19th Chetham’s International Piano Festival, The Stoller Hall
Gala Faculty Recital, 7.30pm 15th August 2019
The evening gala recital marking the opening of the 19th Chetham’s International Summer School and Piano Festival was eagerly anticipated by audience members, including delegates and non-delegates.
Peter Donohoe was a familiar face to start off the evening, having been a student right at the foundation of the school of music in 1969. He was the only performer to address the audience and he provided a light humour in informing us that he was adding a couple of pieces to his own programme and thus creating a ‘Viennese Sandwich’ by inserting two pieces by Schoenberg between his two Haydn Sonatas.
His performance was remarkable in technical virtuosity balanced with a beautiful lyrical approach to the melodies. Haydn is famously regarded as a composer that was jolly and indeed very happy with his success. Donohoe equally presented a cheeriness in his performance of Haydn’s sonatas 46 in Ab Major and 48 in C major. These presented quite a few challenges which Donohoe mastered with a crisp, sharp touch and a commanding energy.
The first two pieces from Schoenberg’s Five Pieces for Piano added a clear contrast in mood and style and were a clever insert between Haydn’s classical sonatas. Donohoe was able to change tact quite quickly for these pieces, atonal in style and abstract in expression. He did not lose his sense of humour and with a twinkle in his eye, he segued quite quickly from the second Schoenberg piece into the start of the second Haydn piece. This was not unnoticed by the audience and added to the sense of occasion. This was a fiery and energetic start to the night.
Joseph Tong continued the evening with a repertoire of two Schumann pieces – Arabesque in C major Op. 18 and Fantasie in C major Op. 17. This shift to the romantic period should have been an opportunity to explore music with a deeper emotive element but unfortunately was somewhat lacking in emotion. Tong performed delicately and with strong technical control but the exquisite melodies were presented a little too matter of fact for my liking.
Claudius Tanski on the other hand performed a dazzling Rigoletto-Paraphrase by Liszt, showing off a note perfect performance with emotive and lyrical playing, which is difficult to achieve given the constant virtuosic demands of this whirlwind of a piece. Tanski made the piano sing passionately and convincingly. The second piece in his set was an odd little piece – Ich Ruf Zu Dir – an adaptiation of the Bach Chorale by Ferruccio Busoni. It was indeed hymn-like and subdued bringing the audience down from the dizzying heights of Liszt but displayed a personal and emotional depth to Tanski’s artistry.
Carlo Grante added another moment of humour at the start of his repertoire by seemingly applying too much force to the lever on his piano stool, thus plummeting down and jumping up at the piano until he found the right height. Prior to this, each pianist had subtly adjusted their heights by this lever mechanism, but Grante added some mischief in a manner not dissimilar to Mr. Bean. The audience clearly enjoyed it. This in no way detracted from his exquisite and sensual performance of one of the most difficult set of pieces in piano music – Ravel’s Gaspard De La Nuit (The Treasurer of the Night), supposedly an euphemism for the Devil. This music from the impressionist period is intensely beautiful and deceptively difficult – the first section is full of flowing lines and cascades depicting the nymph Ondine who seduces the observer to her kingdom under the water. Grante shimmered and seduced us from start to finish in this movement and indeed the entire piece.
There were no programme notes provided for this concert which was a shame, as this suite would have benefitted with an explanation: Le Gibet (The Gibbet), portrays a man hanged on a gibbet in a dessert in the setting sun. While this is an odd image, the suite was based on dark romantic poetry and in keeping with this early twentieth century style. Grante kept the sound of a bell tolling perfectly prominent, adding an eeriness to this slow and meandering piece. The final piece of the suite, Scarbo, is most definitely one of the most difficult in the piano canon. It depicts a goblin at night, terrorising an unfortunate soul in their bed. He dances and leaps around with speed. Grante attacked this piece with a ferocity that leapt out of the piano and certainly placed the audience on edge. Again, the virtuosity and extreme technique were not second to a strong narrative and expression. Grante performed this piece with seeming ease and delight.
While you may have thought the evening could not have got any better, there was a brief moment when a second piano was put into place for the final piece of the night – Chopin’s Rondo in C Major for two pianos. This was performed by Xinyuan Wang and Balazs Szokolay. Wang opened the piece with a fierce and very determined flourish and what ensued was an almost inhuman performance in that the synchronisation between both musicians was so precise that it simply took the breath away. There was much humour in this performance and it was very clear that both pianists were enjoying every moment of this demanding piece. The clarity and forward direction of each line was mesmerising and a sheer pleasure to hear. It was delicate where delicacy was needed, playful and light but also bold and confident.
This was a sensational end to a sensational opening concert for the summer school and festival.
There were lots of young faces in the audience, mostly made up of students at the summer school and participants in the upcoming piano concerto competition as part of the festival. This opening gala only served to throw the gauntlet down at the next generation of musicians, inspiring and challenging and undoubtedly producing a new generation of talent.
Reviewer - Aaron Loughrey
on - 15/8/19
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