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Songs, Stories and Interludes: the fabulous Margaret Fingerhut in Sunderland

A bit of careful googling brings up information for a good few concert societies in the region, including the very well established Sunderland Pianoforte Society. I have been meaning to attend one of their events and finally made the trip to Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens yesterday for the final piano concert of the current season, featuring Margaret Fingerhut with a full programme including Chopin, Schubert, Liszt, Debussy and more. A first for me in artist as well as location!

Arriving in the Museum I had chance to at least glance at the displays in the Pottery room; enough to notice that the Museum is definitely worth a detailed visit. I also noted the fabulous Steinway ready and waiting. I had heard about the 'Sunderland Steinway' from a few musical friends and even from the first few notes the character of this centenarian Model D shone through: warm, mellow and very classy. Fantastic.

Margaret's programme for the evening was centred around ballades and songs, interspersed with interludes; lots of maidens and lakes! To summarise, the components were:
  • Schubert, Two Impromptus from Op. 90 (D899): No. 3 in G flat and No. 4 in A flat
  • Chopin, Ballade No. 2 in F, Op. 38 and Impromptu No. 2 in F sharp, Op. 36
  • Liszt, Transcriptions of: Schubert 'Ave Maria', Chopin 'The Maiden's Wish', Schumann 'Widmung'
  • Gershwin: selections from the Gershwin Songbook
  • Debussy Ballade
  • Poulenc, Hommage à Édith Piaf (Improvisation No. 15)
  • Fauré, Impromptu No. 3 in A flat, Op. 34
  • Chopin, Ballade No. 4 in F minor Op. 52
Margaret's performance was stellar throughout her 2 hour recital: classy, thoughtful and sensitive. I enjoyed hearing her informative introductions between segments of the concert which added detail to the printed notes. In particular, she provided one potential 'story' for Chopin's 2nd Ballade, providing a brief overview of the poem Świtezianka, the lake of Willis by fellow Pole Adam Mickiewicz. The whole evening was superb and I enjoyed the mix of well-known and more obscure pieces. In particular the 'French set': the early Debussy Ballade (which reminded me of Edward MacDowell) worked well with the contrast to Poulenc, concluding with Fauré's very textured Impromptu - shades of songs without words and a touch of jazz! I liked the Liszt pieces the least although that is far from being a negative. All in all an excellent evening and I look forward to the 2014/15 season, which starts on 9th September.

  
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