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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!  

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