Maurizio Pollini, Royal Festival Hall | reviews, news & interviews
Maurizio Pollini, Royal Festival Hall
Maurizio Pollini, Royal Festival Hall
The great Italian gives preludes and etudes old-school brilliance
Monday, 01 March 2010
Was it Chopin’s birthday or wasn’t it? To be honest, no one at last night’s Royal Festival Hall concert probably gave a damn, so wrapped up were they in Maurizio Pollini’s playing. And what playing it was too. The man just sits down and gets on with it – there’s none of that airy-fairy flamboyance and arm waving that certain younger pianists seem unable to perform without. This was an unapologetically old-school concert. Pollini shuffled on in his tails (who wears those any more?), plonked himself at the piano, and had finished the first of Chopin’s 24 Preludes before most of the audience had settled back for the ride.
The Preludes are a funny collection. I’ve never been convinced that they really fit together as a whole – it’s a little too like listening to the equivalent of a patchwork quilt, in a way that listening to Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier most definitely is not. Yet Pollini somehow managed to make it work: he treated the preludes as a single unit of miniature movements, with the result that, if on their own some of the preludes seemed a trifle over-hurried, the cumulative effect was actually decidedly engaging and well paced.
So we had an E minor Prelude that fair rocketed through all those repeated chords – not so much largo as poco agitato. But it was balanced by an oasis of calm in the second theme of the F sharp major Prelude, the rarity of the occasion making all the more effective Pollini’s delicate application of the brakes. The constant onward drive made each gentle held-back moment cry out for attention, each true pianissimo infinitely more effective. There was the odd splash, and though in some of the runs and faster preludes Pollini’s goods-train forward motion threatened to derail itself, we were always just hauled back in time.
If at times the Preludes seemed slightly businesslike, then during the interval Pollini had relaxed into the occasion. The G minor Ballade was perfectly balanced, the second appearance of the theme only the tiniest fraction quieter than the first and yet taking us magically to another sound world. The D flat Op 27 Nocturne was the highlight of the evening; so beautifully still that it set itself up as the centrepiece to the concert, around which more turbulent music circled. Here both large- and small-scale gradings of dynamic and pace were as good as one could ever want.
Finally, we got eight of the Op 25 Etudes, and some more splendid Pollini moments. The apparent effortlessness of No 2, the diminuendo to the end of No 3, the glorious bass runs of No 7 – this was the great man enjoying himself, and the performances were assured and gripping. He seemed to be having so much fun, in fact, that he gave three encores. Chopin’s birthday or not, this was a concert to remember for the right reasons.
So we had an E minor Prelude that fair rocketed through all those repeated chords – not so much largo as poco agitato. But it was balanced by an oasis of calm in the second theme of the F sharp major Prelude, the rarity of the occasion making all the more effective Pollini’s delicate application of the brakes. The constant onward drive made each gentle held-back moment cry out for attention, each true pianissimo infinitely more effective. There was the odd splash, and though in some of the runs and faster preludes Pollini’s goods-train forward motion threatened to derail itself, we were always just hauled back in time.
If at times the Preludes seemed slightly businesslike, then during the interval Pollini had relaxed into the occasion. The G minor Ballade was perfectly balanced, the second appearance of the theme only the tiniest fraction quieter than the first and yet taking us magically to another sound world. The D flat Op 27 Nocturne was the highlight of the evening; so beautifully still that it set itself up as the centrepiece to the concert, around which more turbulent music circled. Here both large- and small-scale gradings of dynamic and pace were as good as one could ever want.
Finally, we got eight of the Op 25 Etudes, and some more splendid Pollini moments. The apparent effortlessness of No 2, the diminuendo to the end of No 3, the glorious bass runs of No 7 – this was the great man enjoying himself, and the performances were assured and gripping. He seemed to be having so much fun, in fact, that he gave three encores. Chopin’s birthday or not, this was a concert to remember for the right reasons.
- The Southbank International Piano series continues on 16 March with Yundi and on 25 March with Yevgeny Sudbin.
- Check out what's on at the Southbank this season.
Add comment
more Classical music
Christian Pierre La Marca, Yaman Okur, St Martin-in-The-Fields review - engagingly subversive pairing falls short
A collaboration between a cellist and a breakdancer doesn't achieve lift off
Ridout, Włoszczowska, Crawford, Lai, Posner, Wigmore Hall review - electrifying teamwork
High-voltage Mozart and Schoenberg, blended Brahms, in a fascinating programme
Sabine Devieilhe, Mathieu Pordoy, Wigmore Hall review - enchantment in Mozart and Strauss
Leading French soprano shines beyond diva excess
Špaček, BBC Philharmonic, Bihlmaier, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - three flavours of Vienna
Close attention, careful balancing, flowing phrasing and clear contrast
Watts, BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Bignamini, Barbican review - blazing French masterpieces
Poulenc’s Gloria and Berlioz’s 'Symphonie fantastique' on fire
Bell, Perahia, ASMF Chamber Ensemble, Wigmore Hall review - joy in teamwork
A great pianist re-emerges in Schumann, but Beamish and Mendelssohn take the palm
First Persons: composers Colin Alexander and Héloïse Werner on fantasy in guided improvisation
On five new works allowing an element of freedom in the performance
First Person: Leeds Lieder Festival director and pianist Joseph Middleton on a beloved organisation back from the brink
Arts Council funding restored after the blow of 2023, new paths are being forged
Classical CDs: Nymphs, magots and buckgoats
Epic symphonies, popular music from 17th century London and an engrossing tribute to a great Spanish pianist
Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Philharmonia Chorus, RPO, Petrenko, RFH review - poetic cello, blazing chorus
Atmospheric Elgar and Weinberg, but Rachmaninov's 'The Bells' takes the palm
Daphnis et Chloé, Tenebrae, LSO, Pappano, Barbican review - lighting up Ravel’s ‘choreographic symphony’
All details outstanding in the lavish canvas of a giant masterpiece
Goldscheider, Spence, Britten Sinfonia, Milton Court review - heroic evening songs and a jolly horn ramble
Direct, cheerful new concerto by Huw Watkins, but the programme didn’t quite cohere
Comments
...
...
...
...
...