the prior written permission
of the author. Failure to comply will
render the offenders liable to action
at law since breach of copyright is
both illegal and theft
