Tuesday 1 February 3.00 pm
Mozart: Sonata in D Major K 576
Allegro / Adagio / Allegretto
Beethoven: Sonata in E flat Op 81a ‘Les Adieux’
Adagio-Allegro / Andante / Vivacissimamente
Brahms: 4 Klavierstücke Op 119
I. Intermezzo in B minor
II. Intermezzo in E minor
III. Intermezzo in C Major
IV. Rhapsody in E-flat Minor
Liszt: La Campanella S 141 no 3
Some masterly playing from Ingmar Lazar.With simplicity and remarkable musicianship he allowed the music to speak for itself with a luminosity of sound and technical mastery that was never allowed to intrude on the architectural music line.I was reminded of the same sound of Gelber many years ago when he too played Beethoven with the same natural simplicity as today.One was never aware of his superb technique which was totally at the service of the music.
From the very first notes of Mozart’s last piano sonata there was a simplicity and clarity that held us spell bound.A beautiful liquid sound of great refinement and a kaleidoscopic sense of colour in the development before the delicate energy of the recapitulation.Pires has shown us the same art that conceals art that is one of the most difficult feats to achieve.
The famous saying of Schnabel that ‘ Mozart is too easy for children but too difficult for adults’ was evident today as in the simplicity there were so many subtle inflections of sound and also considerable temperament when needed that brought this work vividly to life.
An Adagio slow movement of ravishing beauty with a rich cantabile and a sumptuous sense of balance.It could have flowed more but it was played with a simplicity and sensitivity and an aristocratic sense of style.The final allegretto was also of a disarming simplicity,played with a sense of line of remarkable clarity and rhythmic energy.
The opening Adagio of the Beethoven ‘Les Adieux’ Sonata where a world was expressed in the introduction with such sublime sounds but above all scrupulous attention to the score.
The Allegro -Das Lebewohl – The Farewell -was played with great energy but also a clarity where every note was allowed to speak without any thought of the treacherous technical challenges that Beethoven demands.
An andante espressivo- ‘Abwesenheit – The Absence’ that was allowed to flow so naturally with a ravishing sense of balance and a truly magical ending before the explosion of the Vivacissimamente ‘Das Wiedersehen-The return’ thrown off with technical brilliance and notable clarity.
The four Brahms Klavierstucke op 119 were played with ravishing beauty and disarming simplicity.The opening Intermezzo in B minor I have never heard played with such clarity where every voice and strand spoke so eloquently.His continual natural body rotation gave such a natural fluidity to all he does. The gentle flow of the Intermezzo in E minor where the middle episode spoke with such a sumptuous golden sound.The C major Intermezzo was thrown off with the seeming simplicity and fantasy that only Curzon could conjure up before the majesty and excitement of the final Rhapsody.
A true musicians view of La Campanella where all the flashy showmanship so often displayed in this showpiece was put to one side with some very interesting fingerings though.But Liszt’s magnificent miniature tone poem was allowed to ravish and seduce with all the subtlety of another age.
A simple eloquent Prelude by Lyadov was this young musicians way of thanking a justly enthusiastic audience
Hailed by the Classica Magazine as a “pianist of magnetic presence”, Ingmar Lazar has established himself as one of the leading French musicians of his generation.He performs in the world’s prestigious halls such as the Great Hall of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Herkulessaal in Munich, Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg, Rudolfinum in Prague, Romanian Athenaeum in Bucharest, and the Charles Bronfman Auditorium in Tel Aviv to name a few.He collaborates with conductors Vladimir Spivakov, Jean-Jacques Kantorow, Mathieu Herzog, Peter Vizard among many others, and performs with the National Philharmonic of Russia, the Moscow Virtuosi, the Orchestre Lamoureux, the Romanian Radio Chamber Orchestra, and the Lviv Philharmonic Academic Symphony Orchestra. His critically acclaimed discography includes a Schubert recital (2017), and a Beethoven recital (2019), both issued on the Lyrinx label.Born in 1993, Ingmar Lazar made his debut at the age of 6 at the Salle Gaveau in Paris. He is the recipient of the Tabor Foundation Piano Award at the Verbier Festival (2013), and was named laureate of the Safran Foundation for Music (2016). A former student of Valery Sigalevitch and Alexis Golovin, he continued his studies with Vladimir Krainev and Bernd Goetzke at the Hannover Musikhochschule. Thereafter he attended the International Piano Academy Lake Como. He received his Master’s and Postgraduate degree from the Universitat Mozarteum Salzburg in the class of Pavel Gililov. Currently, he is mentored by Elisso Virsaladze at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole. Since 2016, Ingmar Lazar is founder and artistic director of the Festival du Bruit qui Pense, located in Louveciennes (France). He was named starting from 2021 artistic director of the piano festival Escapades Pianistiques taking place at the Chateau de Commarin, near Dijon.
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ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary 