International Piano Series
Queen Elizabeth Hall, London

The Pianist
Dec. 02/Jan. 03
Gareth Hunt

Blackshaw’s Tribute to Curzon: Recital to commemorate Sir Clifford Curzon’s 20th Anniversary.

The first recital in the winter phase of the South Bank’s International Piano Series proved to be something of a revelation. Christian Blackshaw, a player highly regarded by his fellow musicians, is not necessarily familiar to the piano recital-going public. However, on the strength of the sheer musicality and humanity displayed on this evening, one hopes that he will be heard more.

Blackshaw knew Curzon personally, and in a tribute included in the programme, spoke of the deep impression Curzon’s recordings had made on him as a boy and how he had a close artistic exchange with the great man in his last years.

Curzon had a strong association with Mozart’s great C minor Sonata K457 and I’ve rarely heard that greatness so audibly conveyed as in Blackshaw’s compelling account. Some may have found the opening a little too driven and rhythmically wayward, but the central Adagio had a Schubertian breadth that revealed how this pianist phrases in the most natural way. In fact, as the recital progressed, I became less aware of his pianistic presence: his is clearly an ego put entirely at the service of the composer. Again in Schumann’s Fantaisie op 17 the most passionate playing glowed from within.

Quite possibly the best was saved for last. Schubert’s great B flat Sonata D960 is one of the pinnacles of the repertoire and a work that Curzon himself returned to time and time again. It has become the calling-card of many a pianist wishing to declare themselves a musicians’ musician, and Blackshaw most certainly belongs to this category. His performance managed to illuminate details which often remain hidden, and throughout the work, I remained convinced of the undeniable musical validity of his conception