World-class Schubert expert brings masterclass to the Con
How did your fascination with Schubert's music begin, and what inspired you to become an expert in his compositions?
In June 1971, I was fortunate to be present at a performance of Schubert's great song cycle of 24 songs, Winterreise, at the Maltings, Snape. At that stage I was veering towards a career as a chamber music pianist. It was performed by one of the greatest ever song duos at the top of their game – Peter Pears, 61, was 61 and his accompanist, Benjamin Britten was, 58. This was one of the greatest ever song duos at the top of their game. I realised in a flash what song accompaniment could accomplish at the highest level, in tandem with a great singer. It was a Damascene moment. I emerged a very different person in coming out of the concert hall than I had been 80 minutes earlier. A revelation!!
Why Schubert? Once you become committed to the song repertoire, it is inevitable that the greatest of all song composers should become an abiding interest. If you are involved in theatrical studies, there are hundreds of playwrights to become interested in, but time and again your path will turn towards Shakespeare. , and Schubert is the Shakespeare of song.
Graham Johnson with students at Artsong Gala performance, WAAPA, 2017. Photo: Stephen Heath Photography
Schubert composed an extensive number of lieder. How do you approach interpreting and performing these vocal works on the piano? What challenges and rewards does it bring?
The secret of accompanying Schubert's lieder is to realise that the pianos of the time were very different instruments. Of course one can become a fortepiano specialist, but I prefer to play modern Steinways with a kind of approach and touch that is appropriate for Schubert, and probably not for Schumann or Wolf.
The use of the pedal is not a default setting of continual use. I use the pedal a great deal less than I used to as a young man (Gerald Moore told me this would be the case as this had happened to him over the years) – reserving it, as Schubert did, for passages where magical colour were was required.
In the song Wohin? for example, No. 2 of Die schöne Müllerin, I play the music for the brook entirely without pedal, observing the composer's way of writing the left hand that signifies a legato under the fingers. But when the underwater sprites begin their magical song in the song's last verse, that's when I use the pedal!
How has your interpretation and understanding of Schubert's music evolved over the course of your career? Have there been any significant revelations or discoveries that have influenced your approach to his compositions?
I would like to re-record everything that I did as a younger man. I understand far more than I used to. Every day there is a new discovery. The greatest realisation is that there are far too many over-fast performances in Schubert.
Britten once told me that his definition of a great composer was someone who could put down on paper exactly how he meant his music to sound. Over the years I have realised that Schubert had a failsafe way of conveying his tempi by employing a ladder of tempo markings going from "Sehr langsam" to "Schnell" with many grades in between. and oOnce you have a feel for these gradations, comparingyou can compare one song marked with another with the same markings to another and finding a remarkable consistency., it isIt is then possible to be 90% sure of a song's tempo (the use of alla breve is very important too).
There is not a single marking or articulation on the page of a Schubert song that is unimportant. It is just that one sees and understands more and more of them as one gets older.
What advice would you give to aspiring pianists and musicians who want to delve into Schubert's music and gain a deeper appreciation for his works?
The first thing is to get a sense of how much there is there. It is useless to contemplate the Schubert repertoire as a huge, inchoate blob. Spend a summer with the scores and the records of a complete edition, listening to some each day.
In my Hyperion edition you can make the choice to hear the music singer by singer, as it was first issued on 37 CDs (more or less thematically), or chronologically arranged (as it was in the later, lower-priced boxed set). Keep a notebook of the songs that impress you and why; get a sense of the lie of the land, the geography. This will unveil many finds that will be favourites for the rest of your life, and at the end you will have a very different idea of the enormity of the achievement.
I have heard much lip-service paid to Schubert by those who have gone to little trouble to encompass and survey the length and breadth of his genius. One can only pretend to have read Proust or War and Peace for so long, in the end you have to put in the work and do it!
Graham Johnson will give open masterclasses at Sydney Conservatorium of Music from 24-29 July. These classes are open to the public to observe and includes a public lecture and performances. Tickets: $50, register here.
Top Photo of Graham Johnson by J Hill at the Songfest summer programme held at the Coburn School of Music, Los Angeles, June 2019.