Brazilian pianist Eduardo Monteiro's ambitious programming
brought a goodly crowd to the Wigmore. The music of four well-contrasted
composers brought challenges both to performer and to audience; it is
a tribute to Monteiro that the time seemed to fly by, so absorbing was
the experience.
The Four Ballades, Op. 10 began the concert. No. 1,
inspired by the Scottish ballad, 'Edward', and full of dramatic tension,
was generally a success. The Andante first section flowed, the chording
was rich, and the more stormy middle section demonstrated a firm grasp
of harmonic direction. Only a tendency to rush unnecessarily when the
excitement mounted distracted from an otherwise noble conception. Tender
whisperings characterised the second, while the third ballade provides
the necessary rhythmic contrast.
The move to the twentieth century was an abrupt one.
Jose Antonio Rezende de Almeida Prado (born in 1943) is a prolific Brazilian
composer who, from 1969 to 1973, studied with Ligeti and Foss (in Darmstadt)
and with Messiaen and Nadia Boulanger (in Paris). His piece, 'Cartas
Celestes' (Celestial Charts) dates from 1973 and was intended originally
for a multimedia show in a planetarium as a musical description of the
night sky in the southern hemisphere between August and September. However,
it has gained acceptance as a concert piece in its own right.
Monteiro presented Almeida Prado's pointillism unapologetically
and (impressively) played the piece by memory. Monteiro, in his programme
note for this piece, states that, 'the piece opens with the blinding
light of the tropical sun': unfortunately that was hardly the impression
here. Having said that, Monteiro's evocation of the first star, Vesper
(Venus) was appropriately glassy, cold and distant. Almeida Prado uses
evocations of Meteors and a musical impression of 'Globular Cluster
Messier 13' as the equivalents to the 'Promenade' in Mussorgsky's 'Pictures
at an Exhibition', to articulate the structure of the piece. There was
no doubting either the fertility of the composer's imagination, nor
Monteiro's devotion to his cause. Although possibly over-long, a re-hearing
of this piece would be most welcome.
Volume One of Albeniz's 'Iberia' brought us back in
to more familiar waters. Monteiro sounded very much at home here, especially
in the quasi-improvisatory 'Evocacion'. If he was on the literal side
for 'El Puerto', he articulated 'El Corpus Christi en Sevilla' well
(just that extra bit of involvement would have been welcome). Most impressive
of all, though, was Monteiro's performance of Prokofiev's mighty Eighth
Piano Sonata (1944), the final 'War' Sonata. It is true that there was
a hefty harmonic/gestural shift here between these pieces, but Monteiro
managed it well, even if it took him a couple of minutes to enter into
Prokofiev's highly individual world. The bleak mood and concentrated
mode of utterance was well sustained, and the bittersweet nostalgia
of the second movement (Andante sognando) was caught perfectly. Confidence
flowed out of Monteiro's final movement, 'Vivace'. This was a fine performance
from an artist I would very much like to hear more of. The encore (Villa-Lobos)
was a melancholy, and lovely, close to the evening.
Colin Clarke