Keyboard at Eight at Guildhall Milton Court
Some fine playing from three artists who I know well .Salome I had heard about but this was the first occasion to hear her live.
Her playing was at the end of this hour long showcase recital for some of the Guildhall’s star pianists.
It was not only her astonishing mastery of the keyboard but above all her musicianly sense of line in this early large scale poème by Scriabin that was so remarkable.There was a wonderful sense of balance in Liszt’s beautiful but much neglected ‘Les cloches de Genève’ and her astonishing performance of Ravel’s La Valse restored this overplayed work to its place as one of the greatest transcriptions for piano since Busoni.An amazing display of subtle colours and pulsating rhythms that was truly hypnotic.A technical command of the keyboard that could accomodate Ravels’ cruel obsession with clockwork precision and turn the notes that swept across the keyboard in all directions into a cauldron of Scriabinesque ‘satinery’.A wonderful piano and beautiful hall it was just missing the audience that they deserved but as Boris Berman once said to me :’If the don’t want to come you can’t top ‘em!’
Rose I have heard many times and know that she stood in last week at 12 hours notice to play Beethoven 4th Concerto immediately after her fathers triumphant recital at the Chopin Society in Westminster.What a remarkable family they are like the Bach dynasty of working musicianly craftsmen .She tells me she will play second piano with her brother Matthew (Gold medal holder at the RCM) when he has to rehearse Tchaikowsky’s B flat minor concerto in the next days.Today Rose shunned the scintillating and sumptuous for the classical and serious.Schuberts beautiful Impromptu n. 3 D 935 in B flat .A set of exquisite variations that in Rose’s hands were streams of poetic sounds with the same subtle inflections of Schubert’s lieder.In her sensitive hands this was indeed a ‘song without words’.There was magic in the air as her Debussy was full of seemless strands of sounds with fluidity and sumptuous luminosity.Sometimes barely touching the keys but projecting golden sounds as the moon shone down on the atmospheric temple.There was rhythmic clarity too as the ‘golden fish’ seemed to dart around in Debussy’s imagination with mischievous meanderings of subtle colouring.
A complete change of character for Shostakovich’s Prelude and Fugue in D flat with a rhythmic drive that never allowed any harsh or percussive sounds.The knotty twine of the fugue was remarkable for its precision and musicianly shaping at such a speed.
A remarkable clarity not only of sound but of musical thought was the hallmark of Jeremy too.
Jeremy Chan I have heard recently play a remarkably fine Beethoven op 110 which earned him the much coveted Beethoven Society Prize.It was a surprise to hear him enter the world of Scriabin but he brought the same musicianship and architectural line to the Fifth Sonata as he had to the penultimate sonata of Beethoven.Playing with real weight so the demonic opening was immediately linked to the sumptuous radiance of the opening without ever disturbing the great architectural line .Some remarkable playing of a mastery that never drew attention to itself but allowed him to shape the music with simplicity and musical understanding.The Scriabin Study was played with the same luminosity and sense of line and was the ideal preparation for the demonic twists of what was to follow.
Rose McLachlan inspires and performs 22 Nocturnes for Chopin by women composers
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/11/23/jeremy-chan-at-st-olaves-tower-hill-masterworks-played-with-intelligence-and-sensitive-artistry/
Jeremy had also taken part in Angela Hewitts masterclass in Perugia last summer.
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/08/24/angelas-generosity-and-infectious-song-and-dance-inspires-her-illustrious-students/
Schubert Impromptu in B-flat major, D 935 No 3
Debussy Images (book II)
I. Cloches à travers les feuilles
II. Et la lune descend sur la temple qui fut
III. Poissons d’or
Shostakovich Prelude and Fugue in D-flat major, Op 87 No 15
Rose McLachlan piano
Scriabin Etude in F-sharp minor, Op 8 No 2
Scriabin Piano Sonata No 5, Op 53
Jeremy Chan piano
Scriabin Poème Satanique, Op 36
Liszt ‘Les cloches de Genève’ from Années de pèlerinage I, S 160 No 9
Ravel La valse, M 72
Salome Jordania piano
ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary 