The fortepiano in the concert hall requires an aural double take as its softness makes it feel distant in comparison with the power of the modern grand. But once that check is undertaken, this beautiful instrument – composed for my Mozart, Beethoven , Haydn and Schubert – with its wooden frame and light strings, brings a piquant mellowness to our listening experience, albeit with less sustaining power. This is a soft sound world that invites you into eavesdrop on the public and private thoughts of the composer, in this case, a young Mozart restless to explore his instrument and creativity.
In this recital of sonatas, Geoffrey Lancaster made a sterling case for its heightening of the musical experience of listening to Mozart’s piano works.
Playing a beautifully burnished copy of an 18th centre fortepiano, Lancaster was able to highlight the tenderness of this music. The Adagio of the Piano Sonata in B flat, K570 was particularly haunting, as Lancaster plotted it minor key explorations of already potent thematic material with emotional dexterity ensuring a pathway of varying contours. This invited deep listening.
The filigree of the sound that he created seemed crafted in flowing lines of quick silver – the singing voice of the piano strangely summoning memories of Elisabeth Schumann’s recorded Mozart. The Rondo finale was trippingly gay – its configuration dancing with light footed tread that enchanted. The graceful Galant style that Mozart perfected was newly minted in this rendition on the fortepiano, begetting a beguiling translucency. Lancaster’s brief preliminary extemporisations on the keyboard were grace notes of surprising piquancy.
Lancaster takes his audience deep into these work, layering their conversational brilliance with punning wit and disclosing a joyous pathway to some deeper reflections. His fingers hover with delectable frisson. He dramatises, ever so gently, the suspensions, before the melodic return. There is a semblance of rubato, but no sense of inattention to the forward rhythmic pulse of each movement’s energy.
The opening adagio of the Piano Sonata in E flat, K282 was full of contrasts. The piano and forte indications crisply authored by Lancaster. The spikiness of the duo minuet in the second movement was arresting, as Lancaster showcased the sheer variety of textual contrasts that Mozart explores across its unfolding structure.
The Rondo in A minor, K511 that commenced the second half of this recital was deeply emotional music and in this case the darkness of the work drew out different sounds from the instrument – its rumbling purr of strength touched the power of the modern grand.
The Piano Sonata in B flat, K333 delivered a sculptured sound, particularly in the slow movement where the soft grace of each melodic curve was finely gradated so that layer by layer, he dug deeper into its transformative power, Lancaster was tender and authorial in recreating this movement's transcendent experience that seems to hover pleasurably near dissonance. The gilt and lilt of the rondo finale was sparkling, deft, joyful, little suspensions and frissons dotting its mercurial soundscape.
This recital felt like the most intimate of chamber soirees as we all listened intently. These performances were revelatory, not only for confirming and beauty and playful wit of Mozart and his exploratory urges into chromatic reflection, but in revealing a new sound world, as though the dark varnish of the rococo keyboard had been removed and a softer warmer sound world summoned into being, with the occasional memory of harp and harpsichord etched on its aural palette.
Two encores followed. Mozart’s Adagio K356, written originally for glass harmonium, summoned a spectral beauty that almost laced ice crystals across its invocation – while Beethoven’s Fur Elise (Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor) sounded warm and loving – like the billet doux it is – even in its digressive pathways.
This was a memorable recital.
International Pianists in Recital– Sydney Symphony Orchestra – City Recital Hall, Sydney – 5 September 2019
Gar Jones
In this recital of sonatas, Geoffrey Lancaster made a sterling case for its heightening of the musical experience of listening to Mozart’s piano works.
Playing a beautifully burnished copy of an 18th centre fortepiano, Lancaster was able to highlight the tenderness of this music. The Adagio of the Piano Sonata in B flat, K570 was particularly haunting, as Lancaster plotted it minor key explorations of already potent thematic material with emotional dexterity ensuring a pathway of varying contours. This invited deep listening.
The filigree of the sound that he created seemed crafted in flowing lines of quick silver – the singing voice of the piano strangely summoning memories of Elisabeth Schumann’s recorded Mozart. The Rondo finale was trippingly gay – its configuration dancing with light footed tread that enchanted. The graceful Galant style that Mozart perfected was newly minted in this rendition on the fortepiano, begetting a beguiling translucency. Lancaster’s brief preliminary extemporisations on the keyboard were grace notes of surprising piquancy.
Lancaster takes his audience deep into these work, layering their conversational brilliance with punning wit and disclosing a joyous pathway to some deeper reflections. His fingers hover with delectable frisson. He dramatises, ever so gently, the suspensions, before the melodic return. There is a semblance of rubato, but no sense of inattention to the forward rhythmic pulse of each movement’s energy.
The opening adagio of the Piano Sonata in E flat, K282 was full of contrasts. The piano and forte indications crisply authored by Lancaster. The spikiness of the duo minuet in the second movement was arresting, as Lancaster showcased the sheer variety of textual contrasts that Mozart explores across its unfolding structure.
The Rondo in A minor, K511 that commenced the second half of this recital was deeply emotional music and in this case the darkness of the work drew out different sounds from the instrument – its rumbling purr of strength touched the power of the modern grand.
The Piano Sonata in B flat, K333 delivered a sculptured sound, particularly in the slow movement where the soft grace of each melodic curve was finely gradated so that layer by layer, he dug deeper into its transformative power, Lancaster was tender and authorial in recreating this movement's transcendent experience that seems to hover pleasurably near dissonance. The gilt and lilt of the rondo finale was sparkling, deft, joyful, little suspensions and frissons dotting its mercurial soundscape.
This recital felt like the most intimate of chamber soirees as we all listened intently. These performances were revelatory, not only for confirming and beauty and playful wit of Mozart and his exploratory urges into chromatic reflection, but in revealing a new sound world, as though the dark varnish of the rococo keyboard had been removed and a softer warmer sound world summoned into being, with the occasional memory of harp and harpsichord etched on its aural palette.
Two encores followed. Mozart’s Adagio K356, written originally for glass harmonium, summoned a spectral beauty that almost laced ice crystals across its invocation – while Beethoven’s Fur Elise (Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor) sounded warm and loving – like the billet doux it is – even in its digressive pathways.
This was a memorable recital.
International Pianists in Recital– Sydney Symphony Orchestra – City Recital Hall, Sydney – 5 September 2019
Gar Jones