PIANO RECITAL

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28537, 17 March 1958, Page 7

PIANO RECITAL

Memorable Playing By Peter Cooper

Mr Peter Cooper again filled Begg’s Concert Hall with an enthusiastic audience for his pianoforte recital on Saturday evening. Great warmth of applause showed how well his playing was appreciated.

. This programme followed the customary track and began with Liszt’s transcription of Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in A minor for Organ. As a transcription it came off splendidly. Mr Cooper played this work in traditionally classical style, giving prominence to clarity of line. He resisted the temptation—a strong one in this work—to take a fast tempo and gave a performance imbued with poise and dignity. The other great work in the first part of the programme was the Sonata in B flat minor by Chopin. In his first recital, in which he played all the Chopin studies, Mr Cooper showed how well equipped he is both technically and in emotional discipline to be an authoritative interpreter of Chopin. All that he showed then came again, heightened by the added nobility and wider extent of Chopin’s utterance in this sonata. * Mr Cooper faithfully brought out massive sonorities, themes which sang with exquisite tenderness, and kept unity with an unfailing sense of poetic feeling unmarred by any suggestion of sentimentality. It was great playing, bringing warmth and radiance to something familiar. As a foil to these two masterpieces Mr Cooper played between them a little work by Sterndale Bennett and. very charming and scintillating thrusts and parries it gave.

In the second part of the programme we heard a light and playful rendering of “Seguidillas” by Albeniz—atmospheric and full of ' vividly colourful contrast. Three works by Debussy were played with full appreciation of their romantic impressionism They showed how skilfully Mr Cooper has prepared his interpretations and related them to the tonal levels possible on a small instrument and to what the hall requires in this matter. Of the three studies by Saint Saens, apart from the fact that Mr Cooper overcame their formidable technical difficulties with engaging facility, there is nothing to say because they say nothing. However, as an encore, Mr Cooper played his own Tango Capricfe which had a merry wit and charming harmonies. —C.F.B