<<  -- 2 --  Malcolm Miller    JAPANESE TONE PAINTING

Similar expressive voicing of texture infused Schumann's Davisdbündlertänze with sonorous beauty, a bright-edge melodic line set against delicate inner voices and light accompaniments. The overarching architecture and dramatic pacing avoided any sense of a sprawling string of movements, the mercurial shifts of mood balancing the opposition of Florestan and Eusebius of each of the eighteen pieces. And while similar supple poetic phrasing was evinced in the two Chopin Mazurkas which opened the recital, it was her command of large-scale coherence that also formed one of the strengths of the climactic work, Musorgsky's Pictures. Certainly her rich colours and clarity of texture also infused this with every ounce of excitement and character, a reason for the BBC Music Magazine's Critics Choice 1998 accorded her CD of the work (BIS). One seldom hears the work projected with such crystalline, yet orchestral richness, the underlying interpretative concept, highlighting the varied transformations of the 'Promenade' alongside each contrasting vignette: the luminous mystery of the 'Old Castle', impassioned dialogue of the 'Two Polish Jews', brittle chitter-chatter of the 'Chicks' and 'Limoges', pounding ferocity of 'Baba Yaga', and the majestic bells of the Great Gates of Kiev that splendidly evoked the Coronation scene of Boris Godunov. Tension abated in the warmly flowing encore, Clair de Lune that further affirmed Miss Ogawa's appealing artistry.

Hendon Music Society's 43rd Season features the distinguished guitarist Julian Bream (Oct 13), the well known pianists Peter Frankl (10 November 2001) and Nikolai Demidenko (8 December 2001), two string quartets, the Quatuor Danel (23 February 2002) and Eroica String Quartet (23 March 2002), and the duo Margaret Fingerhut (piano) and Bradlkey Creswick (violin) (27 April 2002), held at Trinity Church in Golders Green, London NW11.