Aix-en-Provence Easter Festival (live stream), 06/04/2021

Mozart : Sonata for piano four hands, K. 521

Debussy : Six épigraphes antiques

Bizet : Jeux d'enfants

Martha Argerich, piano 

Daniel Barenboim, piano

It's indicative of the standing of this comparatively new festival (founded, I believe, in 2013), that they could persuade two such distinguished artists to appear, particularly as they had not originally been on the agenda.  Martha Argerich in particular acquired over many years a reputation as a notorious canceller, and if that has now receded somewhat, it is mainly because she more frequently appears in collaboration with other artists than as an isolated soloist.  It is clear that she relishes her partnerships, whether it's with young protégés, or established colleagues like her childhood friend Daniel Barenboim, and tonight's recital did not seem so much like a formal concert as a private soirée between longtime comrades, playing together purely for the pleasure of it.

They began with the last (completed) sonata for piano four-hands that Mozart wrote, a mature work of great grace and charm, delicate as a Rococo porcelain figurine, played with exquisite clarity of articulation, the notes of the runs clean and distinct as a string of pearls.  At no other point in the evening did the duo achieve quite the same perfection of timing, and it is needed in Mozart, where it was not, strictly speaking, in the later music performed.

Although there was no lessening of the entente, the Debussy did not suit them quite so well.  Although the piano duo work is a late piece (from 1914), much of its music dates from substantially earlier, around the turn of the century when Debussy wrote incidental music for a recitation of some of Pierre Loüys's collection Les chansons de Bilitis - not to be confused with the even earlier song triptych Chansons de Bilitis, which was Debussy's first outing into the somewhat overheated realms of Loüys's poetry.  The incidental music is scored for a chamber ensemble, and if you can stand the poetry, it's well worth hearing, but Debussy distills the best of it into six diaphanous, tantalising, half-dances, evanescent and mysterious, with deliberately archaic, modal tonalities and a more percussive use of the piano.  Barenboim's touch here was sometimes a little too light, so that notes were sometimes barely audible, perhaps even missing at times, and some of the pieces, the second in particular, slightly lacked a sense of direction.  There was, nevertheless, true eloquence in the interpretation, and an aloof stateliness that well suited the music.

Bizet's Jeux d'enfants is a 12-piece suite of miniatures that, regardless of the title, are not at all childish, but affectionate evocations of various games and pastimes.  Five of the numbers are very well known, since Bizet orchestrated them into his Petite Suite, but the complete set is not so often heard, and it's been a long time since I've heard the whole work.  I had forgotten the enticing sway of "L'escarpolette", beautifully delivered here, for example, or the whimsy of "Bulles de savon".  Throughout the evening, Argerich had remained resolutely in Secondo position, although it is quite common for duo partners to switch positions between pieces.  However, in the Bizet, for the fourth and twelfth numbers only, she shifted to Primo - I still can't figure why it was just for those two numbers, rather than the whole suite! The final Galop was a little scrappy, but it was taken at such a clip a completely clean performance would have been a miracle.  Sometimes the 'feel' of certain numbers was a little too close to Schumann for my liking, but the overall appeal was irresistible, and a satisfying conclusion to a magical evening.