 |
 |
|
 |
||
|
Christina Lawrie (piano)
Park Lane Group, whose Young Artists open the concert calendar each January, celebrated its 50th season with a reception before one of its Monday Platform recitals at Wigmore Hall. John Woolf MBE, who created PLG 50 years ago - then a Covent Garden violinist, now Director & Chairman of PLG's Artistic Committee, and nearly everything else since the beginning - launched 'The Next 50 Years' by taking us through his Working Proposals for the future, increasingly ambitious and diversified. Although now supported by numerous individuals and organisations PLG is always in need of funds 'for each and every one of its activities'. Christina Lawrie, who made notable contributions to the PLG Young Artists series in 2004 and January 2005, began and ended the joint recital. Handel's G major Chaconne (published 1733, HWV 435) was given a high powered interpretation on the Steinway, worlds away from its harpsichord origins; no arranger was credited so, apart from doublings and pedalling which moved it centuries on. More comfortable, and lovingly inflected and voiced, were the three Intermezzi and final Rhapsody of Brahms late Klavierstucke Op 119. She drew impressive sonorities from her instrument in a group of Rachmaninoff's lesser known pieces, but I found them often middle and bass heavy, too diffident about allowing the melodies in the treble to really sing out. For her opener Alexandra Wood, who has numerous competition successes to her name, bravely ventured Schubert's extraordinary Fantasy on Sei mir gegrüsst a devil of a piece which is probably even harder than it looks, demanding technical virtuosity of the highest order coupled with stamina. But it needs too fantasy and flexibility which were in short supply. Her stance was controlled, as if she was taking care not to offend a jury, tone and intonation were not quite settled. Her partner Huw Watkins upstaged her,finding sheer magic again and again in the uniquely imaginative piano part, one of Schubert's most miraculous inventions. It really was Huw's evening as pianist as and composer. Alexandra looked more comfortable and played far better in the second half, making a strong statement in her partner's Romance , a striking piece with unexpected intensity in the middle, followed by his dazzling Tarantella . To finish, a rousing and exhilarating account of the second Bartók Rhapsody, no holds barred and the piano lid wide open - it always should be for duo recitals, as Szymon Goldberg insisted to Susan Bradshaw in a Dartington master class imprinted on my memory. PLG has been one of the most important and enduring veins in London's musical life for as long as I can remember; I have been supporting it by reviewing its annual Young Artists series for three and more decades, in a series of publications which have disappeared whilst PLG carries on. May John Woolf and PLG's team of volunteers and well-wishers look forward to celebrating their centenaries in due course! For details of PLG's future plans and projects for The Next 50 Years visit the PLG website at www.arts@parklanegroup.co.uk
|