Melvyn Tan opened his Spitalfields Music recital with Variations for Judith, a set of variations on Bach’s Bist Du Bei Mir, each written by a different composer for Judith Serota, the Spitalfields festivals’ inspirational executive director from 1988 to 2007. Originally consisting of seven pieces, the set has grown over time to 12, with Tan giving the world premiere, on this occasion, of Rolf Hind’s new variation – a sombre, intense meditation on mortality, placed at the work’s centre.
Despite the variety of styles – which range from Thea Musgrave’s linear elegance to Anthony Payne’s hard-edged assertiveness, via Stephen Johns’s baroque grandeur and Judith Weir’s glittering wit – the sequence has a wonderful cogency. It admirably suits Tan, whose playing combines intelligence, refinement and understated dexterity.
Tan turned 60 last month and Jonathan Dove wrote Catching Fire for him as a birthday present. Swaying, bell-like chords alternate with a series of flurrying toccatas that flicker, blaze and eventually subside: it’s an attractive and demanding if fractionally overlong piece that provides Tan with ample opportunities to display his colouristic range and dynamic control. He closed with some exemplary Liszt – the Three Concert Études from the 1840s – meeting their technical challenges with restrained virtuosity, and wonderfully alert to nuances of emotion and meaning. He played Il Lamento and La Leggierezza without a break, as an essay in the contrast between grand passion and skittish grace. Un Sospiro was exquisite in its elegance, sensitivity and lyrical warmth. Very fine.
