Not the great matinee idol of a bygone Hollywood era, but the contemporary concert pianist, Leslie Howard, who gave a recital of Liszt piano pieces today at The Stoller Hall as part of Chetham's 19th International Summer School and Festival of Pianists.
Howard's one hour concert of piano music by Franz Liszt started with something seemingly perhaps a little incongruous for the opening of the second week of this festival, 'Three Funeral Odes'. Listzt himself was a tempestuous character both on and off the concert platform and his flamboyant and deeply emotive music can only truly come alive if a pianist is as wildly passionate and 'in tune' with the music as Liszt was himself. Howard's playing of these three pieces was technically undeniably superb, and indeed there was passion there, but for me, it was a little too staid and withheld. The music was beautiful but not edge-of-the-seat exciting.
It was in the final pieces of the concert, The Cavatina and The Valse Integrale from Listzt's 'Reminiscences Of Meyerbeer's Robert, The Devil' in which Howard truly excelled. The major keys, the gypsy dance rhythms, the folk melodies, all intertwining with the broodiness and extravagance of Listzt's notation upped the mood considerably and he even gave way to a smile half-way through the playing of these too.
I have had the privilege of seeing Howard play several times, and once he got into his stride, he was as good if not better than I have ever seen him play.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 21/8/19
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