This week’s Music at Lunchtime recital was a feast of terrific piano playing, courtesy of gifted Form 5 pianists Jan & Obi. After a year of these fellow housemates spurring each other on in the pursuit of pianistic perfection, the recital offered a wonderful opportunity for us to enjoy their impressive music-making.
As both boys live in the same boarding house bubble, it was a rare treat to hear their scintillating duet playing to open and close the programme. They communicated the contrasting moods of Beethoven’s Sonata in D major for piano four hands with great skill, inhabiting the dancing rhythms and powerful episodes in the first movement, just as much as the lyrical writing of the second movement Rondo. Their concluding duet was an exuberant performance of Piazzolla’s Libertango in which they fearlessly navigated the technical challenges of a duet arrangement by the Buniatishvili sisters.
Both boys also performed solo works at the heart of their recital programme. Jan’s digital dexterity and musical command of the Classical idiom shone through in his playing of a Mozart Allegro from the Sonata in D major, whilst Obi’s performance of two contrasting Scriabin Preludes demonstrated his control of the keyboard and musical sensitivity.
Congratulations to both boys for an excellent and enjoyable recital!
