Katrin Talbot
Pianists Martha Fischer and Bill Lutes performed one of Schubert’s final duets.
For the third year in a row, pianists Martha Fischer and Bill Lutes hosted the third annual Schubertiade concert on Jan. 30 in Mills Hall.
A host of colleagues joined the wonderful musical couple, opening the spring semester by commemorating the life and work of Franz Schubert with a bounty of his music. The theme this year was music evoking nature.
Both Fischer and Lutes are pianists and singers. They were joined by eight other singers: sopranos Jamie-Rose Guarrine, Sara Guttenberg, Marie McManama and Mimmi Fulmer; plus tenors Daniel O’Dea and David Ronis (yes, the current UW Opera director), baritone Paul Rowe and bass Benjamin Schultz. There were 12 Schubert songs on the program, including a few predictable chestnuts, and they were distributed among the singers, who also joined in two lovely part songs.
The presence of David Grabois (horn) and Wesley Warnhoff (clarinet) signaled the inclusion of Schubert’s two songs with wind obbligato parts (Auf den Strom and Der Hirt auf den Felsen).
Fischer and Lutes alternated piano accompaniments throughout, but performed one of the composer’s characteristic piano duets — the powerful Lebensstürme.
Most sonorously, after the singing of Die Forelle (The Trout), faculty string players Soh-Hyun Park Altino (violin), Sally Chisholm (viola), Parry Karp (cello) and Ben Ferris (double bass) played Schubert’s own set of variations on his song, used as one movement of his quintet for piano and strings called “The Trout.”
The idea behind these programs has been to recapture the spirit of the Schubertiades, the parties where Schubert and his friends socialized and enjoyed his latest music. Schubert was a gregarious fellow who loved these gatherings and found them to be the best venues for presenting and creating his masterful small-scale works. The Fischer-Lutes celebrations attempt to recapture the feeling of such gatherings, even to the point of having some of the audience (a large and enthusiastic one) sitting up on the stage with the performers. The hosts’ comments on the music were illuminating, and full texts and translations were distributed for close involvement.
It is said that if something is done twice it becomes a tradition. Surely, if something is done three times, it must be an institution. Let’s hope that is true for these Schubertiades for many years to come.
