A bit of a departure from my norm, this one. I bought my girlfriend and I tickets for Christmas, as Mitsuko Uchida is her favourite pianist, Schubert is her favourite composer, and his Sonata in B flat is her favourite piece. I'm yet to find any classical music that does anything to me except irritate though, so I was mostly hoping to enjoy the evening vicariously.
As it turned out, I didn't have to. Firstly, I'd never seen anyone at the Royal Festival Hall before except Squarepusher - that was pretty fantastic, but it was in the foyer area, so this was my first experience of the Hall itself. And what a mighty hall it is: enormous, decadent, and with no fewer than three excellent vibes: retro (chairs), retro-futuristic (lighting), and Soviet (box architecture).
Mitsuko herself was no less impressive. She emerged from backstage wearing silk trousers and a diaphanous blouse looking every bit the elegant Dame (as she was titled last year), and that majestic comportment carried over into her playing. That is, until some particularly challenging passage came up, at which point she transformed into a fiery sorceress, improbably conjuring immense slabs of noise with her slight frame when mere moments before there had been the most delicate, deft and intricate sounds. Then she was like a woman possessed, and the silk trousers and diaphanous blouse looked more like the pyjamas and straight jacket of an escapee on some late-night jaunt. Dame Uchida has an astonishing charisma while seated behind her chosen instrument, and to witness her play is to feel that you are in the presence of some wild genius. Simply sublime.
That said, I didn't enjoy the music itself all that much. Each sonata had moments that grabbed me, when heavier elements came immediately after lighter ones or the two were intermingled, but I think the only hope that I can now have that any classical music will ever move me rests with composers like Wagner and Mahler, whose works have that added bombast and are more akin to the music I normally listen to. As a spectacle the event was highly enjoyable, but I won't be attending classical concerts every other week from now on.
Ah well. The missus loved it, I enjoyed it, and tonight I have UFOmammut to look forward to. Bring on the psych sludge!
On the way home I listened to: my girlfriend's excited chatter.
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