La Fauvette Passerinette – the subalpine warbler – has acquired a new profile since scholar and pianist Peter Hill’s discovery, two years ago, of a Messiaen work for solo piano dating from 1961.
In the composer’s mind it was effectively finished, but only thanks to Hill’s painstaking research is it complete. His recording has already been admired, with publication of the score following soon. His virtuosic and beautifully poised performance of the 12-minute work opened this recital, part of the current City of Light series.
The initial duet of two passerines constituting the first of the seven sections has an innocently lyrical charm, with the songs of other birds – including, appropriately, the Orphean warbler – then gradually woven into a more fiendish texture: the final moto perpetuo toccata-like section creates a brilliant, headlong drive before ending with a witty chirrup. Well might Hill smile.
This relative miniature was complemented by the massive, seven-sectioned cycle for two pianos, Visions de l’Amen. Hill and Benjamin Frith played this with a balance of serenity and a vast, celebratory resonance. Each player was acutely attuned to the sonorities realised by the other, moving on a slow trajectory towards the culminating final Amen de la Consommation. As the last sound died away, Hill’s head was bowed long and low over the keyboard. The audience was similarly transfixed.
A section of fierce, Stravinsky-like repeated chords in La Fauvette provided the link to the version of The Rite of Spring for four hands at the piano. Rarely can this have been performed with such a raw and visceral quality, or clarity of colour and registration. Hill’s authority and Frith’s power made it unforgettable.
