The Borletti-Buitoni Trust was founded in 2003 by Franco Buitoni and Ilaria Borletti Buitoni expressly to support young musicians at the very beginnings of their careers, helping singers and instrumentalists to gain their first footholds in the business. It has been a hugely successful scheme; the names of those who have been recipients of the BBT’s awards over the last two decades include many now at the very forefront of their profession – from harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani to trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth, tenor Allan Clayton to cellist Sol Gabetta – while more than 50 works have been commissioned for them from leading composers.
The trust marked its 20th anniversary with a weekend of concerts at Wigmore Hall featuring a number of the artists who have benefited from its largesse. The pianist Mitsuko Uchida has been a guiding spirit for the scheme since its inception, and she joined in the celebrations as both accompanist and chamber musician. She began one of the concerts partnering violinist Geneva Lewis and cellist Christian Poltéra in a supple, quietly eloquent account of Schubert’s Notturno D897, the magical evocation that was perhaps originally intended as the slow movement of the great B flat Piano Trio, before joining baritone James Newby in Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder. Vocally, though, Newby seemed a little out of sorts, occasionally straining at the climaxes in Um Mitternacht, and sometimes strangely unemphatic in the lower registers of Ich bin der Welt, even though every phrase was beautifully moulded.
There was more Schubert in the second half of this concert, a reminder that the trust also supports ensembles, with a performance of the D minor String Quartet D810, Death and the Maidenfrom the Polish Apollon Musagète Quartet. It was a fearsomely accomplished performance, technically immaculate, but a rather implacable, severe one, presenting Schubert’s work as irretrievably tragic. And while it could never be described as a cheerful piece, there are a few more moments of lighter relief to be found than the Apollon Musagète admitted here.
