As part of its 50th anniversary celebrations, Cheetham’s School of Music is holding a series of 50 concerts across the year and former student and pianist Peter Donohoe performed as part of this series at the Stoller Hall. Donohoe was part of the first group of students to study at Cheetham’s in 1969 and is a fine example of the calibre of musician that Cheetham’s produces – Donohoe has performed with many of the great orchestras around the world from the Vienna Symphony Orchestra to the Boston Philharmonic and has explored a variety of styles including Messiaen, Gershwin and Rachmaninov.
Tonight, he selected a programme of Romantic and early 20th century styles that was in part autobiographical. He opened with two challenging pieces by Robert Schumann, 'Variations On The Name ‘Abegg’' and the Toccata in C major. Both pieces were fairly relentless in energy and complexicity, indeed the toccata is a curious piece as Schumann composed it, aged 26, as a virtuoso piece to be played without the use of the middle finger of the right hand. This was driven by Schumann’s loss of control of his middle finger – also known as pianist’s cramp. There was no cramping in the performance tonight. Donohoe certainly displayed his virtuosity, but what was clear was that in spite of playing music that had a large degree of technical challenge, he relished the beauty of the music and sang to us from his heart, so to speak.
Donohoe took time to present his third piece, the Tchaikovsky Grand Piano Sonata in G, and had reason to do so – he first played this at the seventh international Tchaikovsky competition in Moscow in 1982 earning him the Silver Medal. He shared part of his experience there with us, and also told us more about the piece, giving an insight to his approach to it. The first movement in particular is an epic movement that presents a rigid, march-like theme and contrasts it with a beautifully lyrical theme. It is distinctly Tchaikovskian and Donohoe played it beautifully. He was able to give a strong narrative element to the themes. He explained to us that not many of Tchiakovsky’s solo piano works get played, and it is regrettably so – there is certainly a high level of virtuosity and excitement in his music. Each movement was treated delicately and it was clear to see the pleasure it gave him to perform this piece, as indeed it pleased the audience who were enthralled.
After the interval, another piece by Tchaikovsky was played – Dumka in C minor. This piece, also recalling scenes from a Russian village, opens with a hauntingingly sad melody that grows and grows with energy. Donohoe was soon dancing around the keyboard effortlessly and while there is much in this piece that shows off the skill of the performer, this was never music for music’s sake with Donohoe – as always there was pathos, charm, emotion in all the right places. I had never heard this piece before, and it stuck with me right to the last note which faded away perfectly.
This was a good choice of a piece to play before the main piece of the night – Mussorgsky’s 'Pictures At An Exhibition'. Both pieces convey an emotional reaction to images, telling a deeper story than might be told visually. Donohoe explained to us that he first performed this piece at a concert while studying at Cheetham’s but for various reasons had only played it once since. His return to this magnificent piece of music was spectacular. Before starting, however, Donohoe touched on how Mussorgsky wrote this piece as an honour to a close friend and artist who died suddenly. Mussorgsky visited a posthumous exhibition of his work and decided to represent that event in his music. He incorporated a theme that represented him walking from one painting to another, and then composed music to represent what he saw and how he felt looking at the works.
Donohoe played 'Pictures At An Exhibition' flawlessly, perfectly considering pace and energy balancing it with delicateness or heaviness as required.
One of the movements, 'Catacombs', towards the end of the suite, Donohoe told us, displayed a truly sad moment in which Mussorgsky was upset at the exhibition. Donohoe hoped that the end of the suite, which was triumphant and ascending, represented Mussorgsky rising in the afterlife to be with his friend artist. This little insight to Donohoe’s approach to his music was truly inspiring. We could hear already how important – both personally and professionally – the emotive element of performance was to his playing.
The technical aspects of tonight’s performance made for a programme that would allow any pianist to show off their skills, wowing the audience along the way. Nevertheless, the real challenge to the programme tonight was communicating the music to the audience in a meaningful way and Donohoe not only displayed his virtuosity in a non showy way, he also warmed us with his music and touched us with the emotion which most obviously drives his performance.
Reviewer - Aaron Loughrey
on - 24/4/19
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