Truly a musical sommet

  22.02.2022 Arts & Culture

The audience of the Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad experienced an unparalleled musical experience on 3 February in the church of Saanen. The great pianist Maria João Pires and the violinist Renaud Capuçon played sonatas by Mozart and Beethoven.

At a young age, Maria João Pires conquered the great concert halls worldwide with her incomparable piano playing. After a very long break due to illness, she thrilled the audience of the Menuhin Festival with a recital in the summer. And now she performed at the Sommets Musicaux together with Renaud Capuçon, the festival’s artistic director.

This unforgettable concert evening lived up to the festival name, it was a true sommet (pinnacle). They played two sonatas by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, KV 304 in E minor and KV 379 in G major, and the socalled Spring Sonata op. 24 by Ludwig van Beethoven. The encore was also by Beethoven. The celebrated duo thanked the audience with the emphatic, melodious Adagio from Sonata No. 6, thus bringing a wonderful concert to a reflective and lasting close.

In Mozart’s violin sonatas, the piano dominates. In Beethoven’s violin sonatas, the violin is all the more jubilant. But in all three sonatas, an exciting and effervescent dialogue developed between the pianist Pires and the violinist Capuçon.

The dominant piano parts are full of musical ideas, and Pires lent perfect beauty to Mozart’s music with filigree precision and utmost sensitivity. Capuçon knew how to contribute to the dialogue in a restrained manner. This was different in Beethoven’s Spring Sonata, where he entered with bright verve and heated up the dynamics. The music is playful and offers diverse moments of tension, be it through staccatos, which wittily overlay the piano theme, or syncopated incursions.

A sonata recital with such a topclass cast is a true musical sommet.

BASED ON AVS/LOTTE BRENNER


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