Musikabenteuer mit Leidenschaft
Tabea Zimmermann und Silke Avenhaus begeistern
im Theater Marl (26.01.2009)

Zwei „Power-Frauen“, die den Saal mit ungestümer Energie anfüllten und ein Programm, das aus spektakulärer musikalischer Vielfalt eine bezwingende Dramaturgie formte: Tabea Zimmermann, international gefragte Viola-Virtuosin, und die fabelhafte Pianistin Silke Avenhaus erweisen sich beim Maestro-Konzert im Theater Marl als traumhafte Kombination!
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Hindemiths Sonate op. 11,4 für Viola und Klavier aus dem Jahr 1919 legt mit viel modalen Läufen einen überraschenden Debussy-Einfluss offen. Dass dies hier weit mehr ist als ein modisches Zitat, demonstrieren beide Künstlerinnen in einer aufwühlend dramatischen Interaktion.
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Spannend wie ein Krimi bleibt es, als Silke Avenhaus die Bühne für sich allein hat. In Bela Bartoks „Drei Burlesken für Soloklavier“ zeigt sich der ungarische Tonschöpfer als Meister der Konzentration. Vorausgesetzt, jemand wie Silke Avenhaus leistet die gestalterisch höchst differenzierte Umsetzung – mit verstörenden Quartengängen, pochender Motorik und Passagen voll ironisierender Walzer-Rhythmik und dies alles im Format von jeweils nur wenigen Minuten!
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Schließlich führt Schumanns a-Moll Sonate zu Synthese aus altem und neuen – mit jubelndem Schwung und tänzerischer Leidenschaft krönen beide diesen großen Abend mit einem würdigen Finale.
Stefan Piper, Marler Zeitung, 26. Januar 2009

Tabea Zimmermann & Silke Avenhaus at Wigmore Hall
Ben Hogwood | Monday, October 05, 2009

Schumann, Adagio and Allegro, Op.70
Reger, Suite in E minor for Solo Viola, Op.131d/3
Mendelssohn, Sonata in C minor for Viola and Piano

The quality of Mendelssohn's later chamber music overshadows somewhat the merits of his earlier examples. These are prodigious works, written when the composer was in his mid-teens, and demonstrate assured writing for stringed instruments and his extremely confident grasp of form.

The work for viola, written when he was fifteen, is in three substantial movements, weighted towards the finale, a 'Theme and Variations'. In this BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert, Tabea Zimmermann and Silke Avenhaus emphasised the links to Beethoven in the slow introduction, and were fleet-of-foot in the ensuing Allegro, whose development contains quick upward ascents in both instruments, brilliantly executed. Zimmermann also drew on the composer's original thinking with the Trio of the Minuet by taking it at a slower pace, softly reflective but chromatic around the edges. The finale was colourful, with an air of mystery brought to the Eighth Variation that suggested Franck, while the tumbling piano figures of the Sixth were both virtuosic and highly musical. The extended coda is initially ruminative but then takes off at quite a speed, the players responding to these technical demands with considerable élan without excess of volume.

As with Mendelssohn, Max Reger was heavily influenced by J. S. Bach, though went one step further by explicitly writing pieces for the same instrumental forces. However, although Bach's solo cello works arrange naturally for the viola, as far as we know he did not write for the instrument in a solo capacity. Reger did. Zimmermann brought a beautiful lilt to the Adagio, its slight syncopation making an uneven, slightly unbalanced meter. It was the same in the third movement Vivace, whose bouncing rhythms fell easily under the bow. The secret to performing these works would seem to be melodic projection and phrase control, both qualities that Zimmermann exhibited throughout, together with a technical mastery of the tricky, multiple-stopped writing in the first movement.

Zimmermann and Silke Avenhaus began with Schumann, and the versatile Adagio and Allegro. There was a pleasing sense of holding back in the quiet passages, both players observing the composer's marking of 'slow, with intimate expression' to the letter, while the 'swift and fiery' Allegro was exactly that, Zimmermann's energy and the flowing accompaniment of Avenhaus the perfect match.

There was more Schumann as an encore, an arrangement for viola and piano of the third song from Opus 96, 'Ihre Stimme', which fell naturally under the fingers and exploited Zimmermann's warm viola tone.

Tabea Zimmermann & Silke Avenhaus:
Rebecca Clarke Sonata
Wigmore Hall, London / October 23, 2006

Rebecca Clarke’s Viola Sonata must surely be one of the most accomplished works written for the instrument, and yet it continues not to receive the full exposure it deserves in the repertory.
Here it returned home – it was heard in the Wigmore Hall in 1919 – and from Tabea Zimmermann and Silke Avenhaus it was hard to think of a more persuasive performance. An edge-of-seat drama was there from the off, with the viola’s dramatic vocalise over a long sustained chord from the pianist. The harmonies and textures in this movement, and indeed the sonata as a whole, owe something to Franck and Debussy, but Clarke succeeds emphatically in imposing her own, obviously English style.
The feather-light scherzo was an exquisitely shaded dance, with Avenhaus’s virtuosic figuration neat and sensitive. By contrast the poignant melody, with which the third movement begins, marked Adagio, was expansively treated and built to an impressively weighty climax, the viola’s waspish tremolo gaining in power as the piano took centre stage.
A superbly executed ‘Agitato’ brought the piece to a finish and completed a memorable performance, both players commendably retaining their composure in the face of a flash-photograph and several loud, non-tempered coughs.
The drama of Clarke’s vivid viola writing was prefaced by two arrangements of Schumann, seemingly the composer’s own although this was not credited in the programme. The Adagio and Allegro is flexible enough to work for cello, horn and viola. Here, Zimmermann found a tender stillness early on, her unforced tone filling the Hall easily, and when the Allegro arrived, both players found a commanding stature, Avenhaus securing a pleasant rippling accompaniment to the second theme.
The Violin Sonata too worked well in its new guise, the dark introspection of its opening movement emphasised by the viola’s lower register. Avenhaus’s arpeggios were restless, while some of the choppier textures were negotiated easily by the duo. The jocular second movement was nicely done, the arrangement preserving a light scoring, but the ‘moto perpetuo’ of the finale plunged us back into uncertainty, with Zimmermann’s full tone overcoming the technical challenges of rapid figuration.
Both players threatened to cast off this foreboding air with a resolute theme in C major but to no avail, the music returning to the home key and speeding to its conclusion.
As an encore Zimmermann and Avenhaus gave the Andante of Bach’s Sonata in A for gamba (BWV1028), their vibrant performance of the Clarke still fresh in the mind.
Reviewed by Ben Hogwood, www.classicalsource.com