Christian Blackshaw is a pianist with a certain reputation in Mozart, hence our desire to hear him for his return to Bourgie Hall on Thursday evening. The disappointment, however, was proportional to our expectations.
Personal anecdote: our first assignment to The Press, on March 12, 2020, was to allow us to hear Christian Blackshaw in Bourgie. However, it was a missed opportunity, the Great Confinement having been decreed a few hours before the recital.
It was obviously only a postponement. But even if “part” is synonymous with “play”, the artist did not have more fun than necessary with musical material which nevertheless lends itself to the highest degree.
Throughout, it feels like someone is patiently polishing each piece of their silverware. But all that glitters is not gold…
We must still do justice to Christian Blackshaw for his magnificent, tender and singing slow movements. But how can we enjoy it when we have been so indisposed by rapid movements where Mozartian verve is cruelly absent?
Slow movement is usually an oasis between two storms. If the latter remain in their glass of water, the oasis loses some of its enchantment.
We see this from theAllegro con spirito (“with spirit”!) of the Sonata in C major, K. 309, where the eighth notes of the accompaniment are so detailed that they steal the show from the irresistible melody in the right hand. There is also not much happening at the end of the development, where the score moves abruptly from G major at the end of the exposition to G minor, a bit like lightning in a blue sky.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
Christian Blackshaw reconnects with the Montreal public after a missed meeting, on March 12, 2020, a few hours after the Great Confinement in Quebec.
In the final rondo, it is Alberti’s bass (conventional accompaniment formula in Mozart’s time) which takes up all the space even though it should remain in the background. Each note is pronounced, when one would expect sentences that look forward.
Once you get to the next work, the Sonata in A major, K. 331, you find yourself checking your watch as time drags on, the pianist being particularly fond of repeats. The arrival of the third variation, which takes us abruptly from major to minor mode, does not make the performer blink, who maintains his British phlegm throughout.
In the minuet, as at other moments of the evening, we regret the too great equality of the fast scales, from which we expect in vain a certain volubility. This did not get better after the intermission, with the Sonata in F majorK. 533/494, and the Sonata in D majorK. 576.
The sound is magnificent throughout, with precise control of the pedal, but what’s the point, when the speech that supports it is also soothing?
Hay of this porcelain Mozart for five o’clock tea ! The “divine” Mozart was a monster of pleasure, a spirit of dazzling vivacity, not a cherub to dust on a boring day!
The pianist’s encore, of unusual length, allowed us to hear theAdagio in B minorK. 540, by the Austrian composer.