Gilded (ceilings and) Youth

On such a grey, drizzling, blustery, humid-and-yet-oddly-chilly abomination of a day as Friday 1 October, the gilded and glowing interior of St Martin’s provided a very welcome refuge for a large number of tourists disenchanted by the rigours of outdoor tourism, elderly people who had risked life and limb on the wet and slightly greasy pavements, and distrait musicians (such as myself) who needed a valid excuse for not attending to their diminished arpeggios for an hour.  Indeed, the soul-purifying benefits of sitting in a church, combined with the aesthetically-improving benefits of hearing a fine concert would undoubtedly outweigh the dubious merits of mastering a diminished seventh on B-flat – after all, it is highly unlikely that anybody will ever pay me to perform such a feat in public.  In addition to all that, Friday’s concert was particularly heart-warming because its performers are all young people, and really young people at that, still at secondary school.  It was a great pleasure to hear performances from three pupils who study at the Purcell School for Young Musicians, accompanied with characteristic style by Daniel King-Smith.  Solo appearances in a St Martin’s concert series are just one of the privileges enjoyed by students at one of Britain’s specialist music schools, and performing in front of a large audience in one of Britain’s most well-known concert venues is a vital and enriching part of their musical development. 

First we heard Chinese violinist Chendi Zhang, a self-effacing young man who seemed quite astonished by the number of people in the audience.  However, his response was to play absolutely beautifully with a very mature and generous tone and great elegance. The only problem he faced was that in his second piece – Beethoven’s Sonata in A major, Op. 12, no. 2 – his sound was slightly submerged by that of the piano.  He was not at all put off by the rustlings and scrufflings and throat-clearing in the audience (the first day of October clearly signals the true beginning of the catarrh season), and made the most of the gorgeous acoustic. 

Lavinia Redman, an oboist with an assertive stage persona, was the next person to play.  A semi-finalist in the 2010 BBC Young Musician of the Year, and (when she was only 12) a contestant on BBC Classical Star, Lavinia gave a very strong account of Poulenc’s Oboe Sonata.  For all its humour and occasional whimsy (sophisticated French whimsy…), this is a piece that requires real commitment and technical skill. Awareness of this very particular idiom is vital if an interpretation is to work, and Lavinia clearly knew the piece inside out.  She also has a strong, rich tone, and good breath control. 

Finally, the piano:  Mr Philip Dimitrovski’s programme alluded to this year’s Chopin anniversary by giving us the Scherzo in C-sharp minor and the Barcarolle in F-sharp major.  All of it was played with great assurance, but it was only in this performance that there was any indication of nervousness, or perhaps self-consciousness.  Aside from the technical aspects of this music, which didn’t seem to trouble Philip, we were reminded that when playing Chopin poise and grace are as important as courage and grandeur.  Playing Chopin beautifully must be one of the hardest things for a pianist, because like Mozart, he seems to inhabit his music – possibly because there is no other music comparable (in style and imagination and construction) with that of Chopin. Chopin and Mozart are both such elusive composers, and yet so present.  It seems to be impossible to understand them, or to hope to do anything as well as they could.  With the Poulenc Oboe Sonata, as I have said, the performer has to understand the idiom and the spirit, but somehow it is a far more intelligible idiom – and the same goes for Beethoven.  Beethoven, obviously, was possessed of a genius of unfathomable proportions, but for some reason, it is comprehensible. To put it bluntly, we can ‘get’ Beethoven.

  Now I have said all this, I am anxious that people may interpret my comments about Philip’s Scherzo and Barcarolle as negative, but this is not the case at all.  That a young male of his age has the courage and conviction to play these pieces as he did is testament to his musicianship and assurance – as soon as he allows himself to be inhabited by, and immersed in, that exquisite and unique idiom, then he will be armed with a tremendous gift.

The overall impression of this concert was that youth is no obstacle to mature, well-crafted interpretations of challenging music.

(from our reporter in the field, C. Sharpe)