Sheer class at Piano Festival
ONCE again the highly regarded New Ross Piano Festival has exceeded the expectations of its annual audience.
Every succeeding year the festival somehow offers piano playing of ever higher merit. This achievement is met not only by the professional performers but equally by the young pianists of the South East whose opportunity to play a concert grand was enthusiastically taken by 25 students.
Surprisingly mature and polished performances were given by Milena Barnes and Emma Murphy each of whom is entitled to harbour lofty ambitions. So also is 7-year-old Wei Cassidy who came to the piano with the confidence and aplomb of a teenager and then played with feeling way beyond his years.
Over the next three days, the programme brought some exceptional sound, technique and virtuosity. Innovation has always been the hallmark of the organising committee and the artistic director who, in the past, have introduced a festival of duet pieces, commissions of new work and, this year, a fortepiano played by Kristian Bezuidenhout. A forerunner of the piano we know today, the fortepiano differs in appearance, touch and tone with lower string tensions because of the lack of an iron frame, and the use of soft leather covering of the hammers. It produces sharp, jangling overtones sounding like an out of tune honkytonk pub piano.
It also requires a learned technique and Bezuidenhout remarks ‘it’s unbelievably refined, with its light, delicate sort of non user-friendly action.’ The experience of hearing Beethoven rondos, Haydn variations and a Mozart piano sonata played in St. Mary’s Church by a leading exponent of this period instrument was as enthralling as it was educative. The intimacy of the church lent itself admirably to the period experience in that auditoriums were smaller centuries ago than today’s since the volume of the earlier instrument would not carry to the back rows. Mozart never played to an audience larger than 700.
The third movement of Schumann’s piano quartet Op.47 opens with an achingly romantic melody introduced by the cello and then joined by the violin. The quality and character of tone was intensely beautiful as István Várdai and Kristóf Baráti developed the duet soon to be joined by the viola and Jennifer Stumm.
We were hearing music not from one, but two Stradivari instruments, the 1673 ‘ex du Pre-Harrell’ cello and the 1703 ‘Lady Harmsworth’ violin. There have been some memorable moments at these festivals but few compare with what came from this quartet accompanied by Finghin Collins on piano.
We had heard the sound of a Vermeer – poetic and luscious, magnetic and compelling, clear and beautiful. Their later performance of the Brahms C minor piano quartet was equally thrilling. This is a difficult work to play with tricky internal rhythms but it was all held in place by the strength of Jennifer Stumm’s role on viola.
An exemplary Sunday morning coffee concert was played by the gifted Elizaveta Ukrainskaia whose hands ran over the keyboard as fluidly and deliciously as cream over summer berries; young in years, she plays with polished ease.
Liszt’s B minor sonata is a well known piece and has been recorded by all the great romantic pianists; it is as difficult a task then for the pianist to make a personal mark on it just as it is for the listener to erase from the mind the recordings of, say, Claudio Arrau or Alfred Brendell. The sonata is as much an intellectual challenge as a technical one but Zoltán Fejérvári, in a self-effacing manner, put his own personal stamp on it with seeming ease to make this a memorable offering, and another example of what makes the New Ross weekend essential.
Composer Bela Bartok featured as part of the overall Hungarian element of the programme. Though his work can sometimes be a hard listen, Klára Würtz reminded us of how well Bartok dug into Hungarian folk music for its irregular rhythms and the passion of the dance. Cleverly, she left an unforced yet concentrated feeling to be considered.
Of the festival’s artistic director, Finghin Collins, it has all been said. His playing is fluid, thoughtful, sensitive and expressive. If you thought him a romantic at heart, then his version of the Rachmaninov preludes was a good example of the steely strength of which he is capable but perhaps seldom reveals. Finghin in a sweat means there’s something serious going on – it was good to see this side of him.
There have been many thrilling individual performances over the years of this festival but on this occasion I’m left with an overall feeling of gratitude and warmth at the sheer class in the three days of remarkable music presented by a depth of ability and consideration.
The musicality of this festival is becoming significant.