Composers Poorly Served
The Age
Tuesday October 16, 2007
PNINA BECHER
BMW Edge, Federation Square October 14 ONE of the very few classical music events in this year's festival, pianist Pnina Becher's recital on Sunday evening was barely interesting enough to sustain its own weight, let alone the expectations of those left high and dry by an absence of valuable material across the coming fortnight. The brief program, a virtual replay of the artist's recent double CD, featured three composers - Scarlatti, Chopin, Debussy - but none of them was well served.Becher began with three Scarlatti sonatas performed with little concern for interpretative norms. The sustaining pedal was brought into play too often, very little of these simple structures enjoyed sensible phrasing, and the mode of articulation was erratic, especially in the opening D minor work that featured several attention-grabbing errors.Two Chopin nocturnes were delivered with groping care, the F Minor Op. 55 suffering from disappearing pedal notes and a tendency to long strophes of wash coming from the ubiquitous sustained pedal. The D flat Op. 27 Nocturne began well enough but every time a taxing passage came in sight, the pace dropped off and the pianist's annoying habit of ending sentences on a sudden soft note soon cloyed.The G minor Ballade proved an unhappy experience, delivered with little discipline of metre and indications of a lost plot when the work's first difficulties arose. Instead of surging to a compelling double octave climax, the piece lost power and its gripping coda turned into an endurance test. Becher's selection of six waltzes showed mixed success, the F Major Op. 34 enjoying an extra chord as she rectified her first attempt at it, while the posthumous G flat work achieved a welcome lilting pleasure in its middle section.Debussy's Pour le piano suite did not show this artist in any good light, the opening Prelude subject to changes of speed, along with smudging and a Schumannesque whimsy that argued against the piece's percussive insistence. Much the same mishaps overtook the final Toccata, which was a gruelling effort, lacking in drive or the necessary build-up of tension that brings the work from a soft start to a triple forte conclusion.If Becher had offered novel interpretations, one would have welcomed her appearance on a festival program that has a charter of encouraging new ways of thinking. But this recital was a troubling experience: unsettling for its wavering insight, unnerving through lack of fluency and stylistic awareness, its technical standard not as advanced as anticipated. For all that, the audience applauded fervently after each piece.
© 2007 The Age
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