Perth Concert Hall: Piano recital with Peter Donohoe

If I was asked to nominate a composer whose piano works were to be performed over a series of concerts, Beethoven, Bach or Chopin would be top of my list. Strangely enough, I never countenanced Mozart as the purveyor of a variety of keyboard compositions but that underestimation was put right by Peter Donohoe in the first of the Perth Concert Hall’s Piano Sundays.

In the opening of four recitals devoted to Mozart sonatas, he proved two things. One, the maestro is no one-dimensional keyboard composer but a master of the art of colour, variety and texture. Secondly, Donohoe proved he is one of the best and technically-gifted exponents of his music with a particular affinity, exemplary technique, fluidity and lightness of touch.

Five sonatas, five star performances of each and it’s really hard to pick a favourite out of 15 memorable movements played with a passion that seemed restrained but was still patently obvious. Perhaps the K333 sonata takes the prize mainly for its innovation. Mozart includes a cadenza and with that and an almost symphonic-like structure there’s an uncanny resemblance to a mini-concerto with a rondo that skipped along like a stream in spate.

Donohoe’s message was clear. These sonatas rank as high in the classical repertoire as any other, and while there might have been echoes of Scarlatti in his first K279 sonata, there was also some inventiveness akin to Beethoven without the avantgarde tear-up-the-rulebook approach. It was a great recital.