Mark’s annual Christmas concert arriving in London with the final two performances at St Mary’s Perivale for his dear friend and admirer Dr Mather and in the church of St Michael and All Angels, opposite his home in Bedford Park, where he also is an active member of the congregation.
More extraordinary playing from Mark Viner as his latest CD dedicated to Alkan receives accolades fit only for a Prince of the Keyboard. With typical modesty, dedication and not a little hardship Mark continues his voyage of discovery bringing us performances of mastery and extraordinary scholarship that are being celebrated regularly with every one of his many CD’s as they are issued. His is not the popular repertoire that draws the crowds but for us that think we know all there is of the piano repertoire he puts us to shame with discoveries of works by forgotten masters. Names that adorn the history books with stories of reclusive virtuosi crushed by the Talmud or of duels in Parisian salons between adored favourite virtuosi. Rarely has this music been brought to life by performances of mastery and scholarship such as Mark is showing us, with a continual stream of musical discoveries. But it is not only the forgotten masterpieces that he plays with authority and mastery but he brings the same microscopic seriousness to well worn classics where rhetoric and tradition have taken us far from what the composer actually bequeathed to posterity in the score. Today Mark chose to open and close with two well worn masterpieces by Mozart and Liszt and in-between to show us not the usual Pletnev concert transcription of Tchaikovsky but that of the composer’s friend Taneyev . Together with a series of miniatures ,one by Rebikov that Cherkassky used to play as an encore ( which he would announce to me in the wings of his concerts in Rome ) and some rare miniatures written for Liszt’s granddaughter Daniela von Bulow as a Christmas present. She had accompanied her grandfather to Rome due to his frail condition and the first performance was on Christmas Day 1881 in Daniela’s Rome hotel suite. This was the day on which her mother Cosima always celebrated her birthday, although she was actually born on Christmas Eve.
Mozart K.331 Andante / Menuetto / Rondo Alla turca
Mark’s Mozart is of a crystalline clarity and a chiselled beauty respectful of it’s time and imbued with an attention to detail of phrasing adding pedal only enhancing the beauty and simplicity with which he allowed the music to unfold with jewel like brilliance. There was a beautiful legato to the third of the opening variations with octaves that were allowed to sing with glowing beauty. A ‘joie de vivre’ of exultation as the clarion bells rang out in the fourth before the poignant beauty of the Adagio of the fifth. Charm and radiance rang out in the sixth and final variation with the closing two chords played without any rhetoric but thrown off with a simple ‘that’s all’. A simplicity and beauty with scrupulous attention to Mozart’s indications but that did not exclude the poetic beauty that a true artist could find within the notes themselves. Repeats , too,scrupulously respected and relished. There was a question and answer to the ‘Menuetto’ with it’s pompous opening statement answered with a heartrending reply before the mellifluous outpouring of the ‘Trio’ played with operatic participation.He brought a stately brilliance to the Rondò ‘Alla Turca’ with it’s very discreet echo effect always understated rather than underlined which had so much more effect than the more exaggerated performances that we are usually subjected to. As Mark says in his admirably short but exhaustive notes:’ vivid pageantry, replete with the jangle of the Turkish crescent ,readily evoking the music of janissary bands’.
Mark brought the charm and beauty of the Golden age of piano playing to Rebikov’s Valse from his Christmas Tree Ballet op 21. Playing of another age when Levitski, Moiseiwitch, De Pachmann and of course Cherkassky played with velvet gloves and the love of the sounds they could create https://youtu.be/HtVtqSJdxLc?si=qED3tTWn0vI86Gt2
Tchaikowsky’s Nutcracker Ballet has long been a favourite at Christmas time where Opera houses all over the globe play to full houses full of the festive spirit.
Taneyev, a close friend of Tchaikowsky had made a transcription of the work that the composer considered much too difficult for the average pianist and so wrote his own simplified version for Ballet rehearsals and every day use. Pletnev recently has made a concert suite of many of the pieces which is often played and is full of pianistic fireworks .Mark chose to play the equally testing transcription by Taneyev which is rarely if ever heard but is equally full of pianistic invention and brilliant streams of notes and as Mark says he prefers it to Pletnev . Choosing the ‘Waltz’ and the ‘Pas de Deux’ having decided that this was no place for any ‘Sugar Plum Fairies’ .Playing with a sumptuous outpouring of radiance and passion with a control and sense of balance where the famous melodies could shine above an embroidery of swirling accompaniments.The ‘Pas de Deux’ opening with streams of notes over the entire keyboard firing off glissandi at the top and bottom of the keyboard with the same skill as the étoiles on stage.
