Michael Houstoun has been performing to New Zealanders since he was a boy. Already having established a nationwide audience while a student he ‘sealed the deal’ with his first success in international competition, third prize in the 1973 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. Further success followed in the Leeds and Tchaikowsky international competitions and that early audience has remained with him, undiminished, for the past 50-plus years. Of particular note in that time has been his dedication to the music of Beethoven, the piano sonatas, concertos and chamber music, and he has twice toured the complete piano sonatas in seven-concert series. J.S.Bach too has been prominent in his large repertoire with presentations of the 48 Preludes and Fugues drawing attention in recent years.
The programme for The Masterpiece Concert features works by these two immortal composers. Michael opens with the Bach French Overture in B minor, BWV 831, which is in fact a suite of Baroque dances introduced by the overture of the title. It is followed by a Courante, Gavottes, Passepieds, a Sarabande, Bourrées, a Gigue and finally an Echo where Bach asks for loud and soft dynamics. This is very rare in his music and tells us he had a two-manual keyboard, each manual set to a different dynamic.
This masterpiece is followed by the Beethoven Sonata in E, Op.109, the first of his final three sonatas, long recognized as amongst the most profound and significant piano works ever written.
For the second half Michael has chosen music by Maurice Ravel and Bach-Busoni. The Ravel work is Gaspard de la nuit, described by Ravel as ‘three poems for piano’. It is famously difficult and indeed Ravel happily declared that he wrote it to challenge the virtuosi of his day. But it is more than that too as it paints vivid pictures of mythic scenes, at times macabre, at times sensuous, exploiting every resource of the piano.
The concert closes with Ferruccio Busoni’s transcription of the famous Chaconne from Bach’s Partita No.2 for solo violin, BWV1004. This brilliant transcription amplifies Bach’s creation while remaining true to its spirit. As Michael says, “when I play it I feel only that I am playing Bach.”
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