Liszt :
La Vallée d'Obermann
Petrarch Sonnet No. 104
Les jeux d'eaux à la Villa d'Este
Tarantella (from Venezia e Napoli)
Sonata in B minor
Llyr Williams, piano
I do like Liszt, on the whole, but sometimes a little can go a long way. A very long way, in the wrong hands, but I was pretty sure buying my ticket for this recital that that was not going to be a problem, and so it proved. Llyr Williams lived up to my already excellent opinion of him, in a recital that proved that it is entirely possible to play Liszt with reserve and distinction, and even with humour, without losing any of the passion. No need for flailing around at the keyboard, and deafening cascades of scuffed notes, in the name of unbridled artistic licence, like some I could mention (but won't).
Williams has a very deliberate manner, his playing is precise and thoughtful, the articulation wonderful. He was not favoured by a slightly hard-sounding Steinway, and I did think that he could have indulged just a little more in a bel canto approach to some of the melodic lines, particularly in the Sonata, but what we got is very much in keeping with his overall style, and certainly more than acceptable. The Jeux d'eaux were magnificent, crystalline and luminous, impressionism in music before it really became a trend.
The Sonata is one piece of Liszt of which I never get tired. It has endless permutations and infinite variety, there isn't really a 'right' way to play it (though there may be wrong ways), it's more a matter of convincing your audience that what they're hearing right now is as good as it gets. Again, Williams accomplished this effortlessly, with a sombre, subtle, magical reading that held the public to rapt attention, and left an almost palpable silence at the end as we sat and absorbed such dark splendour.
Of course, he wasn't going to get away with just the published programme. The encores were Bartok - some folk dances, wistfully evocative - and Schubert; real Schubert, not Schubert transcribed by Liszt.
[Next: tonight]
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