Gabrielé Sutkuté for the the 700 year old Worship Company of Glaziers presenting an evening of French Music on a voyage of ‘Discovery’ organised by Yisha Xue and Lisa Peacock

Master of the Glaziers , Alderman Tim Mc Nally CC, former chairman of the National Liberal Club dedicated the concert to his wife Claire entitling the evening ‘Claire de lune’ which of course had to include Debussy’s much loved piano piece ‘Clair de lune’.

A piece that Gabrielé had relearned from her childhood piano lessons and which she played with exquisite finesse and ravishing moonlit beauty. But now a distinguished artist celebrated in many International competitions she decided to learn the entire early suite by Debussy of four miniature tone poems of beguiling charm and beauty that make up his ‘Suite Bergamasque.’ The opening flourish of the Prélude was enacted with gentle authority and was enough to catch our attention and open a mellifluous flood gate of delicacy and atmospheric beauty. There was an impish capriciousness to the Minuet but that blossomed into a melody intoned with sumptuous luxuriant beauty and after such an unashamedly romantic outburst there was a cheeky ending thrown off with a lightweight glissando and two final short notes in the bass sure to catch an enthusiastic audience unawares as Debussy has the last laugh. Gabrielé brilliantly living every moment and communicating this wonderful youthful ‘joie de vivre’ of early Debussy. ‘Clair de lune’ was played with ravishing sounds and an intense freedom as if an improvised song inspired by the beautiful lines of ‘Verlaine’. Obviously lines that were dedicated on this occasion to Claire Mayne, Tim McNally’s wonderful consort : ‘ Your soul is like a landscape fantasy, where mask and bergamasques, in charming wise, strum lutes and dance, just a bit sad to be hidden beneath their fanciful disguise ‘. The final ‘Passepied’ was played with an infectious rhythmic vitality. The other work by Debussy was his first book of ‘Images’ which is mentioned below.

Adding them to four pieces by Rameau written a century earlier and possessing the same painting in sound. From the heart rending ‘Les Tendres Plaintes’ to the terrifying ‘Les Cyclopes’ with one hand chasing the other over the keyboard from the revolutionally descriptive ‘Pièces de clavecin.’ As the programme notes say ‘Les Tendres Plaintes’ is a deeply expressive, melancholic miniature that bridges the formal French court elegance with operatic drama. Gabrielé played it with beauty and disarming simplicity of radiance and glowing fluidity. The chattering of the voices in ‘La joyeuse’ were played with vibrant clarity as she brought a wistful radiance to ‘La Follette’ with ornaments of knotty twine and etherial sounds of poetic beauty. A masterly performance of ‘Les Cyclopes’ as Gabrielé’s well oiled fingers chased each other up and down the keyboard with hypnotic insistence.

An evening of French music that are pictures painted in sound, opened with the magic imagery of Debussy.

‘Reflections in water’ played by Gabrielé with ravishing jeux perlé and a subtle palette of sounds that allowed this magnificent Steinway Concert Grand to sing with a glowing fluidity and golden beauty of rarified radiance . Debussy’s ‘Hommage à Rameau’ was every bit as descriptive as the four pieces that followed by this much overlooked master. Aristocratic potency gave way to whispered beauty in Gabrielé’s sensitive hands and made one marvel as to how a box of hammers and strings could be transformed into a wondrous casket of jewels. From her ten magic fingers she was able to create an orchestra with a palette of colours as descriptive as any of the pointilless painters of the neo impressionistic school. A continuous stream of notes in the busy round of ‘Movement’ played with masterly clarity as washes of whispered sounds swept across the keyboard with gossamer lightness and poetic intensity, disappearing into the stratosphere with ethereal sounds thrown off with masterly ease .

All pieces of refreshing radiance and beauty until Gabrielé took us into the depths of descriptive decadence with Ravel’s ‘La Valse.’ With the menacing rumblings and troubling boiling waters bursting into flames and all played with fearless virtuosity and frenetic impetuosity. Gone was the refined good manners of a poetess of the keyboard as now she appeared as the devil in disguise throwing herself into the keys whilst shooting off glissandi in all directions. The music all the time reaching a boiling point where the burning intensity of the music was matched by the passionate mastery of the performer. At certain points she was even on her feet reaching ever deeper into the keys, extracting demonic sounds that ignited the atmosphere resulting in cheers and a standing ovation from an up to now very sedate audience .

Covered in flowers Gabrielé calmed the waters with an exquisite trifle of early Beethoven. Written when all was still well in his world but that was later to be a trial and torment of ‘sturm und drang’ in a tormented life cut short at only 57 and whose bicentenary, coincidentally, falls next year in 2027

Flowers for the pianist but also a very touching bouquet for Yisha from her Club, happy to welcome her back after a long illness where her enthusiasm and expertise were much missed ,