Guest review by Anthony Hardwicke
The early afternoon concert was all about the stylish French pianist, Bertrand Chamayou. He started off by metaphorically holding the audience’s hand as he guided us through Ligeti’s early masterpiece Musica Ricercata. Chamayou’s versatile technique was deployed to lovingly characterise each of the 11 short movements, ending in a dazzling 12-tone fugue with immaculate legato fingerwork. Chamayou was every bit the pianist as a servant to the music.
Leif Ove Andsnes then joined Chamayou for some sumptuous, sensitive, carefully thought-through Schubert for four hands. The Allegro in A minor D.947 is one of the lesser known of the numerous masterpieces that Schubert wrote in the last year of his life, 1828. It’s of ‘heavenly length’, and Andsnes (playing secondo) affectionately controlled the huge sonata form structure while Chamayou’s light, ethereal running quavers moved the music forward. It is not often we get the chance to hear piano duet playing in concerts, let alone of such amazing quality and it was lovely to see the obvious mutual respect that Andsnes and Chamayou had for each other.
The concert ended with the Israeli-German clarinetist Sharon Kam and Julia Hagen (cello) joining Chamayou for Brahms’ Op.114 Clarinet Trio. I’m sure Kam has lived and breathed this piece her whole life. She had her eyes closed and there was so much bodily movement, it was almost like she was dancing the piece, using her clarinet almost as a conductor’s baton! The result of all this bodily movement was to give shape to each one of Brahms’ long phrases. Hagen and Chamayou sensibly made space for Kam’s soft, lush low register. Kam led the intensely private second movement with her sultry, smoky sound. All in all, a very satisfying performance which made an elusive piece of late Brahms easy to appreciate.
How many pianists could play three such huge and diverse pieces, consecutively and perfectly: a challenging Ligeti solo masterpiece, the primo part of a neglected Schubert piano duet and then a full-scale four-movement Brahms chamber work? Chamayou is the complete package.
Bertrand Chamayou & Leif Ove Andsnes
Sharon Kam
Julia Hagen
Discover more from The Cross-Eyed Pianist
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
The Cross-Eyed Pianist 