Piano Recital by Xu Peng

This was our first chance to listen to Xu Peng, who started life and his devotion to the piano in Beijing but has studied in the USA before coming to the UK to study at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.

His programme was centred around composers of the late 19^th and early 20^th century. He played for us 8 of the 12 piano études composed in 1915 by Claude Debussy. Debussy described them as “a warning to pianists not to take up the musical profession unless they have remarkable hands”. And as we can attest, Xu has them in spades as he showed us with these highly technical pieces.

Etudes was followed by ‘Automne’, composed as part of her  ‘6 Études de concert Op.35’  by Cécile Chaminade in 1886, in Périgord where she holidayed with her family. Inspired by Saint-Saëns her style was rooted in both the Romantic and French tradition.

Ferruccio Busoni’s ‘Kammer-Fantasie über Bizet’s Carmen’ was written in 1920 after he attended a production of Carmen in Paris, ending his series of sonatinas with this operatic fantasy. Parts of this work were included in his compilation of piano exercises and practice pieces (Klavierübung).

And there we have it. All the pieces were technically demanding, a pleasure to listen to  – and a delight (if you were close enough) to watch those remarkable hands as well.

We’d love to see him again.