Bocheng Wang at St James’s Piccadilly.Some exquisite playing from this young Chinese pianist perfecting his studies with Ian Fountain at the Royal Academy.Above all supreme musicianship allied to a technical control and sense of style that allowed him to give such shape and form to whatever he played.
A brilliant Sonata in G K 13 by Scarlatti was a scintillating stream of sounds of driving rhythmic energy.Played with jewel like precision and irresistible charm.
There was such beauty in the opening of Haydn’s C minor Sonata.A mellifluous outpouring of great sensitivity in one of Haydn’s most gracious creations.There were subtle contrasts between the melodic and rhythmic episodes of almost operatic proportions.Sublime beauty too in the central section played with ravishing colour and aristocratic control.The Andante played ‘con moto’ as Haydn asks where there was simplicity and elegance as the music was allowed to unfold so naturally with such subtle shading.The finale -Allegro that was played with such elegance that found Haydn in this sonata in such pastoral reflective mood.
The opening Prelude of Debussy’s ‘Pour Le Piano’ was played with great excitement and magical shifts of sound.It was however the nobility of Rubinstein that his rather fast tempo did not completely allow.In the central section though there were some magical music box sounds that gleamed and glistened in his sensitive hands.The final recitativo and closing flourish was played with aristocratic control as he found the nobility that had eluded him in the opening.There was great beauty and elegance in the Sarabande with mysterious sounds in the central section of great atmosphere A very moving climax but that did not quite find that yearning quality that was so memorable in Perlemuter’s hands where he played with great weight of limpet like legato.There was a subtle fluidity to the Toccata with great washes of sound and romantic abandon.Chopin’s Fourth Ballade opened with extreme delicacy and his very subtle rubato in the theme was of sublime beauty.His great control and technical mastery allowed this pinnacle of the romantic repertoire to unfold with a scintillating display of streams of golden sounds and moments of great poetic poignancy.The cadenza before the return of the main theme in Cortot’s most poetic words ‘avec un sentiment de regret’ was of quite ravishing beauty and the build up to the final great climax was played with transcendental control and technical mastery.The five quiet chords before the explosion of the coda created an atmosphere of such serenity that made what came after even more exhilarating and breathtaking as he brought this masterpiece to it’s final inevitable conclusion.
Chopin’s late Nocturne in E major op 62 n.2 was offered as an encore to an enthusiastic and insistent public.It showed off to the full his extraordinary refined playing of great musicianship that had been the hallmark of his entire lunchtime recital in this most beautiful of churches, a real oasis just a stones throw from Piccadilly Circus
This is the link to the concert that will be available to enjoy until the end of December https://youtu.be/idlXdgJ6ESs
ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary 