June 24, 2009
A friend gave me a ticket to see the Czech-Hungarian pianist, Piotr Anderszewski, last Tuesday evening in London’s Royal Festival Hall. Anderszewski began with Schumann's last completed piano work, Gesange der Fruhe. The opening movement is a willful statement of sad facts that unwind into wistful memories. Anderszewski played softly - though always clearly and audibly - as if to himself, in his own study late at night.
Earlier in the week I had seen Murray Peraiha at Wolfson College in Oxford for the Isaiah Berlin centenary celebration. Peraiha played Bach's 6th Partita and Anderszewski bestowed me with a second performance of that amazing piece. Both performances were masterful. Peraiha used a very flexible right hand for the richly trilled melodies that bloom over the firm trellis-work bass. I found the liberty Peraiha took a little distracting. Anderszewski gave a restrained interpretation that focused more clearly on Bach. Twice a week is not too much to hear such good music, especially under such expert hands as those four.
Anderszewski opened the second half with Janacek's In the Mists sonata. This impassioned folk-infused music was delivered with polish and fury, though I personally find the sonata to be a bit over-blown, especially when it is sandwiched between Bach and Beethoven, whose expressive fantasies are always substantiated. The concert was meant to close with Beethoven's piano sonata, opus 110. This penultimate piano sonata opens with a deceptively innocent, silly, hummy sort of tune one might expect from Clementi. The basic rhythmic idea remains but the harmonies are quickly enriched beyond Clementi’s dreams. When the theme returns, it is wiser for its travels. The second movement is full of Beethoven's stormy defiance and bewildering, sometimes hilarious, playfulness. The jewel of opus 110 is the third and final movement. And as with much of Beethoven's late music, the final movement of 110 is full of opera arias and contrapuntal explosions.
Anderszewski's performance unleashed both the power and the wealth of intimate details of the music. He played this astounding work like it was his own composition, telling us the meaning of the music through his phrasing. If his recently released Carnegie Hall recording is anything like this performance, it would be worth having. On my way home, the layers of the second of the two fugues of opus 110 kept blossoming in my ears a-top a crowded double decker bus. Beethoven's final sonatas are final, and after opus 110 no encore would be fitting, except to play Beethoven's ultimate sonata, opus 111. So I won't say anything more than that there was an encore and it was unwelcome to these ears.
Earlier in the week I had seen Murray Peraiha at Wolfson College in Oxford for the Isaiah Berlin centenary celebration. Peraiha played Bach's 6th Partita and Anderszewski bestowed me with a second performance of that amazing piece. Both performances were masterful. Peraiha used a very flexible right hand for the richly trilled melodies that bloom over the firm trellis-work bass. I found the liberty Peraiha took a little distracting. Anderszewski gave a restrained interpretation that focused more clearly on Bach. Twice a week is not too much to hear such good music, especially under such expert hands as those four.
Anderszewski opened the second half with Janacek's In the Mists sonata. This impassioned folk-infused music was delivered with polish and fury, though I personally find the sonata to be a bit over-blown, especially when it is sandwiched between Bach and Beethoven, whose expressive fantasies are always substantiated. The concert was meant to close with Beethoven's piano sonata, opus 110. This penultimate piano sonata opens with a deceptively innocent, silly, hummy sort of tune one might expect from Clementi. The basic rhythmic idea remains but the harmonies are quickly enriched beyond Clementi’s dreams. When the theme returns, it is wiser for its travels. The second movement is full of Beethoven's stormy defiance and bewildering, sometimes hilarious, playfulness. The jewel of opus 110 is the third and final movement. And as with much of Beethoven's late music, the final movement of 110 is full of opera arias and contrapuntal explosions.
Anderszewski's performance unleashed both the power and the wealth of intimate details of the music. He played this astounding work like it was his own composition, telling us the meaning of the music through his phrasing. If his recently released Carnegie Hall recording is anything like this performance, it would be worth having. On my way home, the layers of the second of the two fugues of opus 110 kept blossoming in my ears a-top a crowded double decker bus. Beethoven's final sonatas are final, and after opus 110 no encore would be fitting, except to play Beethoven's ultimate sonata, opus 111. So I won't say anything more than that there was an encore and it was unwelcome to these ears.