Anthony di Bonaventura Gives Piano Recital

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32361, 29 July 1970, Page 18

Anthony di Bonaventura Gives Piano Recital

Anthony di Bonaventura, a distinguished pianist on his first tour of New Zealand, gave a recital of musical interest and popular appeal in the Civic Theatre last evening. A "Fandango" by the eighteenth-century Spanish composer, Antonio Soler, was a charming piece stylishly played and revealed Soler as a musician whose virtuosity of invention and composition deserves that his work be much better known. At the age of fl, Beethoven wrote three sonatas for piano, one of which (in D major)

Mr di Bonaventura played next Its three movements showed the remarkable powers which the young Beethoven possessed and which gave certain promise of the greatness to come. Mr dl Bonaventura played this music with artistic appreciation of period and style. Three Chopin pieces followed: Nocturne in F sharp, Opus 15, No. 2; Waltz in A flat, Opus 34, No. 1, and Ballade in F minor, Opus 52. Again, the pianist interpreted well not only the general mood and manner of the composer but also the contrast of each Composition. Especially pleasing was his playing of the nocturne and the ballade, the wide varieties of tonal contrast and the brilliant clarity of technical detail in the latter being outstanding. The charming “Villanesoa” from Book 2 of the “Spanish Dances” by Granados introduced yet another mode of thought and musical expression into the programme —and was followed by the remaining two pieces of the set, “Andaluza” and “Rondella Aragonese,” all three naturally and un-self-consciously telling of the region from which they came. Liszt’s “Valse Impromptu” was played as the slight but pleasingly decorative piece it is; and was followed by the Hungarian Rhapsody No. 10, in the performance of which Mr di Bonaventura showed his mastery of the work’s technical difficulties. The audience was most appreciative of his whole programme. —V.G.