Concert at gallery

Press, 25 October 1982, Page 6

Concert at gallery

Maria Kiiegel, Carl Pini, and Maurice Till at the Robert McDougall Art Gallery; Saturday, October 23. Reviewed by Heath Lees. Those, of us who arrived tempest-toss'd at the Robert McDougall Art Gallery were rewarded by a concert of high calibre. The main focus of attention was the cellist, Maria Kiiegel. whose visit is sponsored by the Goethe Institute. ' Miss -Kiiegel is a professor of music, but looks more like a model from the pages of “Vogue” magazine. She alsoplays beautifully, with a rock-solid technique and an interpretative gift that combines the finest nuances of phrasing with a. clear projection of over-all shape. Her playing has a highly indivi-

dual quality, but is never in danger of being self-indul-gent. At first - it seemed as though Bach’s D minor suite was to be a typically Romantic performance, but gradually the granite faces of the work were exposed, the barred double stops and the uninhibited middle register giving weight and body to the whole. If the courante seemed a little breathless, then the sarabande made up for it with its plangent sounds and • stately tread, while the closing gigue had an exciting rhythmic impetus throughout. The other solo piece, Bottermund’s "Seven Variations," turned out to be yet another virtuosic 'rhapsody on that famous- theme of

Paganini's, more interesting than • distinguished; but the Schumann "Fantasy Pieces." in which Miss Kiiegel was joined by Maurice Till, had just the right feeling of poetic suggestion in its everchanging, elusive contours. In the second half, pianist and cellist were joined by the violinist, Carl Pini, for a performance of Mendelssohn’s Opus 49 trio, a work which needs the utmost skill to bring out its real sparkle. This the players achieved with apparent ease, and even the finale lost its usual four-square effect, and became a thing of lightness and grace. At the end, the performers seemed pleased, and the audience was obviously delighted.