Rising Stars

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Cadogan Hall

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra concert at Cadogan Hall on 26 February featured a Young Concerts Artists Trust soloist, the Mexican born guitarist Morgan Szymanski in Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez, which of itself guaranteed a large audience who manifestly enjoyed the performance, although those who know the work intimately may have felt that the tempo in the finale tended to sag somewhat, while the very famous second movement did not escape its longueurs. On the whole, however, this was a good performance, quite well partnered by conductor Garry Walker, whose preceding accounts of Britten's Soirées musicales and Ravel's Pavane pour une infante defunte tended to suffer from his exaggeratedly balletic movements on the rostrum, a conducting technique, that at times appeared rather fey and affected with a choreography all its own that visually detracted mightily from my enjoyment in these works.

Indeed, the RPO delivered rather routine readings, a comment that also applies to Sibelius' Sixth Symphony, which ended the programme. Garry Walker, attired in some ill-matching black rig-out, rarely probed beneath the surface of this luminous masterpiece. While his reading, despite on-going visual distractions, gave the audience sufficient to enjoy, it would surely have been improved had more rehearsal time been given to the work, and had Walker paid more attention to the subtle integration of tempi and of internal instrumental balance. It would also have been a more recommendable performance had this conductor also learned to relax more and let the music unfold and speak at its own pace.

Robert Matthew-Walker

Ibuki Trio debut at St Luke's

The recently formed Ibuki Trio gave their official debut recital in the Jerwood Hall at St Luke's on I March. Pianist Kan Tomita, violinist Ben Wragg and cellist Laura Anstee, who met as students at the Purcell School of Music, chose the Japanese word 'Ibuki' to name their ensemble, its meaning incorporating breath, life and vitality, qualities which infused their performance.

Their eclectic programme began with Haydn's A major Piano Trio Hob XV No 9, the feeling of repose generated by its Adagio emphasised by the Violin's smooth, creamy tone; while all three contributed vividly to the high spirits that motivate the Vivace.

The mood changed dramatically with Shostakovich's Second Trio. Opus 67, the opening bars taxingly high on the cello establishing the emotionally disturbed content of the whole work, with the violin taking over to express the agitation of the first movement. The urgent exchanges between violin and cello gave the Allegro con brio a driving almost aggressive energy before pounding piano chords introduced the deeply felt feelings of the Largo, expressed in the melancholy dialogue developed by the two string instruments. The concluding movement, inspired by a Jewish dance of death, magisterially executed by the players, achieved a climax of gripping intensity.

The lbuki Trio sounded in particularly happy accord with the style of Ravel's Piano Trio, the violinist capturing the unmistakable quality of the composer's writing for his instrument in the opening Modéré, and all three combining to produce the rich sonorities of the Pantoum. In the Passacaille the strings duetted beautifully, while the piano contributed the firm foundation both here and in the powerful Finale, which they brought to a joyous, triumphant conclusion.

The Ibuki Trio ended with a dramatically charged account of Astor Piazzolla's Otoño Porteño, evoking the inhabitants and the music of Buenos Aires.

Margaret Davies

Alexander Karpeyev at the Wigmore

Of the series of piano pieces Schumann composed in 1838 and 1839, including his Arabesque and Blumenstück, the Humoresque Opus 20 is the longest and most complex. In all cases Schumann undertakes a sectional structure rather than continuous development. He reckoned it to be melancholy rather than humorous and it is, in fact, a sequence of mood pictures or impressions interwoven, as he said, in a 'very peculiar way.' Yet Alexander Karpeyev on 16 March in the Wigmore Hall was able to justify the composer's many changes of direction with a well unified performance of the Humoresque which presented its contrasting segments almost like variations on an unstated theme.

Admirable, too, was his account of Busoni's transcription of Bach's great Chaconne from his Second Partita for Solo Violin: in this Karpeyev brought out much of the inherent grandeur and resolute continuity. Another sort of contrast was provided by Prokofiev's attractive yet little known Four Pieces Opus 32, an elegant Dance Suite, ironic and quizzical, with classical echoes, in the shape of a Danza Menuetto, Gavotte and Valse lento espressivo.

Max Harrison