Kevin Tamanini in Recital
The French-Luxembourgish pianist Kevin Tamanini plays new and old works.
3 December, 2023, St Stephen’s Uniting Church, Richmond, Melbourne
Usually a review of a piano recital would focus almost exclusively on the pianist and Kevin Tamanini definitely deserves such but I am sure that he would willingly share it with the composers whose music he performed in a concert covering more than 130 years from Liszt to Andrián Pertout.
Pertout is probably Australia’s most performed composer and internationally is revered for the diversity and excellence of his output. The concert was named after his 2013/14 work L’architecture du cosmos a dazzling statement of musical brilliance. He was also represented by his Five little melodies where he explores his material with a mind that blends the intellect and lyricism in equals parts.
Kevin Tamanini played La lugubre gondola by Liszt and brought out all the dark colours of this score to perfection. Johanna Selleck’s Homage to Liszt from 2013 was an inspired choice to follow the ‘gondola’ music and here I heard a different voice from this astonishing composer. Romantic music lives in a new environment with her work and again Selleck proves why she is one of our country’s finest and most creative composers. Elegant at times and then full of notes I look forward to hearing it again, and soon I hope.
And a rarity these days was an early work by Karlheinz Stockhausen his Klavierstück IX written when he was 27 and still marrying a romantic and lyrical vein into his tough athletic and virtuosic music. Tamanini here, as in all the works, was stunning. He is a most nuanced performer who clearly loves expressing the composer’s deepest intent.
Sydney audiences can hear Tamanini on April 5, 2024 in St Stephen’s, Macquarie Street at 1pm and again on April 7, 2024, 5pm at Church Street Studios, Church Street, Camperdown. Look out for more details on this site.
