Chetham's School Of Music in Manchester have been running International Piano Summer Schools for the past 22 years, and this year they have opened many of the concerts given by the working professionals tutoring the courses up to the public. What a lovely idea; during a month of when traditionally, the theatre and music worlds estivate for the month, music-lovers are now given the opportunity of seeing world-class artistes performing short concerts at a world-class venue for a fraction of the cost of a standard concert.
On the opening evening of the first of two week-long courses, two concerts were being given. The first was a solo piano recital by renowned pianist Leon McCawley, whose hour-long recital took us effortlessly through Haydn {his Sonata 36 in F), Chopin {2 Nocturnes opus 55}, Brahms {Rhapsody in G Minor OP 79}, and finishing with Beethoven {his Sonata in Eb OP 81a}. McCawley's technique was precise and a joy to watch, as his hands seemed to glide over the keys. A superbly measured performance as he never allowed the emotion in the music nor his emotive connection to it, get in the way of allowing the music to sing and speak for itself. No over-sentimentality in his performance, and this was all to his credit. He played two short encores, which I wish I knew what they were... both were absolutely delightful, and both new-to-me pieces, but were actually more enjoyable and tuneful than the programmed music! I think one was a transcription of an orchestral piece by Rachmaninov, and the other had something to do with Spring.... but that's a s far as I can take it. A brilliant pianist and a superb opportunity to watch him close-up.
The second concert this evening was titled a Gala Faculty Recital. This was a pot-pourri of smaller items performed by members of the teaching staff on the course. In a concert that lasted about 80 minutes, we were treated first to Belen Navarro and Juan Lago playing piano-four-hands, two dances from 'La Vida Breva' by Manuel De Falla. This was followed by Murray McLachlan premiering a new solo piano piece introduced by the composer, Jeremy Pike, which was a homage to Rachmaninov. Pike built his melody around Rachmaninov's C# Minor prelude, and consisted of a series of ascending and then descending chord structures. Next was a change to the advertised programme, and sadly, due to Lithuanian pianist Lauryna Sableviciute not using the microphone to announce what she would now be playing, it went unheard sadly. All I understood was that it was a new piece by a British composer and had something to do with Gabriel. The piece relied heavily on the very top notes of the keyboard; those extremely high and usually quite tinny last few notes which rarely get played, and unfortunately, the piano keys sounded more than usually tinny this evening. A young male pianist was next, Siava Sidorenko, playing the stirring but rather repetitive Prelude no 10 in B minor by Rachmaninov. Next on the programme came Douglas Finch who took yet another Rachmaninov theme and performed a short improvisation around this, and then asked the audience to suggest a couple more composers or styles for him to play his second impro, and so he played a Beethoven's 5th Symphony and Bernstein's Candide mash-up impro! Sableviciute and Sidorenko both returned to the stage together this time to play Lutoslowski's two-piano version of his Variations On A Theme by Paganini. My personal favourite of this concert! The recitals ended with a trio; Icelandic soprano Hrafnhildur Bjornsdottir sang Schubert's 'Der Hirt Auf Dem Felsen' (D965), accompanied by Andrew Wilson on the clarinet and Martyn Parkes on piano.
Two interesting and diverse concerts which not only gave the course participants much to aspire to, but also allowed members of the general public to sit in awe at the standard of the teaching staff and the brilliance and versatility of the piano.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 14.8.23
on - 14.8.23
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