Sydney Mozart Society’s brave programming wins fans

Sydney Mozart Society| Clemens Leske and Daniel Herscovitch

Friday 14 April, The Concourse Chatswood

It was brave of the Sydney Mozart Society to put on a programme of music for four piano hands and their bravery was rewarded in spades.

Clemens Leske and Daniel Herscovitch both teach at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and have performed together several times. Clemens has played with all the Australian symphony orchestras including as soloist in Mozart, Beethoven and Rachmaninoff concertos. Daniel has toured extensively in Europe and USA where he recently performed Bach’s Art of Fugue.

Two pieces by Mozart demonstrated the composer’s versatility melding two into one imperceptibly. His Sonata in C followed formal style apart from a rapid dramatic section in the 2nd movement and his Variations in G were spritely and inventive with striking changes of tempo.

Schubert’s Duo in A minor (a favourite key of his) was originally published under the title “Storms of Life”. Starting with forcibly expressed three note groups, in moves in typical fashion to a major subject before the dramatism reasserts itself. His Sonata in B flat is much shorter than its single piano counterpart and includes an unusual march-like rhythm in its slow movement.

Skipping a century to Debussy, we heard his Petite Suite – four descriptive pieces ideally suited to his impressionist whole-tone scale and all with original rhythmic figures. My favourite is En Bateau – where else could you be but in a boat!

Dvorak’s Slavonic Dances are well-known and we heard two of the most lively ones together with the famous No.2 in E minor – sad, but with a happy jumpy middle section.

Perhaps because they were new to me, the high spot of the evening was three pieces by the Hungarian modern composer Gyorgy Ligeti. Indulo has a very attractive base rhythm and ends very suddenly – perhaps related to the title which means “she’s leaving”! Polyphonic etude is fugue-like and ends with a “thump” while Sonatina is jazzy and has a bright ending. There is no sign of atonality which is not always the case with this composer.

A great concert, fully appreciated by a receptive audience and I hardly need to say played faultlessly and with great empathy by both soloists.