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Christ Church Cathedral
August 23, 2014
"I have played everything from Bach to Debussy, for real art should be international".
Today, that "everything" may seem something of an exaggeration, however when we recall that Eugène Ysaÿe, the "King of the Violin" (or the "Tsar" as Nathan Milstein called him) retired from playing before 1920 - his diabetes affected his hands and for the remainder of his life he concentrated on conducting, composing and teaching - we realise that he really did mean everything as it was then understood: music before Bach was scarcely known and Debussy was as avant-garde as they came.
I see that it is just over four years ago (to be precise, it was on August 3, 2010) that I first heard a performance of one of Ysaÿe's Sonatas for solo violin, at which time I expressed the desire to hear more of the set of six.
That long-felt want was at least partially satisfied on Saturday, as Müge Büyükçelen performed the second sonata, dedicated to violinist Jacques Thibaud.
The opening movement is entitled "Obsession", allegedly after its dedicatee's obsession with the music of Bach, and indeed the piece opens with a direct quotation of the beginning of Bach's third partita; but another obsession quickly emerges - presumably Ysaÿe's - which was maintained through all four movements: the plainchant "Dies Irae" from the requiem mass, a melody used by composers from Berlioz to Rachmaninov.
This is fascinating music and it was marvellously played, with tremendous concentration and commitment, Büyükçelen shrugging aside the work's considerable technical difficulties and clearly delineating the individual voices. The slow sarabande, with its increasingly complex textures, was lovely and the final movement was indeed allegro furioso.
I'm hoping it will not take another sixteen years to hear the remaining four of Ysaÿe's sonatas performed in Victoria, especially as in Büyükçelen we have a violinist who is more than capable of doing them justice.
If I say that the Ysaÿe was the most successful work on Saturday's programme, I am referring to the notorious acoustic of the cathedral and most emphatically not to Kelly Charlton's pianism.
The final work on the programme was a personal favourite, Brahms' Violin Sonata No.1, Op.78. It was extremely well played, but the balances were undermined by the swimmy acoustic, which is rarely kind to anything but the (singing, not speaking) human voice.
Having said which, tempos were well chosen and the rapport between the pair was never in any doubt. The opening bars were as magical as one could wish and the second subject meltingly beautiful, yet the development had all the requisite fire. The slow movement was intensely lovely and the finale, especially its exquisitely pointed references to the earlier movements, sang throughout.
Charlton gave us two of Brahms' late Op.116 piano pieces: the intermezzo in E flat and the Capriccio in D minor. These were most sympathetically played, but I would dearly love to hear him play in a more sympathetic space.
The opening sonata by Bach was more successful in its slow music than in the quick - once again (and I apologise for apparently harping on this point) the acoustic was the culprit: fast-moving counterpoint tends simply to become a blur.
Despite my provisos, this was an excellent recital and one which I certainly should not have wished to miss.
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