Performed on period instruments of the Frederick Collection, violinist Jerilyn Jorgensen and pianist Cullan Bryant play Beethoven's Complete Piano and Violin Sonatas on Albany Records, (Troy 1825-28, released July 2020). In this Insider Interview we spoke to Ms. Jorgensen and Mr. Bryant about this project, as well as their approach to historical performance practice.
Classical Music Communications: What was your introduction to playing on period instruments and historically informed performance? What about the instruments and performance practices attracts you?
Jeri Jorgensen: I had experimented with Baroque performance practice but my ear fought the very low pitch required to play authentically in that style. I loved the idea of it, but decided historical performance was not for me. And then I went to a concert and heard Andrew Manze, noted British period violinist, perform a Mozart concerto with a small classical orchestra. It was like a light suddenly went on, and everything fell into place in my mind. Everything about the performance entranced me: the intimacy of the sound, the easily sculpted articulations, the variety and character of the music which came so naturally from these ever-so-slightly different-looking instruments. I borrowed a modern copy of a classical violin and original bow, and was astonished at what the instrument suggested to me about how to play the music. It was like a time machine through which I could glimpse the composer's intentions. I don't know if you've seen those photoshopped renditions of statuary - the marble busts or bronze statues are transformed into realistic pictures that look like photographs of attractive, real people. The person that is so "classically" depicted comes to life with color and motion and personality. It was every bit as startling a transformation as that.
Cullan Bryant: I had heard about the Frederick Collection of Historic Pianos from a pianist friend, who took me to see them. This undiscovered gem, ensconced in a former library in an unassuming town near Boston, is the greatest collection of early European pianos in the United States. I spent days there, moving from piano to piano, playing snippets of different works on each instrument, utterly immersed in a new, or should I say old, world. Because of standard manufacturing practices, modern pianos have a homogeneity of sound. Starting in the late 1700s, piano construction was in an intensely experimental phase and the sound of the instruments differed wildly, depending on both the maker and geographical location. I was attracted especially to the very early examples and played my first recital there on the Katholnig, which we used extensively in the recordings. I also played an all-Chopin recital on the Bosendorfer, which we used for the 10th Sonata, but I kept returning to the pianos that were most unlike modern pianos in sound and operation.
CMC: What are some of the biggest differences between playing Beethoven on period instruments and modern ones?
JJ: The biggest difference is the total lack of necessity for the violin to try to project over the piano. The differences in the construction of the piano make the sound more incisive and less sustained, so that it is not really possible for the sound of the piano to cover the violin. There are no balance issues. So the attention can go to nuance and articulation and the intimacy of expression of chamber music rather than power. The other variable is the tuning. Because of our experience with a range of original instruments at the Frederick Collection, we like to play Sonatas 1-8 at A430 in a Bach temperament, and Sonatas 9 and 10 at A440 equal temperament. But it really depends on the instrument where we are playing, and what that particular piano and the piano technician happen to prefer. So that is something that is continuously unpredictable, and I have had to learn to adjust on the spot.
CB: The touch of the early piano is very light. Control of the voicing and phrase must come from keeping the weight of the hand and arm out of the keys. Often I have to use a completely different fingering from what I use in the same passage on a modern piano. One of the surprises when we play on tour is the location of the pedals - before the pedal was standardized to its present position on the ground, it might be a knee lever. Certain things are effortless - it is amazing, for example, the way a sforzando in the bass will pop out of the texture. While reproduction instruments are relatively stable in pitch and action, all of the instruments used on the recording have whole or partially original actions, and 200-year old mechanical objects can be creaky, noisy, and sometimes cranky. Each instrument has its own personality, and it is important to work with what is presented and find the beauty of sound that is individual to each piano.
CMC: Tell us about the violin you’re playing on this recording. How is it particularly suited to the music of this time period, and specifically to these particular Beethoven works?
JJ: I'm playing a violin by Andrea Carolus Leeb, Viennese, from 1797. This violin was new when Beethoven was writing his first set of violin sonatas, his Op. 12. It was just coming out of the shop in the city where he lived. The instrument retains its original lower-tension neck set, which enables the use of use gut strings. Their sound is appropriate to the period and compliments the sound of the piano. The biggest difference, however, is in the bow, which was undergoing as rapid a transformation as was the piano during this time period. The "transitional" bows that I use, so called because they were an intermediate step between the Baroque and modern bow, are a wonder of strokes and nuance. They suggest a wide range of expression and transparency that spectacularly inform the interpretation.
CMC: Cullan, tell us about the instruments you used on the recording. Why did you use more than one piano for this cycle of sonatas?
CB: We went through the collection and tried several different pianos with each of the sonatas. It was a fascinating process. The choices are all based on the character of the music, not on any pre-conceived historical notion, although we ended up roughly in chronological order. Only Sonata No. 8 is played on a piano used for earlier works- in order to highlight the music's crisply effervescent character. Interestingly, the pianos we chose as matching Sonatas 9 and 10 were both built in 1830, three years after Beethoven's death and decades after the composition of these sonatas. I can only think that Beethoven, whose hearing was starting to fail as early as 1802, might have imagined the sound of more powerful and singing instruments as he conceptualized these works.
CMC: The world celebrates Beethoven’s 250th birthday this year. Having now completed a major cycle from the composer’s works, what would you say makes his music so timeless?
CB: The reflection of humanity in Beethoven's music is universal. He wrote music of transformative truth, love, and beauty. He offers us his humor, pain, and struggle. These emotions and conditions transcend time and place.
CMC: Because this is a “Beethoven Year,” there is a plethora of new recordings of his music available. What distinguishes your recording from others?
JJ: Our recording is to my knowledge the only widely-available set recorded by Americans on instruments in an American collection. We were inspired to re-imagine the interpretations of these works because of our access to this amazing resource- the Frederick Collection of Historic Pianos.