Isaac Albéniz : El Puerto (Ibéria, Book 1), Asturias, Seguidilla (Chants d'Espagne)
José Antonio Donostia : Préludios Vascos (extracts)
Manuel de Falla : El Amor Brujo - suite
Joaquin Larregla : Gran Jota de Concierto Viva Navarra
Victoria Aja, piano
I debated a long time about whether to write a review of this recital or not. While I'm not in the business of producing unconsidered gushing praise, nor do I like to be wholly negative, and I'm afraid I have nothing good to say about this particular evening.
It was the programme that had attracted me; recitals of Spanish piano music don't occur all that often. It turned out to be a very short concert (something that was not made clear in the presentation) but in the end it was just as well, I doubt I could have put up with a full 90 minutes' worth of Ms. Aja's playing. I'll excuse the hard tone. She was using a Yamaha, and while I don't know if it was her choice or the organisers', I've heard often enough lately that the keyboard action of the current generation of Yamaha pianos is superior to that of the Steinway, and with type of music being played, I can understand why a very responsive keyboard would be judged necessary. Nevertheless, the Yamaha strings tend to vibrate too much when played forcefully, and it has a brittle sound.
However, that was the least of the problems. When a pianist uses excessive rubato in place of expressivity, one can only sit there and endure it. She pulled around the tempi of the music (all the music) to the point of complete distortion. In addition, the lack of technical precision was disconcerting. I suspect a certain weakness in the little finger of the right hand; she was missing the top notes of runs and arpeggios, of consecutive octaves, and the first note of melodies on a consistent basis.
This recital was programmed in the context of the Piano aux Jacobins festival of Toulouse, two weeks in September devoted to the piano, which is now well into its third decade, and I have to say I was somewhat shocked that a performance of such a poor calibre could be judged acceptable. It's not what I would expect from an organisation that I know can and does put on recitals of an extremely high standard. Very disappointing indeed.
[Next: 30th September]
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