Kathryn Stott’s stunning Parisian Journey piano recital opened with Faure’s beautiful Nocturne with the pianist teasing out the aching lyricism of the opening section.
The finesse of the brighter middle section was impeccable and the transition to the opening song simply irresistible.
The interpretation of Ravel’s extraordinary paintings of cascading fountains in Jeux d’Eau was exhilarating. This is seriously demanding music, and Stott’s performance was one of absolute clarity and vitality.
Satie’s Gnossienne was very assured, with telling dynamic contrasts reinforcing the unique ‘distancing’ quality of the piece.
The surprise of the first half, however, was Cesar Franck’s Prelude, Chorale and Fugue.
The Prelude set the tone with a high-velocity, fasten your seatbelts, switch off the satnav, free-form journey.
True, the fugue started out as an academic blueprint, but before long the formal boundaries were being breached and, after a gorgeous lull in the proceedings, themes from the Prelude and Fugue gate-crashed the party in an thrilling, wholly satisfying conclusion: I didn’t know the old boy had it in him. The performance was top-drawer.
Talking of “gate-crashing the party”, Alberto Ginastera’s Sonata no 1 had a very tenuous link to the Parisian Journey, but Kathryn Stott made him very welcome anyway, with a performance of rhythmic energy and precision.
I particularly enjoyed the last movement, where Latin rhythmic patterns drove the music, dancing manically, irresistibly on.
The four pieces by Chopin proved to be an inspirational climax: the emotional as well as technical demands are extreme, but Kathryn Stott was simply imperious.
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