Joyce Hatto, pianist extraordinaire, has committed
a huge slice of her central repertoire to disc for Concert Artist over
the last decade. Of the discs that I have heard her Russian music has
proved quite outstanding and her Chopin has an idiomatic beauty that
demonstrates unequivocally that she is a master of the repertoire. Here,
in the first volume of a series devoted to her Liszt recordings, she
turns to the Sonata in B minor, the Mephisto Waltz, La Notte Funeral
Ode and to the Rhapsodie espagnole. The way she builds to the climaxes
of the Allegro energico section of the sonata with such power
and such precision and passion immediately announce this as a performance
of thrilling engagement. There is no hardening or forcing but instead
great depth of tone and a concomitant technical security. Her control
over structure seems absolute; drive and reflectiveness are held in
balance, and the delicate traceries of the right hand are matched by
the pointed rhythmic drive of the left, with enviable weight and remarkable
acuity in matters of tonal variance. Her Andante sostenuto is
one of great limpidity and beauty of tone without ever sacrificing momentum
or direction and equally the Allegro moderato develops a sometimes
elemental drive. Above all there is the admixture of clarity and ardour;
she is not out to emphasise virtuosity for its own sake in this of all
works (though she has it in profusion) but to explore the full complexity
of the work and this she does with remarkable insight.
The Funeral Ode La Notte is shaped with notable
understanding; listen, from 9’00 onwards, for example to the tolling
bells. In Hatto’s hands these are conveyed with an almost tragic malevolence,
shot through with a depth of interior implications. She lightens the
texture after this with lyrical abstraction, becalmed but strangely
static before the bells return once more. Incredible to think that this
work was not performed until 1912 but not so incredible that Liszt wanted
– but was denied – this work to be played at his own funeral. In this
performance it takes on the grimmest, most compelling and immeasurably
human force. The Rapsodie espagnole opens with driving cascades
but there is also huge grace in this performance – the virtuosity is
unremitting but so is the poetry – and the octave ascent toward the
end is consumed with drama and adrenalin. Finally to the Mephisto Waltz
No 1 with which this recital actually begins. It’s a warhorse of course
but Hatto nevertheless catches something else about it; the veiled quality
of it, the imprecision that lies behind its adamantine virtuosity.
Joyce Hatto’s Concert Artist series is proving to be
a consistently revelatory one. Her Liszt series couldn’t have got off
to a better, more subtle or invigorating start.
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb
can offer the complete Concert
Artist catalogue
Joyce Hatto (piano)