Musical adventure with enterprising pianists
Mainly 4-hand recital with Gao Ping, University of Canterbury Platform Arts Festival
Reviewed by Michael Lawrence
The Press, 24 May 2010
A quick glance through this varied Sunday afternoon programme showed that this was not to be a traverse through the usual two-piano repertoire of Mozart, Schubert or Rachmaninoff. However, this was hardly surprising given such adventurous and enterprising pianists as Michael Houstoun and Gao Ping. Beginning with Debussy's duets Six Epigraphes Antiques, the two easily conveyed the varied moods in these short pieces, from the opening with its echoes of the composer's solo Preludes, to the darker tones of Un Tombeau, the high spirits of La Danseuse and the mystery of L'Egyptienne.
Michael Houstoun again proved his versatility by tackling three challenging compositions in the jazz style. Friedrich Gulda's Prelude and Fugue was particularly enjoyable, the prelude evoking echoes of Bach with its rolling arpeggiated harmonies. The fugue's cheeky, syncopated blues motif was deftly handled by Houstoun. George Antheil's Jazz Sonata was unashamedly brash in its approach, featuring some fine ragtime and stride playing. Nikolai Kapustin's 3 Bagatelles closed this bracket, with a moto perpetuo followed by a warm ballad-style middle movement and a driving finale.
The two centrepieces of the programme were by Gao Ping and John Psathas. The Mountain (2004) written for two pianos, revealed Gao Ping as a composer absorbed with colour, texture and atmosphere. A declamatory opening gave way to a light, spare texture. The central passacaglia was based on a nine-note bass figure, which built up to a fine climax before a return to more delicate textures and measured soft chords. The final moto perpetuo ebbed away to a peaceful close. Psathas's duet Motet (1998) also intrigued listeners with the sonorous opening, the relentless rhumba-like middle section with its driving rhythms and the gentle close.
Preceding Gao Ping's composition Night Alley (2006) with a Chopin mazurka made sense within the context of the work, which was written to reflect encounters with music in unexpected places such as commune corridors in Beijing and Shanghai, far removed from the formality of concert halls. Throughout the often spare, terse writing, faint echoes of the Chopin wound their way through.
The selection of Ravel's La Valse as a finale could not be bettered. This difficult two-piano work is not merely a homage to the music of Johann Strauss, but contains darker undercurrents which Houstoun and Ping realised vividly, bringing the piece to a swirling, virtuosic close.