<<  -- 3 --  Keith Bramich    A PASSIONATE CAMPAIGN

Although a very early work from 1912, Prokofiev's second sonata is grand, large scale and rather demonic music, designed deliberately to shock. It has many of the hallmarks of his later works, and it provided a showcase for Honma at her most virtuosic.

Tamami Honma devoted the second half of her recital to a performance of Bach's Goldberg Variations (1741-2), thirty variations on an original theme, part four of Klavierübung and possibly the original live bedtime music. Arguably, the piece was written to while away the sleepless nights of an insomniac, the Russian ambassador to the court at Dresden, Count von Keyserlingk, and was played to him by his own harpsichordist, Johann Gottlieb Theophilus Goldberg. Well-written, considered, extensive and informative programme notes by Tamami Honma and Adrien Cotta guided us through all the music of the evening's recital, suggesting for the Goldberg Variations a comparison between Bach's vision of the world and the pilgrim's journey in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Here we heard an interpretation that was probably as transparent and faithful to Bach as it's possible to be on a modern piano, and which allowed the composer's various characterisations to shine out.