One of the remarkable McLachlan clan embarked at the Riverhouse Barn Arts Centre in Walton on Thames where the indefatigable Susan Segal at 85 still runs a tight ship with superb professional and human expertise.
Today it was the turn of Matthew the middle son who is about to graduate from the Royal College as is his sister Rose from the Guildhall.
The elder brother Callum is making a name for himself on the competition circuit as he completes his studies in Salzburg and Cologne.
Murray is playing ,lecturing and teaching non stop around the globe whist Katherine is trying to keep pace and order , not only playing the piano herself but also running the biggest summer school in Europe every summer at Chethams.Their youngest son is on a football scholarship in New York and whilst his brothers and sister are playing the piano he is playing the field with the same remarkable skill and enviable talent.
Just two works on this ‘Teatime Concert’ , but two of the landmark masterpieces of the piano repertoire
Schubert ‘Wanderer’ Fantasy op 15 was one of the first works to create a new form in music . The sonata form had been the formal structure until Schubert introduced the transformation of themes, in this case from his song Der Wanderer, that was to influence all those that came after him and lead ,via Liszt, to the leitmotif of Wagner.
It is also an unusually challenging work for the pianist where virtuosity and stamina are linked with passion and poetry
.Matthew played deep into the keys allowing the sound of this beautiful Steinway to sing without any percussive interruptions. The Allegro con fuoco kept remarkably under control, and where most pianist in the excitement of the moment tend to accelerate Matthew managed to always maintain the same pulse with aristocratic control. Beautiful rich sounds to the ‘Wanderer’ and variations that unfolded with a natural mellifluous beauty.
A ‘Scherzo’ that just flew from his well oiled fingers with washes of brilliance in the trio that brought real excitement and exhilaration before the nobility of the Fugato last movement .It was here too that his control and sense of poetry and virtuosity brought this remarkable work to an astonishing end .
After a brief interval Prokofiev’s most beautiful but also most troublesome sonata. The last of his trilogy of War Sonatas is a great song that unwinds with knotty twine that only the finest musicians can steer through with a clear path. Matthew brought great clarity as the seemingly serene opening was imbued with menace and nostalgia with eruptions of extraordinary fantasy and diabolical drive. Matthew with his head down steering his way through troublesome waters with remarkable ease and passionate involvement, where Prokofiev ignited a self identification in him that had been missing in Schubert. A very long and complex first movement was contrasted with the seeming innocence of the ‘dreaming’ uplifting rhythm of the Andante. The chameleonic change of moods in the last movement were played with dynamic drive and diabolical precision .
A rather difficult programme for ‘Teatime’ but was greeted with great enthusiasm in a beautiful barn that was surprisingly full.
A prelude by Scriabin op 11 n 15 was a ravishing calming balm after such intense music making . It was one of the 24 Preludes that had won Matthew the most prestigious prize for pianists at the Royal College whilst only in his second year .
ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary 