Amandine Savary piano

PGYA2008
9th January 6.15 Purcell Room

Olivier Messiaen - 4 of the Vingt Regards sur L’Enfant Jesus (1944)
Thomas Ades - Darknesse Visible (1991) 
Andre Jolivet - Mana (1935

A short but perfect programme for lovers of French piano music began the fourth evening of the PLG Young Artists Series (or, as it could be regarded, Festival).

Amandine Savary chose four of the 20 ‘Regards’, (1st,2nd,3rd and 12th).  There is so much wonderful music in this huge work that it is surprising that selections or individual pieces are not played more often.

The opening bars of ‘Regard du Pere’ are usually the start of a great journey in a concert hall but it works perfectly as a stand alone piece.  Amandine Savary’s traversal brought out the rich bass sonority perfectly and her peaceful pace, allowing time in between the notes, drew out the wonderful serenity of the music and, could it be suggested, the philosophy behind it.  In ‘La parole toute puissante’, on the other hand, the full percussive power of a different aspect of the work was forcefully captured. In both this ‘Regard’ and in ‘Mana’,  Amandine Savary brought a big, powerful sound, particularly in the lower register of what can be quite a difficult piano to master. By contrast her delicate touch in ‘Darknesse Visible’ showed her mastery of the upper register of this keyboard and brought this beautiful work to life.

Ms Savary is clearly a pianist to look out for; one looks forward to her playing the music of Debussy, to which she would seem ideally suited.

M.Dennis

7:45 P.M.

Lucy McIntyre flute
Ciara Moroney piano
Antonis Hatzinikolaou guitar

Edwin Roxburgh Stardrift for solo flute
Stephen Barcham Spit it out
Nicholas Maw Music of Memory

Olivier Messiaen Le Merle noir for flute and piano
George Benjamin Flight for solo flute
Jonathan Harvey Run before lightning for flute & piano
Bayan Northcott Fantasia for solo guitar
Evis Sammoutis Alter ego for solo guitar

Thursday 9th January 7.45 PM

Antonis Hazinikolaou. Guitar

Lucy McIntyre. Flute
Ciara Moroney. Piano

The second Thursday recital featured pieces for solo flute, flute and piano and solo guitar.

Ms McIntyre showed admirable technical skill in her solo recital and considerable sang froid with an audience member who decided to wander around looking for his seat during ‘Spit it Out’.

I found ‘Spit it Out’ the highlight of her programme-a work which challenged both players and which brought a warm audience response, but could the composer not re-title the work? Why not call it something like ‘entropic study’ or ‘evolution and decay’, both of which, if a little high faluting would seem to evoke what is in the work better and give it more chance of regular performance?

Antonis Hatzinikolaou is a player with a real stage presence. He is the type of musician who gets immediate attention from the audience and would, as he proved with his playing, seem to have everything required for a successful performing career.

The highlight of his recital was ‘Music of Memory’, a sort of set of variations on the Intermezzo from Mendelssohn’s A Minor String Quartet, which is a long and serious work of the type normally associated with the piano rather than guitar.  It was performed entirely successfully, taking the listener on a long and emotional journey, a rather bittersweet, elegiac one, weaving parts of the Mendelssohn in and out, and then bringing the listener back to the present.

The guitarist held the audience spellbound throughout and made one hope to hear the piece again as soon as possible.

M.Dennis