Liszt comes to town a little too fast

Press, 21 July 1976, Page 6

Liszt comes to town a little too fast

Liszt came to town last I night. In his solo recital in i the James Has Theatre last; > evening, the pianist. David I Wilde, lived up to his “Liszt- i 1 mania*' publicity bv building ,< up a programme leading to,i two thundering operatic 1 paraphrases — “The Flying l ] Dutchman” (Wagner-Liszt) | and "Reminiscences of I Norau” (Bellini-Liszt). These I were the centre of attraction, ji Few pianists can hope to|l acquire the technique which,! would allow them to pene-ii Irate the details of these h operatic fantasies. The tm-I provisatory nature of theii works is clearly exposed in ’ public performance, even 1 ’•'hen played with the con-J fidence and assurance of a I David Wilde. 11 With so many notes toll

handle in climaxes, it was inevitable that clarity would suffer at times through a little too much pedal. Personal reaction to the violent .distortion of the original material tends to detract from an appreciation of the performance: the sheer complexities of the pianistic figurations and the necessary bravura of performance sound rather hollow and conttnved to modem ears. There I is just too little time for much loving care and sympathy in these w’orks. Significantly enough, this 'is the main criticism of Mr Wilde’s whole performance. For his first half he chose Bach’s Partita No. 1 in B flat, Mozart’s Sonata No. 4. K. 282. and Four Impromptus, Op. 90, by Schubert. The

precision and clarity of playing suited the Bach and i Mozart; there was an “apipropriateness” about his iplaving in these works. Some tastes might have preferred a more leisurely allemande in the Bach and a slightlv more flexible rhythm in the Mozart adagio. In the Schubert Impromptus, however, there was not the same feeling for style. Mercifully, the rather long-winded C minor Impromptu was pushed along at a steady pace and was prevented from becoming too sentimental. But it was a pity that the A flat Impromptu was rattled off so perfunctorily, with little hope of the music revealing its many subtleties. —John M. Jennings