Death By Mushrooms & Autoerotic Asphyxiation
Friday, July 09, 2010
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| Nathan Wittaker, Michael Jarvis, Craig Tomlinson & Paul Luchkow |
It was some four years ago that my two Argentine painter friends were bragging to me that a long lost Gloria by Handel was going to performed at the venerable Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. I was extremely smug when I pointed it out to them that I had heard that Gloria, months before, performed by our very own Vancouver-based Pacific Baroque Opera.
My daughter Ale brought me a copy, not too long ago, of a Mexico City Sunday newspaper. It had two pages just for dance and a couple more for theatre. I was impressed until I began to notice that dance was all 19th century ballet chestnuts and the theatre consisted of translations of plays that were terrible in their original English. The best I could find was Graham Greene’s Travels with My Aunt.
In Vancouver, in spite of severe arts grant cuts the dance scene and the theatre scene is alive with new dance and new plays that are experimental in nature. The only medium (and I may not be all that fair in my criticism here) that lapses is our CBC Radio which it would seem that every time I turn it on all I hear in the morning is often repeated stuff from 19th century composers. When I go to performances of the Pacific Baroque Orchestra or by concerts sponsored by Early Music Vancouver they feature the works of often obscure (unfairly so) composers of the 17th century or as was the case today at St Mark’s Trinity Church, music by composers that as a lay person I never knew existed. The Turning Point Ensemble part of Vancouver's exciting New Music scene performed recently two wonderful concerts that are rarely mounted anywhere:
The Unanswered Question
Erik Satie
And it is not frequent that one can hear all (6) of Johann Sebastian Bach's Brandenburg Concertos. Early Music Vancouver
Last night Rosemary and I attended a performance of a trio in a series called Summer SonataSeries. What we heard was the last for this year. The trio featured Paul Luchkow on baroque violin,
Michael Jarvis, fortepiano (on a Craig Tomlinson copy [2004] of a Johann Walther, Vienna c. 1800 fortepiano) and Nathan Whittaker on violoncello. One of the pieces, Frantisek Kotzvara’s Piano Trio in F major, op. 23 “The Battle of Prague” needed percussion and that was taken care of by Daniel Tones.
The intimate evening began with a Piano Trio in F major, op. 16 no.4 by Johann Schobert.
Schobert was probably born in Silesia, although some say he was born in Nuremberg. He moved to Paris in 1760 or 1761 and worked for the Duke of Conti. During the following years he published his instrumental music at his own expense. His comic opera La garde-chasse et la braconnier met with no success in 1767. Schobert came into contact with the Mozart family when they visited Paris in 1764. Leopold Mozart reported that his children played Schobert's works with ease, and that it made Schobert furious. Leopold called him 'Low and not at all what he should be'. The young Mozart was apparently greatly impressed (as a 7-year old) by the D Major sonata of Op. 3, and imitated it and others of Schobert in his Parisian and English sonatas; he based the second movement of his second piano concerto (K.39) on Schobert's sonata op. 17 no. 2. Mozart furthermore taught his Paris students Schobert's sonatas in 1778. Schobert died (1767) in Paris, along with his wife and one of his children, after mistakenly eating poisonous mushrooms.
The performance of the until-last-night unknown (for me) composer startled me as the music sounded “more Mozart than Mozart.” Of this composer on-line web encyclopedias say:
Schobert's music is remarkable for its forward-looking formal and stylistic features, notably in the keyboard music with accompanying instruments.
What that really means is that Schobert was a member of the avant garde of his time and when other composers still with the baroque or in the C.P. Bach period, he was ahead of them all. If I may be forgiven I would say hat Schobert is to Mozart what Irish composer John Field (pioneered the piano nocturne) was to Frederic Chopin.
