Festival du Comminges, 08/08/2017
Bach : Capriccio sopra la lontananza del suo fratello dilettissimo
Liszt : 3 Petrarch Sonnets
Liszt : Variations on "Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen"
Ravel : Gaspard de la Nuit
David Kadouch, piano
The Bach which opened this recital is a relatively early work, from 1705, a six-movement suite evoking the departure of his brother Johan Jacob for a new post with the Swedish army. It begins with melancholy reflection, but ends in a more cheerful mood, with a fugue that plays on the coachman's horn calls. David Kadouch's reading was fresh, with a light touch, but even at this point I was unhappy with his piano, which had something of a buzz in the lower register when pushed a little. This was not Kadouch's fault; in summer festivals, particularly those out in the countryside, pianists don't often get much choice in their instruments. The supplier here was a good one, but once in a while you can be a little unlucky, and I felt this piano served Kadouch ill tonight.
Liszt's 3 Petrarch Sonnets were originally songs, as the title suggests, but he made piano transcriptions of all three very shortly after the songs, and at least one of these was published even before the songs were. Later, he would revise the piano solo versions, and incorporate them into the 2nd Year of the Années de pèlerinage, and it's usually this version that's heard in concert. For a composer who arguably represents the very apogee of Romanticism, these are amongst the most Romantic pieces of his entire output, passionate hymns to an untouchable, eternal love, and beauty of sound, as well as effortless virtuosity, is key to a first-class performance. For the most part, that was what we got, but sometimes the belcanto quality of the melodic line was not as fluid as it should have been.
The Variations on "Weinen, Klagen...." (S. 180, not, as stated in the programme, S. 179, which is a different work though based on the same Bach cantata), use the descending bass of the passacaglia choral movement of BWV 12 (which was later recycled into the Crucifixus of the B minor Mass) as its motor. It may have been written in commemoration of the recent death of Liszt's daughter Blandine, for this particular bass line, a chromatic fourth, was widely used in Baroque music and earlier to denote lamentation - aside from Bach, it's familiar as the ground bass of Dido's Lament, by Purcell. There's both austerity and spectacle in this piece, and Kadouch brought out its brooding power well. When it transitioned into the chorale at the end, the effect was truly uplifting.
There was only one work in the second half of the concert, Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit, and this was where I felt the piano was not all it should have been, because Kadouch was having trouble with the repeated notes, both in "Ondine" and in "Scarbo". In particular, the start of "Ondine" was completely missed, too many fleeting gaps in the right-hand triads that create the shimmering accompaniment. "Le gibet" was suitably eerie, but "Scarbo" never quite exuded the right degree of malevolence.
There are, occasionally, artists who, despite evident talent, technique and musicality, never quite manage to touch me. Sometimes it's a matter of programming, not having heard them play the right thing for my tastes. Sometimes, however, the alchemy never operates, and I'm afraid that Kadouch is going to be one such for me. The programme was interesting, and much of it music I already knew and like, but the performance as a whole rarely went beyond the superficial.
[Next : 10th August]
Liszt : 3 Petrarch Sonnets
Liszt : Variations on "Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen"
Ravel : Gaspard de la Nuit
David Kadouch, piano
The Bach which opened this recital is a relatively early work, from 1705, a six-movement suite evoking the departure of his brother Johan Jacob for a new post with the Swedish army. It begins with melancholy reflection, but ends in a more cheerful mood, with a fugue that plays on the coachman's horn calls. David Kadouch's reading was fresh, with a light touch, but even at this point I was unhappy with his piano, which had something of a buzz in the lower register when pushed a little. This was not Kadouch's fault; in summer festivals, particularly those out in the countryside, pianists don't often get much choice in their instruments. The supplier here was a good one, but once in a while you can be a little unlucky, and I felt this piano served Kadouch ill tonight.
Liszt's 3 Petrarch Sonnets were originally songs, as the title suggests, but he made piano transcriptions of all three very shortly after the songs, and at least one of these was published even before the songs were. Later, he would revise the piano solo versions, and incorporate them into the 2nd Year of the Années de pèlerinage, and it's usually this version that's heard in concert. For a composer who arguably represents the very apogee of Romanticism, these are amongst the most Romantic pieces of his entire output, passionate hymns to an untouchable, eternal love, and beauty of sound, as well as effortless virtuosity, is key to a first-class performance. For the most part, that was what we got, but sometimes the belcanto quality of the melodic line was not as fluid as it should have been.
The Variations on "Weinen, Klagen...." (S. 180, not, as stated in the programme, S. 179, which is a different work though based on the same Bach cantata), use the descending bass of the passacaglia choral movement of BWV 12 (which was later recycled into the Crucifixus of the B minor Mass) as its motor. It may have been written in commemoration of the recent death of Liszt's daughter Blandine, for this particular bass line, a chromatic fourth, was widely used in Baroque music and earlier to denote lamentation - aside from Bach, it's familiar as the ground bass of Dido's Lament, by Purcell. There's both austerity and spectacle in this piece, and Kadouch brought out its brooding power well. When it transitioned into the chorale at the end, the effect was truly uplifting.
There was only one work in the second half of the concert, Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit, and this was where I felt the piano was not all it should have been, because Kadouch was having trouble with the repeated notes, both in "Ondine" and in "Scarbo". In particular, the start of "Ondine" was completely missed, too many fleeting gaps in the right-hand triads that create the shimmering accompaniment. "Le gibet" was suitably eerie, but "Scarbo" never quite exuded the right degree of malevolence.
There are, occasionally, artists who, despite evident talent, technique and musicality, never quite manage to touch me. Sometimes it's a matter of programming, not having heard them play the right thing for my tastes. Sometimes, however, the alchemy never operates, and I'm afraid that Kadouch is going to be one such for me. The programme was interesting, and much of it music I already knew and like, but the performance as a whole rarely went beyond the superficial.
[Next : 10th August]