Sunday 26 March 2017
Hannah Watson – Piano
Hannah Watson started at the Royal College of Music Junior Department, then studied Modern Languages at Cambridge before pursuing music full time. She performs solo, chamber and song recitals at St Martin in the Fields, the Barbican, Cardiff's St David's Hall and the Royal Festival Hall and is completing an Artist Diploma at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Review by Terry Keeler
Sunday 26 March 2017
HANNAH WATSON – Piano
Cromer Music Evenings invited Hannah Watson to give a solo recital, as previously she has performed at Templewood twice as an accompanist.
Mozart's Sonata in F major K332 being the first item to open the concert, was to me a performance of sheer mastery, in as much as the Allegro lst movement was a joy to behold. The powerful and delicate execution especially of the ornamentation were performed with an exceptional quality of technical expertise.
The 2nd Adagio movement with its beautiful and serene melodic line, where the Alberti bass accompaniment never dominated the sublime cantabile control – again the embellishments never disturbed the gentle pulse throughout the whole movement.
The 3rd Allegro Assai movement aroused the listener with its scintillating introduction, progressing from the major to the minor, always maintaining the given tempo directions, here I am sure Watson exceeded the speed limit! Breath taking indeed!
Janacek's On an Overgrown Path, Book ll certainly lived up to its title, as the three pieces did not seem to progress to any conclusion, but were very interesting and unpredictable – full of excitement and doleful in content from Scherzo to delicate passages, where Watson's use of the sustaining pedal created atmospheric mystery.
Debussy's L'lsle joyeuse an impressionistic picture of young people visiting by sea a Greek island almost obscure in a mist. Debussy's use of the whole tone scale harmonics proved to create an opportunity to imagine Debussy's musical picture.
The final piece, Chopin's Sonata No 3 in B minor in four movements. Chopin writing of this sonata strayed from sonata form, as he found the writing of such work difficult, but this wonderful lyrical, majestic and beautiful work encapsulated many of Chopin's ideas and style – the performance of the last Presto movement brought a virtuosic interpretation from Hannah Watson, a young artist who is in great demand within the world of music.
Terry Keeler
Tel 01263 513273