Some say that Schobert may have been as talented a Mozart but he died young at age 37. Why he died is splendidly described by the web-based Mushroom Chronicles:
It is more likely the case, that mushroom poisoning occurs as a result of volition, the decision to consume a mushroom of dubious identification resting with the victim. There have been occasions where arrogant decisiveness has overridden caution. The most notable case is that of Johann Schobert, a composer who was employed by the Prince of Conti in Paris in the latter half of the 17th Century. He wrote harpsichord concertos, opera and sonatas that purportedly served as the basis for some of the later work by Mozart, his contemporary. Schobert may have had a talent equal to that of Mozart; we shall never know, as he succumbed to mushroom poisoning. According to the historical account, he had gathered some mushrooms in Pré-Saint-Gervais near Paris with his family and proceeded to a restaurant to have the chef prepare them. When he was told that they were poisonous, he proceeded to a second restaurant with like result. Undeterred, he went home to Paris and made mushroom soup for dinner. He was joined in death by his wife, one of his children, and a friend, a doctor; fittingly, it was the doctor who had proffered the mushroom identification in the first place.
After the beautiful Schobert piece, the trio (now a quartet) tackled Prague-born (1730) František Kočvara's (known as Frantisek Kotzwara in London) Piano Trio in F major, op. 23 “The Battle of Prague”. Kotzwara was not only a composer but a virtuoso double bass player who played for The King’s Theatre in London. This trio, written to include percussion, is about the Battle of Prague or Battle of Štěrboholy fougnt on May 6, 1757. Frederick the Great's 67,000 Prussians forced 60,000 Austrians to retreat, but having lost 14,300 men Frederick decided he was not strong enough to attack Prague. Prague was saved.
The trio has many interesting features. Fortepianist, Michael Jarvis explained that his right had represented the Prussians while the Austrian Imperialists were his left. During the thick of the battle (within the piece) his hands cross and the Prussians my be the left hand and the opponents the right. The instruments imitated cavalry charges, trumpets, cannon fire, kettle drums, swords, etc. But the most startling was the 6th movement (8 in all) which was a fine orchestration of God Save the King (quite a few years before the more famous one, 1813 by Beethoven in his Op 91, Wellington’s Victory.
During much of the nineteenth century The Battle Of Prague, was one of the most often played and popular of all concert pieces. Audiences were much more likely to hear it than a sonata by Mozart, Beethoven or Schubert. It features in the literature of many writers; including Jane Austen and Mark Twain (see blog posting below). The original version was written for piano, violin, cello and optional drums.
A couple of years ago fortepianist, Michael Jarvis found a book in an old bookstore in Victoria. The book, a record of events at Killghly Castle in Ireland, c1810, by a Miss Despard mentioned, amongst the concerts given at the castle, the Battle of Prague. It was here that Jarvis noted that it was a trio with percussion. By dogged search Jarvis found the original orchestration at the US Library of Congress. According to Jarvis, the Battle of Prague we heard last night my be the first known modern performance of Kotzwara’s gem.
The third piece of the evening was an unusual Haydn Sonata, his Sonata in E-flat Major, op 75, no.3. Hob. 15/29.
All in all the evening was a magnificent collection of surprises. In the photograph here (an iPhone portrait), clockwise from bottom left, Paul Luchkow, Michael Jarvis, Nathan Wiittaker and Craig Tomlinson. Craig Tomlison is the builder of the fortepiano of which only a glimpse shows in the back. The percussionist, Daniel Tone was not around when I took the picture.
If you are curious about not only fortepianos but also harpsichords and you want to enjoy a concert in an intimate situation try this one on Sunday July 25 at UBC School of Music and it not only features Michael Jarvis (on the harpsichord) but an excellent ensemble with one of my favourite sopranos, Ellen Hargis.
And Raúl Guerrero Montemayor, you should come and visit me from Mexico City. You will see that indeed there is civilization here!
Postscript
On 2 September 1793 Kotzwara paid a visit to a brothel at Vine Street no. 5 in St. Martin's, in London where he met with prostitute Susannah Hill. Following dinner he asked her to cut off his testicles, to which service she refused. Kotzwara then strangled himself on a rope hooked to the door, ostensibly while swiving the girl. Hill was charged for his murder, but she was acquitted after testimony. Kotzwara's death is the first recorded incidence of what is now called autoerotic asphyxiation.