After the interval Mark played a rarity even for Liszt where his Weihnachtsbaum S.186 ‘occupies a unique position as there is nothing else quite like it ‘. I remember puzzling over it as a schoolboy who used to look over the few scores that our local library housed in Chiswick. It looked rather sparse and uninviting and I often wondered why it was one of the only works of Liszt in my local library. Today all was made clear as Mark brought those unforgiving pages to life with artistry and conviction. ‘O come, all ye faithfully ‘ suddenly appeared out of strange evocative chords as four of these twelve pieces became ever more radiant and strangely beautiful, with a voice that the Genius of Liszt could see was the sound world of the next century. Mark ,of course, has made a recording of the entire suite that has filled a gap in the CD library. Little could Daniela have known that her birthday present was a crystal ball looking into the future.
Liszt dedicated Weihnachtsbaum to his first grandchild Daniela von Bülow (1860-1940); daughter of Cosima and Hans von Bülow. Daniela had accompanied her grandfather to Rome due to his frail condition and the first performance was on Christmas Day 1881 in Daniela’s Rome hotel suite. This was the day on which her mother Cosima always celebrated her birthday, although she was actually born on Christmas Eve.
The Twelfth and Second of Liszt’s eighteen Hungarian Rhapsodies have become the most played by virtuosi pianists at the end of a recital They are great showpieces full of heartrending emotions and pianistic hi – jinx. The Twelfth was a great favourite of Artur Rubinstein ( who died on 20th December 1982 aged 95 ) and is full of drama and passion as well as teasing Tzigane melodies of ravishing beauty. Mark recognised all this but also played with a rhythmic precision and respect for the score that brought this old showpiece vividly to life with renewed vigour and astonishing beauty.
A standing ovation from a hall full of friends and admirers. Mark,like Arrau usually plays his programmes that have been prepared with scholarship and does not add to it on command. However on this occasion Mark asked for the lights to be dimmed again as he was amongst friends and it was Christmas .He sat at the piano and his left hand struck the first imposing notes of Chopin’s Fantaisie Impromptu. A ‘fingerfertigkeit’ of extraordinary brilliance and passionate abandon that was overwhelming. The bel canto of the central episode was played with a freedom and beauty which made the return of the opening and the passionate outpouring of the coda even more intoxicating.
Described by International Piano Magazine as “one of the most gifted pianists of his generation”, Mark Viner is steadily gaining a reputation as one of Britain’s leading concert pianists; his unique blend of individual artistry combined with his bold exploration of the byways of the piano literature garnering international renown. He began playing at the age of 11 before being awarded a scholarship two years later to enter the Purcell School of Music where he studied with Tessa Nicholson for the next five years. Another scholarship took him to the Royal College of Music where he studied with the late Niel Immelman for the next six years, graduating with first class honours in a Bachelor of Music degree in 2011 and a distinction in Master of Performance 2013; the same year which afforded him the honour to perform before HM the King. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/07/14/niel-immelman-by-mark-viner/
After winning 1st prize at the Alkan-Zimmerman International Piano Competition in Athens, Greece in 2012, his career has brought him across much of Europe as well as North and South America. While festival invitations include appearances the Raritäten der Klaviermusik, Husum in Germany, the Cheltenham Music Festival and Harrogate Music Festival in the United Kingdom and the Festival Chopiniana in Argentina, radio broadcasts include recitals and interviews aired on Deutschlandfunk together with frequent appearances on BBC Radio 3. His acclaimed Wigmore Hall début recital in 2018 confirmed his reputation as one of today’s indisputable torchbearers of the Romantic Revival. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2018/03/03/mark-viner-takes-london-by-storm/
He is particularly renowned for his CD recordings on the Piano Classics label which include music by Alkan, Blumenfeld, Chaminade, Liszt and Thalberg, all of which have garnered exceptional international critical acclaim. His most important project to date is a survey of the complete piano music of Alkan: the first of its kind and which is expected to run to some 18 CDs in length. Aside from a busy schedule of concerts and teaching, he is also a published composer and writer and his advocacy for the music of Alkan led to his election as Chairman the Alkan Society 2014.
ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary 