<<  -- 6 --  Roderic Dunnett    A BROAD SPECTRUM

Percy Grainger's amiable 'Ramble on the Love Duet from Der Rosenkavalier' has tragic associations, for it was written in memory of Grainger's mother, who committed suicide in the 1920s, and whose name was Rose. Grainger is especially skilled in capturing some of the Straussian orchestral feel in shivering and shimmering piano figurations, to which Lane brought a delicious spikiness, as well as an affectionate treatment that underlined the pathos that hangs over the whole opera -- this is, after all, a work that culminates in the resigned abjuration by the Marschallin of Octavian, in favour of Sophie. There's a lovely passage where Grainger picks out the theme in the tenor register, which Lane made sing out in a particularly delightful way. And the dying bars were magical: as if a moment had indeed passed, and something that could not be brought back was gone for ever.

Two cheerful arrangements by Grainger of George Gershwin made a congenial follow up, offering an opportunity for Lane's lovely sense of rubato to shine through, not least in some warm (almost sensual) doubling at the octave of inner parts.

Liszt's Mephisto Waltz, with its vivid depiction of the Devil at a country inn joining in the lively peasant dance, building to a passage of feverish wildness before the trilling nightingale sings and Mephisto triumphantly rides off into the night, offered another splendid outlet for Lane's multilayered talents. The start, with its deep rumblings reminiscent of Schubert's Erlkönig, conjured up a fine sense of nervous unease, and later in the work where Liszt stills the keyboard high jinks to launch an eloquent slow passage of almost Chopinesque beauty, the sensitivity of Lane's playing, and the subtle balance in his playing between outer and inner parts, was again evident. The whirl of the dance grows ever more wild and dervish-like, and the dramatic finale was full of fireworks.

Piers Lane's playing was received with wild acclamation by the Rotherham audience, and he was duly called back for an encore. Nothing could have made a more beautiful roundoff to this recital, or a more perfect contrast to the exuberant extragavances of the Liszt, than a shy Schubert encore: the Impromptu in B flat, delivered by Lane with exquisite understatement and the most beautiful feel for shaping an extended melody.

It's events such as this that demonstrate the lively Rotherham Arts Festival's determination not only to present some of Britain's best performers to its audience, but to ensure that classical music duly takes its place alongside other events, so as to present a broad spectrum. This exciting and inventive new arts festival serves Rotherham handsomely, and South Yorkshire is immeasurably enriched by it.