RARITIES
OF PIANO MUSIC
AT
SCHLOSS VOR HUSUM
MARTIN
JONES Piano Recital
Wednesday
(26 August 2015)
It would appear that the British pianist
Martin Jones and the festival of Piano Rarities at Schloss vor Husum were made
for each other, but it comes as a surprise that this is his debut. His
programming was classic Jones (if one is familiar with his many CD recordings
on the Nimbus label) meets classic Husum (if one is familiar with the
selections that appear annually on the Danacord label).
Jones spoke before each piece, with
typically British humour, and warmed up the audience immediately. First off was
Carl Czerny's Grand Caprice, he with his multitudes of notes but a
surprisingly congenial work that was a transitional link between the styles of
Beethoven (gruff and pathetique) and Mendelssohn (songs without words)
but cast in the form of Schubert's Wanderer Fantasy (4 linked movements
with a fugue near the end).
Its foil was a Sonatina by the Viennese Hans
Gal, highly tonal but spiced with the mild dissonances of the early to mid-20th
century. In between were 13 piquant pieces from Federico Mompou's Ballet,
filled with his typically luscious harmonies and equally delicious pauses.
Despite his prolific recorded output,
Jones has never enjoyed the reputation of super-virtuosos with catholic tastes
like Hamelin, Hough or Hamish Milne. He is not as exacting in getting in all
the notes with microsecond precision, but somehow he gets there in a way that
is totally engaging, and no way was he less than committed in this recital.
He
has an improvisatory air in pieces which need that kind of expression, and that
came across winningly in the dances by Argentine Carlos Guastavino and Spaniard
Joaquin Nin's Message a Debussy, the latter commanding an orchestral
texture and the Spanish lilt that possess the Frenchman's music. To close was
Percy Grainger's suite In A Nutshell, four varied movements that
captured the Australian's folksy style yet extraordinary ear for harmonies. The
Pastorale was filled with colour while the Gumsuckers March
brought the recital to a rousing end.
The encores: Mischa Levitzki's The
Enchanted Nymph was a perfect bis for the evening, a languorous legato
that transformed into an infectious waltz before returning to its watery realm,
now with a gilded edge. Jones wasn't done yet. Moszkowski's Etincelles
(a Horowitz specialty) was followed by Earl Wild's transcription of Fascinatin's
Rhythm, and to conclude, Arcadi Volodos's
manic way with Mozart's Turkish Rondo. A wild standing ovation,
apparently a relative rarity at Husum too, was the just and totally deserved
response.
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| Martin Jones meets his audience for post-concert supper at Hartmann's Landküche. |
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