Imogen Cooper review – beautifully executed keyboard colour

Wigmore Hall/BBC Radio 3
Cooper’s hauntingly atmospheric encore alleviated the mood of seriousness that she brought to this programme of Schubert and Beethoven

The Wigmore Hall’s lockdown concerts are so life-enhancing that one straps on one’s tin helmet before offering even a mite of criticism in connection with musical events that richly deserve to live long in the memory. Nevertheless, helmet on and here goes.

It was not until Imogen Cooper’s tantalisingly brief encore in this third piano recital in the series that a single note of 20th-century solo piano music has been heard at all this June. To rub salt in the wound of what might have been, Cooper’s playing of Dobrou Noc! (Good Night!) from Janáček’s cycle On an Overgrown Path, at the end of a recital of Schubert and Beethoven, was so hauntingly atmospheric in its sense of loss that it was a cruel reminder that this was the path not taken.

Available to listen on BBC Sounds and watch via Wigmore Hall Live Stream. The Wigmore Hall lunchtime series continues until 26 June.

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