One would imagine that very few of the sizeable crowd that gathered in the Elisabeth Murdoch Hall on Wednesday evening bought their tickets to hear pianist Peter Dugan. Sadly, I suspect most would have never even heard of him. They aren’t likely to soon forget him though.
While it was doubtless the artistry and profile of American violin virtuoso Joshua Bell that got them in the door, for this reviewer, it was Dugan’s superbly tasteful, colourful and technically impressive playing that stole much of the show. Especially in the first half of the evening.
Three major duo sonata works formed the core of the program, the recital opening with Mozart’s melancholic Violin Sonata in E minor. Mozart in a minor key is always an event. Less than 100 of his more than six hundred compositions are in minor keys. This work is less dramatic and more intimate than some of his other rare utterings in the minor. Given the uneasy searching of the first movement’s subject it is a bold choice to begin with. The beautiful major key chorale in the second movement was the highlight in this performance, its sudden warmth and hope poignantly captured. Bell seemed to take a while to settle, Mozart being a tremendously unforgiving composer for even slight imperfections.
Schubert raises the stakes even further in that regard. It’s hard to think of another work that (for both violinist and pianist) feels more like walking on a tightrope at a vertiginous height for twenty-five minutes than the exquisite and other worldly Fantasy in C major. Composed in Schubert’s transcendent final year, this extraordinary piece places the utmost technical and musical demands on both performers. It’s feared and avoided by even many established musicians of the uppermost echelons. Bell and Dugan were unfazed by the challenge and delivered a reading with much to commend. Dugan especially was completely at home with the relentless scalic, double 3rd and arpeggio writing. More than technically flawless, he delivered it all with great style and sensitivity. Bell was more (surprisingly) fallible, particularly in the angelic opening movement, with its long, slow bows and high E string writing not always going to plan. From both artists this was a reading free from ego and focused on creating a long narrative arc as the piece works through its theme and variations to return to the opening material before a triumphant coda.
After the interval was Gabriel Fauré’s early and luscious sonata. Rather disappointingly the pair chose to omit the first movement repeat of the exposition, with its deeply satisfying return to the beginning. Bell seemed more at home in the sweeping romanticism of Fauré, deploying a broad range of sound and finding much greater depth of colour. There was much superb duo playing here, with a consistency of vision and true musical conversation. The second movement, chock full of typical Fauré chromaticism and potentially monotonous lilting rhythm, can be hard to pull off. This was one of the most convincing readings this reviewer has heard, Bell and Dugan turning it into an exhilarating journey.
We’re back on the tightrope for the fiendish scherzo with its rapid-fire semiquaver exchanges worthy of gold medal table tennis stars. This was a gripping and thoroughly assured reading. The danger of such electric execution of the scherzo is that the less extroverted finale can easily sink like an unsuccessful soufflé. Fortunately on this occasion, Bell and Dugan found a tempo that swept us away and deployed a super size serve of line and colour to leave the audience enraptured.
Fauré is such an under-appreciated composer and one that programmers often have hesitancy including. It’s wonderful to see artists the calibre of Dugan and Bell championing this complex but thoroughly rewarding music.
The printed program advised that henceforth the works would be announced from the stage. Bell introduced the popular Ballade of Ysaÿe and spoke warmly of how his final and most influential teacher, Josef Gingold was himself a pupil of the Belgium master. Bell’s reading was thoroughly convincing, albeit quite original and unexpected in its pacing and the way transitions occurred.
An arrangement by Bell of Chopin’s famous E-flat major nocturne followed. This was much more than a simple reassignment of the principal melody to the violin. You could tell much thought had been given to demonstrating the full breadth of the violin’s range and deployment of double stops and additional cadenza material that added an original voice to this timeless miniature.
The evening concluded with the evergreen Scherzo-Tarantelle of Henryk Wieniawski. Bell reminded us that his lineage can be traced directly to Wieniawski, given that Ysaÿe had spent two years studying with the Polish virtuoso. This was another often-eccentric interpretation, with frequent and sudden shifts in tempo that largely worked. The combination of flying fingers and soaring tunes ensures a rapturous response.
While the final three works turned the spotlight firmly on Bell, Dugan’s superb pianism across the recital will linger long in the memory. An ultimately very worthwhile evening. It’s no accident Bell has been at the top of the industry for decades and this recital proved he still has plenty of form. And while there were some bizarre interpretative choices, they were juxtaposed with breathtaking moments that you are left to conclude: if you can play that like you have permission to be as eccentric as you want.
Photo supplied.
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Stewart Kelly reviewed the recital given by Joshua Bell and Peter Dugan at the Melbourne Recital Centre on December 4, 2024.
