Kurtag & Bartok

Julia Hamos & Tianyun Jia

Royal Academy, London
6 November 2012

An exceptionally well prepared and delivered lunchtime recital, which captivated an audience for most of whom the music would have been unfamiliar.

This student duo's performance of the more concentrated of Bartok's two great sonatas was completely riveting, belying the surprising fact that they had not performed it together before.

Julia Hamos introduced her selection of Kurtag's little keyboard Games (Jatekok) and presented them with aplomb. Far more absorbing was her account of them than previous experiences of these miniatures on disc and at Wigmore Hall (q.v. also Jeff Brown in The Times "private musings, of baffling significance".)

Peter Grahame Woolf

Julia Hamos [L] at her 12 November recital of Beethoven, Schumann & Kurtag's Jatekok at the Hungarian Cultural Centre, Covent Garden

Enjoy Julia in Ravel's Piano Concerto on YouTube

PGW