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J. S. Bach, Mozart, Armstrong, Debussy, Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Kit Armstrong (piano), C. Bechstein Centrum Hamburg, 20.2.2009 (TKT)

Bach: Three-Part Inventions
Mozart: Sonata in D Major (KV 576)
Armstrong: Message in a Cabbage
Debussy: Image, Set II
Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Variations sérieuses (op. 54)


Bach wrote his 30 two and three-part inventions for the musical education of his eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann. They treat various technical and musical difficulties and are each written in a different key: both sets contain the 15 most common keys of the time. Like the “studies” (Etudes) of later composers, such as Chopin, these short pieces have more than a purely pedagogical purpose; they are not mind-numbing finger exercises but musical compositions in their own right. Unlike Chopin’s studies, however, they are not among the composer’s more effective works, and consequently they have never become truly popular outside the circle of piano teachers and students.

For one thing, particularly the sinfonias – the three-part inventions – are much more difficult to play than they sound. No pianist in his or her right mind would choose them to impress an audience. So Armstrong’s choice of presenting the whole collection of sinfonias already indicated that his intention was not to show off: the focus was to be on the music. In this respect Bach’s inventions are masterful pedagogical aids not just for pianists but for audiences as well: much of their esthetic pleasure is derived from listening for the intricacies of polyphony, the art of music consisting of several independent yet related melodies of which J. S. Bach was the undisputed master.

Armstrong was not only able to bring out the pieces’ themes, their inversions and the way they relate to one another, he also evoked the multitude of moods they contain. He established dramatic arcs and played certain passages with a singing tone – so skillfully that it was as if the piano were able to produce single notes with a crescendo and decrescendo.

Our ears sharpened, Armstrong led us through three centuries of music. After the early 18th century came the late 18th century: Mozart’s late D major sonata. It can be played weightlessly, but Armstrong gave it the gravity which this work – one of Mozart’s most mature compositions for piano solo – in fact does possess. This was followed by an excursion into the early 21st century: an intricate four-part composition by Armstrong himself which intelligently plays with different themes and evokes moods ranging from uncanny to dreamlike and haunting to ethereal, and which contains narrative as well as impressionistic elements. Then the journey went back in time again: first to the early 20th century with Debussy’s wonderful second set of Images, where Armstrong again demonstrated his keen sense of drama. The final piece took us to the 19th century with Mendelssohn’s arguably most powerful work for piano, an extremely moving, complex and difficult piece which Armstrong rendered with brilliant effortlessness.

As tempting as it is to review this concert merely in terms of the music, it is unfortunately still impossible to skip some biographical details. An award-winning composer, Armstrong wrote his first work a little over 11 years ago, before he learned to play the piano. At the time he was five years of age. A gifted mathematician, he began to attend university two years later. Today Kit Armstrong is 16 years old. There is something unsettling about encountering such consummate artistry in an adolescent – and when we think of the future, it is even scary. In a society where the apparent need for superstars has taken on dimensions that are as desperate as they are ludicrous, we know that glitz and glamour can destroy talent. Evgeny Kissin has demonstrated that it is possible to survive this madness. Let us hope that Armstrong’s genius also prevails, for his sake as well as ours.

Armstrong’s next concert dates in the UK are: 12.3.209 in Oxford (Schumann’s a minor concerto) and 2.4.2009 in Dewsbury.

Thomas K Thornton

Geocities has more on Kit Armstrong HERE

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