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5 August 2011
PIANIST’S PASSION DELIGHTS
He may be shy and uncertain when he speaks, but Jun Bouterey-Ishido has no such difficulties when it comes to expressing himself on the piano.
Back in New Zealand on a break from studying his masters degree in Stuttgart, Germany, the 21 year-old pianist was hitting all the right notes with the audience of about 80 at the Brancott Estate Winery in Riverlands last night.
Despite a start that felt slightly tentative, the 2008 Kerikeri international piano competition winner soon had the audience hanging on every note of Bach’s elegant English Suite No 1 in A.
While he easily charmed with the piece it was in his next performances that Bouterey-Ishido showed his great enthusiasm as a performer.
This is a pianist who likes to play fast and loud and does it with a great deal of skill and emotion. The highlight of the night, his thunderous performance of Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin, brought equally thunderous applause from the crowd and he continued to please with a furious finish to Bartok’s Out of Doors.
His performance of Brahms’ Variations and Fugue on a theme by Handel Opus 24 mixed the earlier elegance of the Bach with the pace and volume of the Ravel for an energetic, fun finish to the official programme.
Boutery-Ishido responded to the warm applause as he followed up with an encore.
Performing on a piano once played by Sergei Rachmaninoff he paid tribute to the famous Russian composer and pianist by playing one of his Etudes-Tableaux and was rewarded with a standing ovation.
He finished with a short study by contemporary Hungarian composer Gyorgy Kurtag.
His obvious passion and skill certainly won over his older audience and at least one younger fan.
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