Last night the Festival of the Sound gave us the Canadian debut of the distinguished British pianist Martin Roscoe. He chose to play Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata, another warhorse that often gets abused by the lesser creation who try to play it.
Like me. I'm the first one to admit that I would have no business trying to play this one in public, with my piano skills (?) in their present state of disrepair and neglect. But I've worked my way through the score enough to know what all the notes are that ought to be there.
Martin Roscoe nailed every single one, as far as I could tell. He played fast, yes, but at a speed where the music remained perfectly under his control and entirely musical. Phrase shaping, dynamics, and touch were impeccable. Like Wilhelm Kempff, he used a very discreet application of the sustain pedal, instead of massive leaning on the pedal to cover the faults. The singing tone of the major key episodes in the finale acted as a lovely contrast to the energy that surrounds them.
This was Beethoven playing of the true first order.
And as if that wasn't enough, the second half brought him back with three members of the wonderful New Zealand Quartet for a performance of the Piano Quartet in A, Op. 26, by Brahms. I don't expect ever to hear a more perfectly beautiful, powerful, musical rendering of this masterpiece anywhere this side of heaven. And that says it all.
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