MUSIC REVIEW: Chetham's Piano Festival: Recital by Leon McCawley and Ashley Wass - The Stoller Hall, Manchester.

Former students of Chetham’s Music School, Leon McCawley and Ashley Wass returned to Chetham’s to perform a version of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, arranged by Liszt for two pianos. This epic symphony is still one of the most performed symphonies throughout the world almost two hundred years after it was written.

This was Beethoven’s largest orchestra both in terms of types of instruments and numbers of musicians so it was interesting to hear it reduced to two pianos. Liszt did a fantastic job arranging this for the two instruments but it is not without its challenges. From the opening of the first movement and elsewhere, there is a large amount of tremolo which is easy to sustain on strings but difficult for the piano, this was mostly successfully carried out tonight although there was some muddiness at times.

McCawley and Wass were familiar with this work, having recorded it together for Naxos in 2008 and indeed this showed through great synchronicity from start to finish. The energy and pace were exciting and conveyed the feel of the symphony but I wondered if there was a slightly more romantic touch to this performance instead of a crisper more classical feel. Beethoven clearly straddles both genres and choices were to be made there.

There was an unexpected slight break after the second movement and McCawley informed the audience that he had cut himself and his finger was bleeding. This caused some stir from the audience and the offer of a plaster was shouted out but politely declined! It’s fair to say that piano playing is a generally safe activity, this incident outlines further the sheer physical energy needed to keep this piece going, particularly with such extremes in the dynamics and attack.

This was a wholly engulfing performance which was well received by the audience. McCawley and Wass worked well together and while, in my opinion, some of the interest was lost through lack of instrumental colour (no fault of the musicians) this was an explosive performance right down to the final coda.

Reviewer - Aaron Loughrey
on - 16/8/19