Martin Bartlett may have kept the best to last with a dream performance of ‘The Man I Love’ as a tribute to Gershwin on his birthday .
But it was much more than that as this is a man who loves the piano, sharing with us an infectious ‘joie de vivre’ and a ravishing palette of sounds. A sense of balance of a true magician of the piano allied to a showmanship and a delight in taking the audience by surprise. I am reminded of the much missed Cherkassky whose concerts were a voyage of discovery together. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DZFumJqMprEA&ved=2ahUKEwiD4JySt5GXAxUHa0EAHYOqBMQQtwJ6BAgaEAI&usg=AOvVaw2w0eABqgPEUBrpsWYN4K3x
I remember Fou Ts’ong in Rome listening to a clamorously famous pianist and I dared make a comparison between him and Cherkassky. Ts’ong always spot on shrieked but Shura loves the piano, this man hates it!
It is a love where every note, every strand is coaxed out of the keys with a caressing movement and with a Cheshire Cat delight at the beauty of the jewels he could unlock from this box of hammers and strings !
The concert had begun with the Busoni transcription of Bach’s ‘ Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme’ a work that has long been in Martin’s repertoire. Today with the Chopin Society Steinway tuned to perfection, it was full of subtle colours where counterpoints shone like light on a prism as their rays filled the Chorale with a colour and ravishing sounds that seemed to come from within. A gradual crescendo leading to the final triumphant outpouring of a true believer with inner voices that never disturbed the main line but enhanced it and filled it with glorious sounds of sumptuous richness. Martin visibly enjoying this voyage of discovery as he lingered over certain notes or emphasised others, but never allowing the natural flow of the music to be disturbed. We were on a great wave of undulating sounds never hard or ungrateful but like water flowing and inviting.
The Sicilano in Wilhelm Kempff’s magical arrangement of Bach’s Flute Sonata in E flat created even more magic, as Martin with an extraordinary mastery of balance and sound could allow the gentle flowing accompaniment to seem as though it was always present as the melody was played with glowing radiance and subtle shading. I had last heard it played by Idil Biret ,a student of Kempff. When my wife directed ‘Whose afraid of Virginia Wolff’ she chose Idil’s performance as the closing moments of the play when the couple suddenly are able admit that their child was dead. A work for me of poignant significance that Martin played with refined good taste and masterly control, no tears but a smile of recognition re-lived with an artist who loves it as much as I do.
Martin admitted that the Handel Chaconne was a relatively new discovery and addition to his repertoire, and had become one of his favourite pieces. I have heard it played in Rome by Annie Fischer and Fou Ts’ong ,but today I heard a work completely reborn. An ornamentation of such mastery that I had to know who was the genius who could embellish such a well known work with such style and astonishing showmanship. Martin is never the most modest of people and he readily admitted that the embellishments were his own! Such an ornate opening where the Chaconne is stated before the string of ever more elaborate variations over the same bass. An opening I hardly recognised but was totally won over by the beauty and ‘fingerfertigkeit’ of such mastery that the theme could be enveloped by such a web of beautiful gold and silver strands. Building to the climax that Handel intended but with variations that were varied by Martin with such beguiling insinuation I was completely enraptured by such mastery. Like a tornado passing over the keys with featherlight jeux perlé but also great bass notes, which may have been out of style, but who cares when the architectural shape and respect for the composer’s original thoughts are transmitted with such immediacy and urgency. An electric shock on this sumptuous voyage of discovery that Martin was enjoying every bit as much as his audience.
Mozart Sonata K 331 was the final work before the interval and it was here that Schnabel’s famous remark of Mozart being too difficult for adults but too easy for children was upper most in my thoughts. As Martin said in his very entertaining introduction, Mozart for him is opera. There are the characters, the story, the panorama all depicted in sound by Mozart. It was exactly this that Martin could so miraculously portray also with great personality allowing Mozart’s notes to speak as eloquently as the human voice. Slight inflections, unobtrusive flexibility of tempo but above all a glowing radiance and beauty to the sound. Has the theme of the first movement ever been played more beautifully, as he allowed the music to breathe as only a Schwarzkopf could do with very slight inflections and colours of impish mischievousness and teasing beauty. An occasional embellishment did not disturb as it can do in lesser hands these days of blind authenticity, but enhanced the meaning of music that became a conversation. The beautiful fourth variation where the left hand floats above the right in a question and answer of whispered beauty.The Adagio played with heartrending radiance and beauty before the final Allegro bursting into life with operatic high jinx. A ‘Menuetto’ almost too pompous but with a ‘Trio’ of a beguiling question and answer. A ‘Rondo Alla Turca’ that Lang Lang admits was the inspiration for him as a child from the Walt Disney films of Mickey Mouse, and he plays it brilliantly at tempo record. But Martin today revealed another ‘Rondo Alla Turca’ every bit as exciting because played at a leisurely ‘Allegretto’ and varying the acciaccatura’s as is historically valid. There was no need for speed as it was the beguiling insinuation and tongue in cheek enticement that made this so irresistible. Even the ‘chorus’ when there would be drums beaten on historic instruments Martin played with refined good taste and a tonal range that never outstepped the world in which he had entrapped us. A remarkable performance that I would gladly have re lived a second time ……but it was time for a break .
Martin of course was not going to hide away in the Green room but like Badura Skoda loved to chat to his public that was sharing the party atmosphere that he was creating.
After the interval the two nocturnes op 27 opened up a magic world and in that moment the colours , pedal effects and poetic touch, I doubt I have heard anything so beautiful since Cherkassky or Rubinstein. But always a man of surprise Martin pulled out of his hat a little ‘Romance without Words’ by Fauré op 17 n.3 that like Elgar’s ‘Salut d’amour ‘ is one of those pieces that remain in the head for long after the performance is over. A sound world of delicacy and glowing beauty that Martin played with exquisite finesse and improvised freedom. It was as though the melody was allowed to flow as Chopin had described the meaning of rubato: like a tree with the roots firmly planted in the ground but the branches allowed to sway with the breeze.
‘Los requiebros’ of Granados was played with extraordinary fluidity and virtuosity but always bathed in a sound world of sumptuous passion and joy. Transcendental difficulties just did not exist for Martin as there was just the message of the music that consumed him and united us to the magic world of a true magician of the keyboard .
‘ The Man I Love’ of course what else as an encore! I think Martin had indeed conquered us all by now and it was time to enjoy tea and cakes made by the indefatigable Gillian Newman, as we gathered around Lady Rose to wish her a full recovery from the serious operation she has had to undergo this summer.
