Piano Recital – December 10th 2022
Charles Matthews, the notable local pianist, accompanist and organist gave a piano recital on Saturday 10thDecember in the Warwick Chapel. He had built a very interesting programme around the years 1722, 1822, 1922 and 2022, effectively covering the whole range of classical piano music from the earliest pianos (invented during Bach’s lifetime though he wrote originally largely for early keyboard instruments) through to the contemporary Leamington composer Howard Skempton and a couple of present day students at the Birmingham Conservatoire writing this year.
Charles gave our Yamaha a really good workout, demonstrating both ferocious musical lines and tunes of great sensitivity. The clarity of his finger work produced magical interpretations of the Bach Preludes and Fugues, with the fugal entries very clearly delineated, while the range of emotions in Schubert’s wide-ranging Fantasy in C major (“The Wanderer” 1822) explored everything a fortepiano could do at the time. By the twentieth century there was much more rhythmic variety, well shown in Hindemith’s 1922 Suite including ragtime as well as more reflective pieces. The 2022 contributions were less extensive and understandably more adventurous tonally. Imagine a piece called Frustration responding to the hazards of modern travel with lengthy security checks and missed flights.
Altogether it was a very entertaining and instructive programme, brilliantly performed. Charles will be back in April for another concert and I thoroughly recommend it in advance.