A recital of the highest standard to a capacity audience reinforced the outstandingly successful Harrogate International Festival's series of Sunday Coffee Concerts held at the Cairn Hotel.

The second in this season's series, it featured the Japanese pianist Noriko Ogawa who, in introducing the recital, stated how much she appreciated returning to Yorkshire once more as she celebrated 20 years as a solo performer. Her double-decade of concert-giving had started following her success, as third prize-winner, at the 1987 Leeds International Piano Competition.

Ogawa began her recital with four of Debussy's Douze Études. These pieces were the composer's last major work for solo piano and the ones chosen all concentrated on the use of different intervals. Despite the exercise-like nature of the music, the differing moods of the pieces were well-exploited, especially the pedal effects in Pur les quartes. Beethoven's Appassionata Sonata received a performance in which the outer movements lived up well to the mood implied by the title.  The first movement began on the fast side but the calming influence of suitable use of rubato helped the second subject emerge as a more lyrical passage. Occasional over-pedalling and emphasis on the sonorous bass added to the passion. The second movement received due attention to the lyrical harmonies and this was not lost as the music became more florid. The finale began with some very precise articulation in the moto perpetuo first subject and worked its way through to a thrilling climax.

The second half of the recital started with the audience being introduced to a short work, Returning, by the 30-year-old Japanese composer Dai Fujikura. Although being constructed of sketches for his forthcoming piano concerto, the piece makes a satisfying structure in its own right, consisting of two slow sections surrounding a faster middle episode. Although discordant, the emphasis on contrary motion material assists the listener until the abrupt ending.

Ogawa concluded her recital with a memorable performance of Liszt's Sonata. Its six sections moved into each other seamlessly as the rhapsodic nature of the music unfolded around its idée fixe. Judicious use of una corda helped bring out the contrasts of the less dramatic sections and the lingering final cadence encapsulated the maturity of all that had preceded it. An appropriate encore, the same composer's La Campanella, rounded off a memorable recital in a delightful manner.

by Paul Dyson

Curtesy of the Harrogate Advertiser