United Kingdom Illean and Beethoven: Cédric Tiberghien (piano). Wigmore Corridor, London, 25.10.2024. (MB)
Lisa Illean – Sonata in ten components (world premiere)
Beethoven – 33 Variations on a Waltz by Anton Diabelli, Op.120
Easy methods to current the Diabelli Variations? What higher manner than commissioning a brand new, associated piano work to precede them? I ought to by no means have guessed that Lisa Illean’s Sonata in ten components was her first work for solo piano, so assured was the writing, realised fantastically and meaningfully, as if a traditional work, by Cédric Tiberghien. Every of the ten ‘components’, which I feel we would think about in some sense variations – the fascinating query being variations on what? – is derived from a brief passage, typically as little as a bar, from Beethoven’s set. Interconnections in Illean’s personal work had been typically clear even on a primary listening to; I believe there will likely be extra to be found on ranges subterranean and subliminal.
The opening appeared designed, each in work and efficiency, to ask us in, questing and unsure (in a optimistic sense), filled with potential. It was not Beethoven a lot as Debussy and Schoenberg who initially got here to my ears, although his ghost definitely visited the feast in a while, maybe as a lot by way of passages of unmistakeable dignity as by way of thematic connection. So too did others, Chopin and Brahms included. Not that these had been essentially overt references and even reminiscences, extra factors in widespread through, as an example, beautiful voice-leading (once more each Illean’s and Tiberghien’s), use of the sustaining pedal, or horizontal employment of chords. Right here was a wonderfully old-school fantastic thing about pianistic sonority put to modern musical ends, to the distinct advantage of each.
Tiberghien elected to supply his participating spoken introduction to the Diabelli Variations instantly after Illean’s Sonata, leaving us to ponder in the course of the interval earlier than launching into the fabled Schusterfleck. That labored very nicely, I believed, each in forging a better entire and in rejuvenating a Beethovenian shock of the brand new. The Waltz, at any charge, was delectably sprung, with out affectation, the primary variation a superb different starting, as if Beethoven had been saying – and certainly he’s – ‘that apart, now allow us to start afresh’. As quickly as its successor, we had been in definably ‘late’ territory, kinship to the composer’s early years obvious within the third, for a definite advantage of Tiberghien’s efficiency was sympathy to the multiplicity of voices, letting them sing to mix within the unmistakeable single voice of Beethoven. Right here had been humour, vigour, sheer élan, the knowingly wayward, and a lot extra, stretching in reference from the beguiling contrapuntal legacy of Bach, by way of heartfelt Mozartian equipoise, to Boulezian ‘organised delirium’ (to borrow the title of Caroline Potter’s new guide). Formal command and communication had been essential, nevertheless calmly worn: one skilled teams of variations as one thing akin to sonata actions, whether or not within the rapt hush of a gradual motion or the show of a finale. Total stability and particular person character had been equally nicely judged, a Beethovenian hour passing within the short while. The composer’s obvious, readily explicable unwillingness to let go for (nearly) the final time was captured to close perfection, as heart-rending because it was truthful. We had come dwelling, although dwelling would by no means be fairly the identical once more.
Mark Berry
