Music and Vision homepage

 

<<  -- 5 --  Roderic Dunnett    A BROAD SPECTRUM

-------------------------------

Rotherham's audience for such events is, even at this relatively early stage of the Festival's existence, a healthy-sized and appreciative one. The hopes are that it will grow and enlarge further as the good news of such outstanding events spreads more widely, both within and beyond the county boundary.

Many of them returned to Talbot Lane the next day, however, for a Sunday afternoon piano recital by the Australian pianist Piers Lane, which followed on an equally successful event last year featuring the pianist Nikolai Demidenko.

Playing on a Fazioli piano with a particularly beautiful tone, further enahanced by the acoustic, Lane launched in with a substantial piece, Busoni's piano arrangement of Bach's Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C -- unusual in that this one featured two fugues. What came across was the electrifying clarity and rhythmic piquancy of Lane's playing, both in vivid display passages and in the serene unfolding of the fugal writing. By contrast, two pieces by Chopin, his Nocturnes in C sharp minor and D flat major, gave a chance for him to explore a different side, the elegiac and poetic, in works infused by not only Polish eloquence but also an almost Russian pathos. This was beautiful playing, without a shred of spurious sentimentality: pure, lulling and beguiling.

A substantial work by Cesar Franck, the Prelude, Chorale and Fugue, followed. In Lane's hands the constant ripple of notes emerged with extraordinary subtlety, at times seeming almost not to move at all, so deftly does he shift across the keyboard, and so careful is he to avoid ostentation. The transition to the chorale was enchanting, and particularly effective was a passage where the left hand crosses over to generate a feel rather like a gently tolling bell. Lane commands a wonderful variety of tone and expression. The fugue was a marvellous display -- absolute assurance without a hint of gratuitous showiness.

Piers Lane. Photo © Malcolm Crowthers
Piers Lane. Photo © Malcolm Crowthers

It's not surprising that Alkan -- who, as Piers Lane reminded us in his amusing introduction, was at one point Chopin's next door neighbour in Paris -- just imagine the sounds emanating onto the street below! -- was much admired by Liszt: there is plenty of Lisztian rapture and excitement in the extract 'Quasi Faust' from Alkan's opus 33, the substantial Grand Sonata Les Quatre Ages. The devilish nature of this bristling movement was evident early on in the violent and dramatic irruptions which assail the theme, though they contribute to a thrilling build up, full of Lisztian excitement and bombast, before the fugue unfolds -- in eight parts (one of the few hesitancies in the entire recital occurred on the entry of the sixth!) What especially shone through was the fine detail which -- amid so much activity -- Lane was able to pick out, effectively offering the audience a map through this thunderous, large scale piece.

Continue >>

Copyright © 18 October 2005 Roderic Dunnett, Coventry UK

-------

 << M&V home       Ensemble home        Derby Concert Orchestra >>