Animated playing in Chopin recital

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33480, 11 March 1974, Page 12

Animated playing in Chopin recital

Mr Peter Cooper gave a recital of works by Chopin to a moderately large audience in the Town Hall yesterday afternoon.

He began his programme, well chosen for variety of mood, with the Fanta ;y in F minor, which opened with mysterious atmosphere, with gently singing sounds. Animated and impassioned playing followed. Some small details were lost in the hall’s reverberance, but everything was clear in finest detail for the most part. Soft and lyrical playing—and there was plenty of it—was delightfully controlled and poetic in imagination and in utterance.

The playing of the Fantasy, and of the Impromptu in F Sharp Major which followed, set the standard of all that Mr Cooper had to give. Everything was in accordance with the canons of refinement which Chopin’s music requires. POETIC CONTENT

The great work was the Sonata in B minor, Op. 58. Clarity of structure and evocation of poetic content made the interpretation of the first movement a joy. The scherzo went a-scamperiag, and a rustling bustle like leaves before a strong wind, and the slow movement sang with mellow and delicate contentment. The last movement had grandeur and panoply. Smooth and supple playing of impressive tenderness was heard in the Berceuse, and four waltzes had strong romantic colour and a rubato, giving excising shape and glitter while preserving

the essential forward flow of the rhythm. The Scherzo in C Sharp Minor gave dramatic colour and variety to the ending of the programme —C.F.B.