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Piers Lane and Stephen Kovacevich |
Remembering the Dame
REVIEW - CELEBRATION OF DAME MYRA HESS
National Gallery
IT was quite a gathering at the National Gallery on Wednesday night when 250 people crowded into a an impressive space to listen to the celebration of the concerts organised by Dame Myra Hess at the Trafalgar Square institution during the World War II.
The event, organised by pianist Piers Lane, featured three concerts throughout the afternoon, showing of footage of some of Dame Myra’s concerts and the evening concert also featured an interview with John Amis, who turned pages for Dame Myra.
It opened with Piers Lane, a pupil of Yonty Solomon, who in turn was taught by Dame Myra, performing Sgambati’s Melodie do Gluck and two Chopin nocturnes, C sharp minor and D flat major.
He had a lightness of touch that was perfect for the music and his delicate treatment of Chopin’s trills was delightful, his fingers effortlessly gliding over the keys.
As an interval, Piers Lane then conducted the interview with Mr Amis, who regaled the audience with tales of Dame Myra’s time at the gallery.
After the interview, Stephen Kovacevich, who studied under Hess at the age of 18, was joined by Philippe Graffin on violin, Asdis Valdimarsdottir on viola and cellist Louise Hopkins, performing Mozart’s Piano Quartet in E Flat major.
Seated on an unusually low stool, Kovacevich, with total command of the challenging piano part, led the strings superbly through the three movements of the piece. The piano section, particularly during the third Allegretto movement, can be hard to maintain control, the fingers prone to running away with themselves during the frequent ascending and descending scales.
But Kovacevich, as light of touch as Lane before him, showed suitable deftness and maintained excellent clarity.
When Dame Myra hosted the concerts the walls of the gallery were bare. Sitting under the dome on Wednesday night, with huge historical portraits hanging from each wall, it was not hard to imagine how the concerts must have been a great attraction during the war.
The musicianship on display was wonderful and the acoustics, while not really suitable for speaking through a microphone, were excellent for this programme.
While it is unlikely a concert like this will ever become a regular occurrence at the National Gallery maybe the director should consider launching an occasional series at this excellent venue.
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