Skip to main content

Piano geek day: It's All About Piano

Following on from a promotion in Pianist magazine (then discovering the value of the tickets!), on Saturday I went for a day to the Institut Français' new weekend festival, It's All About Piano. After a very picturesque journey through the snowy countryside, I arrived at the Institut's building on Queensberry Place in plenty of time for the 1pm recital by Guillaume Vincent. I hadn't read about any of the pianists I saw, though Vincent's biography is pretty impressive, including a string of prizes. The recital started with a new work for my ears, Alkan's Sonatine Op. 61. I really enjoyed this - mix of virtuosic passages, more moderate, melodious sections and a good dose of humour. There followed a selection of Rachmaninov's Préludes, however at this point the recital became somewhat uneven. Most of the Préludes were performed with conviction, although running almost continuously; here and during the concluding B Minor Sonata by Liszt, Vincent showed periodic laboriousness. The overall impression I received was of a technically very good pianist but with a few performance elements still to work through.

Quickly moving rooms to an afternoon entitled 'Cabinet of Curiosities: From Mussorgsky to Mantovani'. I missed pretty much all of Antoine Alerini's set, but thoroughly recommend Matthieu Acar on the basis of his performance, something like a virtual gallery wherein one encountered Debussy's Danseuses de Delphes; Liszt's Sposalito (from Années de pélerinage); a very interesting 'contemporary art' piece, Dédale, by Bruno Mantovani, and finally Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. The unknown piece there was Dédale, a veritable maze of Debussy-esque sounds, ambient minimalism, bells... really good!

The last pianist of the afternoon, Nathanaël Gouin, started with two excellent Nocturnes (6 & 13) by Gabriel Fauré, followed by Maurince Ohana's Trois Caprices. Really good programming - the Ohana pieces seemed to fit as a growth/extension of Fauré. Then followed two pieces by Franck (of whom I am not a fan - it depends on the individual work). The first, Prélude, Fugue et Variation Op 18 (transcr. Friedman) was unexpectedly delightful, however the Prélude, Choral et Fugue less so. At that point a coffee break called - necessary after almost 3 1/2 hours of non-stop music!

My last event (sadly transport issues meant I couldn't stay for Imogen Cooper's evening recital) was Paul Roberts' talk/recital on Ravel's Miroirs. The small Salon was packed and the talk interesting, relating the 5 pieces to both poetry of Léon-Paul Fargue and the Spanish dramatic character of a grazioso. All very well but fighting against the late hour...

Overall a good idea for a mini-festival; judging by some of the people numbers later in the day it seemed pretty popular, so hopefully will become a recurring event!  

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Pigeon Funk

Notes on a very random purchase. Earlier today I acquired Venetian Snares 'Rossz Csillag Alatt Sz ü letett ' purely on the basis of the language and artwork. Its certainly something different - and most definitely not pop. After a bit of searching: Venetial Snares is, according to Wikipedia, the performing name of Aaron Funk, who seems to specialise in experimental tracks in odd time signatures. Article here . The sleeve notes for this album (whose title is Hungarian for 'Born under a bad star') poses the question: what if, for just a day, we could both be pigeons? Interessant. Apparently this concept (a day in the life of a Hungarian pigeon) is non-typical of Venetian Snares sound, but one could ask, does Mr Funk do 'typical'? On first listening, the sound of this CD mixes classical/traditional Hungarian sounds and breakbeats. but aside from that? Definitely a 'listen for yourself' artist; try the website , fan site or myspace .

Mini update

I have finally sorted out my site links to reflect some new/renewed interests and my current location. We have something of a National Arts Centre bonanza shortly: I had already booked to see Angela Hewitt on 16th Feb but found a good ticket offer on LivingSocial.com to see Radu Lupu this coming Wednesday, 26th. In addition to all that, New Yorker music critic Alex Ross (his recent book, Listen To This , is excellent, as well as his previous tome, The Rest Is Noise ) is giving a talk there on 13th February. This is all followed in March by a complete about turn to the Bronson Centre to see Finnish band Apocalyptica . They have been somewhere on my radar for a while but I was spurred on to book tickets after a bout of nostalgia. M and I were regular visitors to Wolverhampton UK to see various bands at Civic Hall/Wulfrun Hall; a few months ago a mutual friend posted on that there Facebook thing about seeing said Apocalyptica at Wulfrun Hall. Nostalgia for the venue and renewed intere...

ECM+ Generation 2012 plus Voltaire and Frederick

I bought tickets for last night's ECM+ Generation 2012 concert, featuring Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal, at the NAC 4th Stage in an 'it'll be interesting' frame of mind, and interesting was just the start. A very full 4th Stage for a very entertaining and intruging evening. In order of performance, the four new works were: Animaris Currens Ventosa by Marielle Groven ; Ninavanjali by Gabriel Dharmoo ; Beatitude by Riho Esko Maimets ; and Jenny's last rock by Annesley Black . Each performance was preceded by a Q&A with host Nicholas Gilbert, who injected the whole evening with humour. In terms of immediate response, I most enjoyed Beatitude , a concise, intimate and very beautiful concerto for violin and ensemble. Following on from Maimets' explanation, his references to choral music and music of all different time periods were clear. This piece would easily sit alongside more 'traditional' chamber repertoire in a programme.  Maimets...