Many piano recitals follow a familiar formula: start things chronologically; combine a couple of well-known composers with a couple of lesser-known authors (and, usually, for the lesser-knowns, choose the most recognisable songs, whereas for the more famous, find a deep cut); then, go local: throw in someone from your home country, or, better yet, a local composer, and you are ready to play. It's a winning solution that is often replicated, and for good reason, too: why change what works?
Ms. Hanna Csermely's piano recital today went a bit further from the abovementioned formula, proving again than the whole is more than the sum of its parts. There's nothing wrong with making a playlist that showcases known pieces and plays to your strengths, but when there is a narrative thread that goes in an arch, from the first piece to the last, forming a cohesive narrative to the presentation, you can be sure «there is more in that [artist] than you perhaps think for», as Melville might say.
Ms. Csermely's presentation today elaborated on the allegro moderato, insisted on the dramatic, and tended always to expressionism. From Bach's Prelude & Fugue in F sharp minor to Rachmaninoff's pensive and soft Prelude in D major Op.23 N.º 4, with a particularly beautiful execution of Enrique Granado's Allegro de concerto, there was in this cohesive list an insistence to showcase a lyrical, expressive mood that persisted through dances by Bela Bartók and John McLeod– which were dances that only characters in a Tim Burton film would ever dance to.
All in all, with such a cerebral structure, the audience was gripped for a good fifty minutes, until the concert ended for the audience of about twenty. It's a shame this events don't have the same attendance than the mid-week concerts at Christ Church do. Is it perhaps that the cold (albeit marvellous) walls of Holy Trinity Church are less inviting? It's a shame, because this event, just like Ian Wells' organ recital, was well worth the time, as there is something to the acoustics of this church that gives concerts here a very intimate quality.
Review written on the 15th of march, 2024