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A LION AT THE KEYBOARD
The last of the Alnwick Music Society concerts this season was a warmly anticipated event for two reasons: firstly because of John Lill, a Leonine figure in British pianism, and secondly because it was the Fred Dyson Memorial Concert. Fred was a much-loved and highly-valued member of the Music Society, and indeed of the community, who died in 2011, and we were pleased to see his widow and family members there to enjoy the evening. Attendance at the concert was not only very gratifying, but almost overwhelming, with many extra seats being brought out right up to the last minute. John Lill is a famous name in classical music circles, and has been to Alnwick several times; he was one of Fred Dyson’s heroes, not least because of his interpretation of Beethoven. John Lill became known nationally in the early 1960’s, and in 1970 was joint winner of the Moscow International Tchaikovsky Competition. Now in his mid-sixties, he has continued to be one of our best and most distinguished piano virtuosi.
The concert programme, in Alnwick Castle Guest Hall on Wednesday 9th May, showed thoughtful and imaginative planning. The first half could be described as being about new beginnings: It featured a Mozart sonata (F major, K332) that marked his settlement in Vienna with a new wife (Constanze); a Schumann Carnival de Vienne (opus 26) which evoked both carnival high spirits in a Vienna where he had gone on tour, and also his yearning love for Clara von Wieck; and a Prokofiev Toccata (opus 11), written when he was only 21 and still finding his musical voice. John Lill’s limpid touch with the Mozart, romantic pianistic swagger with the Schumann, and ‘rocket-ride’ technique with the Prokofiev, was a cause for great satisfaction.
If the first half impressed us, the second half went further. Here was music that plumbed the depths, reflecting personal sorrow and anguish. Brahms’ Three Intermezzi opus 117 are lullabies recalling lost friends, and here is beauty tinged with an autumnal sadness. If, perhaps, the last ounce of poetic reminiscence was missing, we were led with sureness into a work for which John Lill is known as a master, Beethoven’s Appassionata Sonata (opus 57). Composed in the face of the deafness which eventually engulfed him, the near-suicidal crisis which produced his Heiligenstadt Testament is the background to this stormy cry against fate. John Lill brought out its many moods to perfection, from anger through resignation to despair. Although nothing major could follow such a masterwork, Lill gave us an encore of the little Bagatelle opus 126 no.1 which, perhaps, hinted at an emotional resolution of acceptance at the very end of Beethoven’s life. Tribute should be paid to Roy Todd and Myra Armistead, and the hard-working committee and helpers, who make superlative music-making possible in mid-Northumberland.
Martin Gillham