BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Fringe, 17/06/2023

J.S. Bach (arr. Kurtág) : Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit
Schubert : Fantasie in F minor
Debussy : En bateau (Petite suite)
Chaminade : Primavera (Six pièces romantiques)
Fauré : Berceuse (Dolly Suite)
Fauré : Mi-a-ou (Dolly Suite)
Debussy : Ballet (Petite suite)
Brahms : Hungarian Dances 1, 3 & 5

Simon Lepper, piano
Llŷr Williams, piano

As part of the rules of the Cardiff Singer competition, if you're competing in the Song Prize, you may bring your own pianist - but at your own expense - or there are two 'house' pianists available to all competitors.  It has been that way since the Song Prize became separately established form the Main Prize, 20 years ago, and it has been the same two pianists from the beginning, thus totalling 40 years between them, which ties in nicely with the overall 40th Anniversary celebrations.  As a little special extra, therefore, these two excellent and very hard-working artists presented a brief lunchtime recital of their own, piano four-hand, and a very pleasant way to spend an hour it turned out to be.

The recital was divided into three sections, with Williams taking Primo in the first and third parts, while Lepper took over in the second (which was all the French music).  They began with one of the Bach transcriptions György Kurtág made for himself and his wife to play together, of the opening Sonatina of the Cantata BWV. 106, known as the Actus tragicus.  The echoing melodic line passed smoothly from one set of hands to the other in serene, elegiac beauty.  Then came the meat of the programme, Schubert's F minor Fantasia, one of the undisputed masterpieces of the piano 4-hand repertory.  a late work that is accounted one of his finest, and which was given an outstanding performance.  The voices were well-balanced, the detail clear and crisp, and the whole completely engaging.

After this, the remainder of the programme was more obviously for entertainment, on a lighter, though very charming level.  Two numbers from Debussy's Petite suite, the romantic "En bateau", and the elegant "Ballet", framed a Chaminade number, and two numbers from Fauré's Dolly Suite, all delivered with freshness and zest.  Then, in the last part, it was a rather earthier mode of entertainment with three of the best-known of Brahms's Hungarian Dances, in which the pianists were visibly, as well as audibly, enjoying themselves as they dazzled with these foot-tappingly infectious numbers.

However, just to bring things full circle, the encore was a luminously simple transcription of the Aria from the Goldberg Variations, restoring us to serenity and equanimity to face the remainder of the day.  It was a privilege to be able to appreciate these two performers for themselves, and not merely as adjuncts to divers singers.

[Next : 18th June]

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