Review Details
MUSIC IN THE UNIVERSITY HILARY CUMMING Violin DUNCAN CUMMING Piano
Alan Cooper
27 October 2009
KING’S COLLEGE CHAPEL
It was an altogether inspired idea the very day before the launch of the Sound Festival which will bring us a feast of contemporary music during the month of November to have a feast of a different kind, namely of the most luscious Romantic music. It was brought to us by a choice husband and wife duo from New York. Their programme is to be part of a Festival in New York called Youth Movements and the theme they have chosen to highlight in music is Youth, Love, Marriage and Family. Youth was represented by a Sonata (Sonatina) in D Major for violin and piano by Schubert. He composed it at the age of just nineteen though it was not published until after his death by Diabelli and is listed as Op. 137 D. 384. Love was represented by the Sonata in A Major Op. 100 by Brahms, while Marriage was celebrated in a short piece entitled Duo (1999) by the American composer William Matthews. It was composed as a wedding present for Hilary and Duncan Cumming. Although Matthews specialises in electronic and computer-generated music he also teaches courses in jazz and popular American music and this piece clearly derived from that area of his interests. Dvorak’s Sonatina in G Major Op. 100 was chosen to represent the idea of Family since the composer wrote it for his own children.
As the recital progressed I noticed another undercurrent running through the performances. Although the violin has the important role of carrying much of the melody in Schubert’s Sonatina, nevertheless, especially in the opening movement, just as in his song writing, much of the emotional colour of the music comes from the piano writing. Here, and indeed throughout an excellent recital, Duncan Cumming made the piano sing out beautifully without ever getting in the way of the violin. In the Brahms Sonata, the two players have equally strong roles and Brahms develops a wonderful conversation between his two instruments. In the piece by Matthews, it is the violin that gets the last word and then in Dvorak’s Sonatina, the violin continues to dominate while the piano takes more of an accompanying part. I know quite a lot of marriages that work that way!
The idea of two souls in perfect accord was suggested immediately by the unisons at the opening of the Schubert Sonata. The opening movement suggested the composer’s later mastery in song writing while the Andante had all the elegance of the ballroom moving on to a more open air sort of dancing in the finale which had some good natured banter between the two instruments suggesting just a hint of the ghost of Haydn.
At the opening of the Sonata by Brahms, the piano took the lead in wooing the violin which responded at first with the briefest repeat comments before opening out into a marvellous series of romantic exchanges. Duncan Cumming’s piano playing had a wonderful liquid fluency while the richness of tone in Hilary Cumming’s playing matched him perfectly.
The Duo by William Matthew’s lists its movements as Tenderly – Waltz - Tango and it was the third of these ideas that came to dominate the piece. I suspect this composer is not unfamiliar with the music of Astor Piazzolla. There was more than a little humour in the finale too.
Finally in Dvorak’s Sonatina it was the spirit of Bohemian nationalism that reigned supreme in a splendid succession of dance led movements played with spectacular vim and verve by Hilary Cumming.
An enthusiastic response from the large audience brought forth a delightful Lullaby by Amy Beach, the first female composer of large scale works in America, thus bringing to a close a wholly delightful recital.