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30 April 2010
The last time I heard a four-hands recital was in the same hall about 18 months ago. The pianists then were the great French pianist Pascal Roge and his partner Ami Hakumo and, playing on a borrowed Schimmel piano, they treated us to a feast of pianistic delights.
This concert, like that earlier one, mixed four-hand repertoire with some solo items, but here it was less successful. I would suggest that this programme, which is being toured by Chamber Music NZ, would be far more successful with just its four-hand works. The musical balance would be better, and the concert would be a more sensible length.
That aside, this concert was distinguished by some beautifully integrated playing, at the service of some superb music, combining to do justice to the centre's gleaming new Steinway.
Mozart's K497 Sonata for Piano Duet - a highly theatrical romp - Ravel's magical Mother Goose Suite and Satie's Pieces in the form of a Pear were all played with immense style and elan, but it was the commission by Ken Young that really caught the ear.
Variations on a Prayer, while not a variation exactly, is a wonderfully evocative piece with a trace of Messiaen, a hint of Dutilleux, and lot of Young's individual sound world. The Brahms Hungarian Dances were tossed off with panache and the encore - Vincent Youman's Tea for Two - was deliciously done.