The gruff, the playful, the skittish humour of Beethoven was on full display in Imogen Cooper’s recital at Angel Place, in Sydney. To counter intuitively balance this surfeit of chuckles, we were given a wondrous and rare dose of Hayden in dark mode, full of tender reflection.
The quirky humour and beauty of the Beethoven Seven Bagatelles Opus 33 (1803) was like a brut sparkling wine. This is zestful music – brimming with ideas - its diversity challenging to any pianist. It seems to take wing on the spring of actual improvisation, unsmoothed by excessive forward planning. The music announces its intent then hovers nears its means of playful articulation: heavily plucked notes, dense silence, rumbling bass, always quick and quirky in snatches that then break into delicious melody. Energy and grace swirl around and through each of the bagatelles, giving us the closest sense of the unpredictable nature of the composer. The trills and grace notes can be particularly challenging. They were all deliciously dispatched by Ms Cooper. The Scherzo (2: C Major) and the Presto (7: A flat Major) were sharply humorous and full of surprise.
This delightful music was followed by the Haydn Sonata in C minor, Hob XV1:20 (1771/1780).
This is a long work that seems to adumbrate the much later works of Beethoven. It is intensely dark and beautiful, but with the quirkiness of Haydn lurking beneath its rhythmic gestures - those grace notes that here seem wryly tender.
This is music that sighs and though its opening Allegro does build to muscular sound, arpeggios finally taking flight, it almost feels like a slow movement in its poignant riff. When the slow movement comes we are plunged into deeper stress and reflection as the music stalks the very extremities of the keyboard. This is challenging music, nowhere more so than in the finale, where a fierce intelligence seems to be at work, layering idea upon idea while channelling the framework of a classical minuet.
Imogen Cooper encompassed all of this with a natural singing tone and tensile strength. Indeed, she has a beautiful way of revealing tenderness within strength.
After interval, we again experienced the improvising Beethoven, - 10 Variations on 'La stessa, la stessissima', WoO 73 - taking a chirruping theme from Salieri's opera, Falstaff (). Reflecting and refracting its constituent elements, via a series of startling variations, the musical moment was soon grand, soon bold, soon playful, as though Beethoven was flexing his muscles in a slightly artful show of prowess. Again, the humour and power of this piano writing was beautifully articulated by Cooper.
This ability to draw clearly delineated sonorities from the keyboard was on display in the performance of the Thomas Ades work – Darkness Visible (1992). Like Benjamin Britten, Ades takes the framework notes of a Dowland lament and rebuilds it, note by note, into something very different. Its flourishes seem to recollect the sonorities of a guitar (in Spanish influence: sometimes Goyescas hovered in the air) with a chilling plucked note reminding us of nocturnal disquiet and the flickering ache of love that seem to flutter beneath and between its minimalist notes. Like Britten, Ades also find the touch of a radiant song as the work ends. This was marvellous music and pianism.
Ms Cooper than plunged into Sonata No 31, in A flat, Opus 110 (1822) by Beethoven.
The singing mood of the first movement – cantabile molto expressive - was launched without fuss and sustained across its compass with a grace and that was imbued with deep tenderness. The humour of the Scherzo - loud and soft, slowing down/speeding up, then edging into silence - was navigated with natural wit. The gently articulated end to the dance was wittily done, all its elements ushered into good grace by the pianist. The final Fuga was bracing, arresting, interrupted by song then sped on its way, building on the cumulative energy, finely gradated, that Ms Cooper is able to summon.
The protean nature of this music was matched with playing that revelled in the energy wit and profound temperament its respective invention. We had witnessed a grand tour of classical music. No wonder Ms Cooper looked a little exhausted at the end of this recital, though full of delicious smiles as she accepted our heartfelt applause
SSO – International Pianists in Recital – Angel Place Recital Hall – Sydney – August 21, 2017
Gar Jones
The quirky humour and beauty of the Beethoven Seven Bagatelles Opus 33 (1803) was like a brut sparkling wine. This is zestful music – brimming with ideas - its diversity challenging to any pianist. It seems to take wing on the spring of actual improvisation, unsmoothed by excessive forward planning. The music announces its intent then hovers nears its means of playful articulation: heavily plucked notes, dense silence, rumbling bass, always quick and quirky in snatches that then break into delicious melody. Energy and grace swirl around and through each of the bagatelles, giving us the closest sense of the unpredictable nature of the composer. The trills and grace notes can be particularly challenging. They were all deliciously dispatched by Ms Cooper. The Scherzo (2: C Major) and the Presto (7: A flat Major) were sharply humorous and full of surprise.
This delightful music was followed by the Haydn Sonata in C minor, Hob XV1:20 (1771/1780).
This is a long work that seems to adumbrate the much later works of Beethoven. It is intensely dark and beautiful, but with the quirkiness of Haydn lurking beneath its rhythmic gestures - those grace notes that here seem wryly tender.
This is music that sighs and though its opening Allegro does build to muscular sound, arpeggios finally taking flight, it almost feels like a slow movement in its poignant riff. When the slow movement comes we are plunged into deeper stress and reflection as the music stalks the very extremities of the keyboard. This is challenging music, nowhere more so than in the finale, where a fierce intelligence seems to be at work, layering idea upon idea while channelling the framework of a classical minuet.
Imogen Cooper encompassed all of this with a natural singing tone and tensile strength. Indeed, she has a beautiful way of revealing tenderness within strength.
After interval, we again experienced the improvising Beethoven, - 10 Variations on 'La stessa, la stessissima', WoO 73 - taking a chirruping theme from Salieri's opera, Falstaff (). Reflecting and refracting its constituent elements, via a series of startling variations, the musical moment was soon grand, soon bold, soon playful, as though Beethoven was flexing his muscles in a slightly artful show of prowess. Again, the humour and power of this piano writing was beautifully articulated by Cooper.
This ability to draw clearly delineated sonorities from the keyboard was on display in the performance of the Thomas Ades work – Darkness Visible (1992). Like Benjamin Britten, Ades takes the framework notes of a Dowland lament and rebuilds it, note by note, into something very different. Its flourishes seem to recollect the sonorities of a guitar (in Spanish influence: sometimes Goyescas hovered in the air) with a chilling plucked note reminding us of nocturnal disquiet and the flickering ache of love that seem to flutter beneath and between its minimalist notes. Like Britten, Ades also find the touch of a radiant song as the work ends. This was marvellous music and pianism.
Ms Cooper than plunged into Sonata No 31, in A flat, Opus 110 (1822) by Beethoven.
The singing mood of the first movement – cantabile molto expressive - was launched without fuss and sustained across its compass with a grace and that was imbued with deep tenderness. The humour of the Scherzo - loud and soft, slowing down/speeding up, then edging into silence - was navigated with natural wit. The gently articulated end to the dance was wittily done, all its elements ushered into good grace by the pianist. The final Fuga was bracing, arresting, interrupted by song then sped on its way, building on the cumulative energy, finely gradated, that Ms Cooper is able to summon.
The protean nature of this music was matched with playing that revelled in the energy wit and profound temperament its respective invention. We had witnessed a grand tour of classical music. No wonder Ms Cooper looked a little exhausted at the end of this recital, though full of delicious smiles as she accepted our heartfelt applause
SSO – International Pianists in Recital – Angel Place Recital Hall – Sydney – August 21, 2017
Gar Jones