Review - Pires casts her spell with Haitink's LSO

Purcell Chacony in G minor (arr. Britten)
Mozart Piano Concerto No 20, K466 in D Minor
Schubert Symphony No 9 in C (‘The Great’)

Bernard Haitink, conductor

Maria João Pires, piano

London Symphony Orchestra  

10 June 2012, Barbican Hall, London 

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Maria João Pires

Bernard Haitink directing this vastly enjoyable concert with his usual clarity and insight.  A short, sober Chaconny from Purcell via Benjamin Britten opened proceedings before the piano took centre-stage and with it the evening’s highlight: Maria João Pires.  In today’s age of over-hyped piano youths, Pires is a beacon of true musicianship.  Hers is an unflashy, quiet and calm genius.  She makes no attention grabbing gestures.  It is as if she is playing for the private pleasure of herself and her orchestral collaborators, and yet for the listener what she does is rich and deeply moving. 

Her style was all the more striking in a performance of perhaps Mozart’s most dramatic piano concerto - K466.  The orchestra’s opening is a masterpiece of minor-key unease, more lyrical moments interrupted by stormy clouds. Then the piano enters with disarming, plaintive phrases.  Pires took her cue from this poignant moment, never seeking to generate storms of her own, but drawing out the tensions in the interplay between the orchestra and the piano's lyricism.  Throughout, the LSO woodwind provided some beautiful interplay with the soloist.

Pires never turned Mozart into a proto-Beethoven as some do and it was only in the notes that Beethoven did write – his cadenzas for this concerto – that her playing displayed some more pungent accents and flourishes.  Was it under-projected?  Definitely not.  It was entirely cogent and effective on its own terms.  The slow movement beautifully poised, and the Rondo finale brisk and dramatic.  Pires has achieved that consummation of artistry that replaces "art", in an artificial sense, with naturalness of expression.   She is perhaps an ideal Mozart pianist.  Haitink and the LSO certainly think so.  They play Mozart’s K488 concerto on Thursday and then play another two over a few days next February. 

After the interval, more delight came in the form of Schubert’s last symphony – Number 9 “The Great”.  This was vintage music-making from the Haitink-LSO team. Haitink emphasised the driven, military undertones of this piece, giving the timpani and brass some licence.   Occasionally there were enormous pauses.  Were we listening to Bruckner?  It was a nice effect, and Haitink is between Bruckner evenings in London (a 5th with the Concertgebouw Orchestra recently and the 7th on Thursday with the LSO).   At times, a little more space and Viennese charm would have been nice.  It is the central episode of the Scherzo that most calls for this, which with a Furtwangler becomes a golden moment.  I didn’t quite feel like getting up and dancing here.  But Haitink’s approach delivered its pay-off at the end of the last movement where the great pounding unison chords carried an extra charge of menace.  It was classic Haitink: the fruit of experience and a deep understanding of the work as a whole.   


Peter O'Byrne