Pires is an artist (and that’s
the only word) of great magnetism. Not that one would guess it from
her entrance. She is a tiny, modest figure whose true stature only reveals
itself the moment she touches a piano’s keys. These days, Pires’ recitals
are cherished events – the place was stuffed, and the queue for returns
massive.
The programme required an interpreter
of the utmost maturity. Late Schubert and three of Chopin’s biggest
interpretative challenges are not for the faint of heart. It is in just
this repertoire that Pires excels, however, and the audience was treated
to playing of the utmost integrity and vision.
Schubert’s Klavierstücke,
D946 date from 1828, the composer’s final year. Pires played the first
two (E flat minor and E flat) with the greatest perception. She opened
with a surprisingly stormy E flat minor, wherein fortes were
imbued with burnished tone and voicing was a dream. The contrasting
section was marvellously still (now this is how to reduce a capacity
audience to absolute silence!); the innocence of the final episode projected
as only experience can. This experience showed itself again at the very
opening of the E flat, a simple pastorale. Pires made us aware of the
contained profundity, later projecting late-Schubertian disquiet quite
remarkably.
Pires’ Chopin has long been held
in the highest critical esteem. Choosing three elusive pieces was a
calculated gamble that paid off in spades. The F minor Fantaisie,
Op. 49 (1841) began as pure desolation, the bare octaves carrying massive
meaning. Here one of Pires’ hallmarks emerged – it is the way she can
turn a phrase, quite unexpectedly, leading to a moment of pure revelation
that makes her playing so very special. This glimpse into Chopin’s darker
musings was accompanied by remarkable passion.
The Fantaisie-Impromptu
in C sharp minor, Op. 66 (1835) was much more of an interlude between
the Fantaisie and the Polonaise-Fantaisie. Using little
pedal, Pires played with remarkable clarity and facility. She projected
the tender, quasi-operatic melodies to perfection. This account was
predominantly about tenderness.
Deciding not to wait for a passing
emergency-services siren to disappear, Pires launched into the elusive
Polonaise-Fantaisie in A flat, Op. 61 (1845-6). Her grasp of
this piece’s design was complete (it can so easily feel undirected in
the wrong hands), as was her feeling for the work’s unique handling
of tonality (one section almost seemed to point towards mid-period Scriabin!).
Intelligent, persuasive and powerful, this was an interpretation to
linger long in the memory of a piece that defeats so many. Pires did
not disappoint.
Colin Clarke
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