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Haydn, Mozart & Beethoven on Fortpiano
Malcolm Bilson fortepiano Wigmore Hall 20 July 2010 This was a gratifying Wigmore Hall recital, attracting a large appreciative audience. Bilson's fortepiano sounded mercifully quieter there than a Steinway concert grand on full throttle, and it took only moments for piano enthusiasts to accustom themselves to the qualities of the fine McNulty/Walter instrument. Malcolm Bilson brought infinite subtleties of expression to all the chosen works and there were special insights to be gleaned from each one, especially for those of us familiar with the music. The Haydn sonata was highly dramatic and had a moment of magic with 'open pedal'. The popular Mozart sonata, "too easy for 9-year olds and too difficult for the world's greatest artists" [Schnabel] has a slow movement whose highly decorated repeat in the first edition "can serve as a model for embellishment where Mozart has not provided it" [Bilson's own programme note]. His Fantasia (without the usually associated sonata K.was 457) revealed the instrument's surprising dynamic range, and with its every register exploited for melodic or dramatic point making, its effect was entirely different from the same piece on a modern piano. Bilson has been campaigning for Beethoven on fortepianos for a long time, with a notable series of recordings, recently reissued, so we were told, made with his Cornell University students "on the instruments for which he conceived the sonatas". Peter Grahame Woolf
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perfect performing it. Charming Cramer variations and a Mendelssohn piece brought moments of relaxation into a demanding programme.