1 March: Alasdair Beatson at Wigmore Hall

I had a wonderful evening yesterday.  Society members John, Les and Sara accompanied me to Wigmore Hall to listen to pianist Alasdair Beatson and, he was sensational!  You will remember Alasdair as the accompanist to Tom Gould in our first recital this season last September.

His programme, full of technically demanding pieces, had so much to look forward to and included several of my favourites!  Alasdair started with Mendelssohn’s Sonata in E.  He introduced this Sonata to me last November when he played at Bishopsgate Institute.  Ever since, I’ve been a fan of this beautiful Sonata.   All four movements have different characters and are incredible but I just love the first movement which starts with the sweetest melody.  This theme repeats itself throughout the first movement, and appears again at the very end – a sudden and very effective way to end the dynamic fourth movement.  I particularly like this drastic change of the tone, and Alasdair played it brilliantly.  From the beginning until the end, he played with great care – every note and chord had a meaning to him, and with this attitude he created wonderful sounds.

The next piece was Schumann’s Gesänge der Frühe, op 133, Songs of Dawn.  This consists of five short pieces.  From the title, you would imagine something straightforward, light, joyful and simple, but it’s nothing like that really.  They are rather complex and unsettling, dark rather than light, difficult to keep rhythm, pace and right volume (this is my opinion!). But Alasdair took good control and demonstrated his excellent interpretation to us.  In the fourth movement, he played downward cascading notes ever so gently; his fingers moved up and down like feathers touching the keyboard!

This was followed by another Schumann: Abegg Variations, my all-time favourite.  The opening theme is just gorgeous; it makes you wonder how it is going to develop.  I must have listened to this piece thousands of times, but it never bores me.  I love it so much that I cannot bear to listen to it if it is badly played!  Alasdair’s playing definitely exceeded my expectations – he played it a touch slower than I would’ve liked, but it was so expressive and full of colours.

After the interval, the first piece was Brahms’ Variations on a Theme by Schumann.  I must admit that before the concert, I was not the least interested in this piece – I’m sure many people would disagree but it doesn’t have ups and downs and never climaxes.  Surprisingly I really liked it, though I am not quite sure if it was because of Alasdair’s stunning performance or the glass of wine that John bought me during the interval!!

This was followed by the Scherzo from A Midsummer Nights Dream by Mendelssohn and Rachmaninov.  Oh I love this piece very much – I was looking at the score before I left home and it looked so difficult that I couldn’t even dream about playing it; far too many notes to play at a very high speed!  Again, Alasdair’s presentation was stunning and dynamic, with attention to every detail.  From pianissimo to fortissimo I enjoyed his expressive playing.

And finally, some Liszt Transcriptions.  He played three transcriptions, without a pause between them.  The last two, Gretchen am Spinnrade (Schubert / Liszt) and Widmung (Schumann / Liszt) are also my favourites.  They are unbelievably beautiful – I couldn’t believe how lucky I was to listen to so many of my much-loved pieces in one night!  It was like Alasdair magically knew my preferences and kindly planned the programme for me!!  Anyway, by this stage, I was simply impressed by his stamina; with Gretchen am Spinnrade he displayed steady triplets, representing the constant spinning of Gretchen’s wheel, while voicing the sentimental melody.  His playing was very touching.  Widmung was absolutely gorgeous – so animated and full of emotions.  The beautiful melody shifts from right hand to left, while both hands work on accompaniment, and all were impressively presented.  John named Alasdair "double stop dynamite” – we were all impressed by his technical capability and superb program!

I attended Alasdair’s concert in November when he played some of the same pieces, and I have to say that he has made a significant improvement he made since then!  His interpretation and presentation was many times superior and notably more confident.  I can only imagine the vast amount of effort and hours he must have put in to make this recital a huge success.  He was definitely successful in relating to the audience and expressing his passion and love for music, and I think that is wonderful.  And, when I woke up in the morning, the Mendelssohn Sonata was still playing in my head…