Lammermuir Festival: Coffee Concert IV: Iyad Sughayer
Holy Trinity Church, Haddington - 12/09/23
Young Jordanian-Palestinian pianist Iyad Sughayer brought a programme of Mozart and Khachaturian to the Coffee Concert in the Holy Trinity Church in Haddington on the morning of 12th September. He has won plaudits for his recordings of Khachaturian’s music, represented on the programme by the youthful ‘Two Pieces’ of 1926 and Doluknanian’s transcription of the suite from the ballet ‘Masquerade’. Two Mozart Sonatas, the limpid A-major K331 and the richly-scored B-flat K570, were played second and last in the programme.
Looking first at the Khachaturian pieces, the ‘Waltz-Caprice’ and ‘Dance’ show, awareness of such disparate influences as Ravel and Scriabin, but also the emergence of an individual compositional voice, the first piece rhythmic and powerful, the second similar but with syncopations and an Armenian/Georgian folk influence. Both received virtuosic, characterful playing with the fullest advocacy. Quite simply, Iyad owns this music. Quite superb.
The ’Masquerade Suite’ was no different, except that the transcription is, to my personal taste at least, a little too ‘complete’ in places, leading to a very dense sonic texture for the famous Waltz, beloved by near-Eastern orchestras as an encore, which opens the suite, subtracting somewhat from its delicious sardonic wit. It was still pretty excellent. This issue did not affect the dreamy, rhapsodic Nocturne or the whimsical, whirling Mazurka, played characterfully as ‘light music with depth’. The Romance, a beautiful typical Khachaturian melody, becoming quite passionate before a calm close, was richly expressive and had me in awe of the tone of the Bösendorfer grand – what a beautiful instrument! The final Galop, a romp with deliberate ‘wrong notes’ (Iyad had introduced the piece with a caveat: “I did practice it, honestly”) was a hoot. Thoroughly enjoyable.
In a review of a solo piano programme in this year’s East Neuk Festival, comprising 20th century works with Mozart pieces, I left consideration of the Mozart till last, because there were ‘issues’. The reader may be wondering if that is about to recur. Quite the reverse. In a word, Iyad’s Mozart is spellbinding.
Why is the A-major so popular? Quite simply because it is gorgeous. It sounds simple but is actually quite challenging. Yet if performed as a showpiece, it sounds dreadful. The first movement, an innocent theme with variations, is so much more. One variation, in the minor key, I refer to as the “I can’t believe it’s not Schubert” variation, but actually the epithet applies equally to the whole work. The middle movement, a minuet and trio, repays care with phrasing and a subtle hesitant use of tenuto. Iyad got this to a tee. The concluding Rondo alla Turca was characterful but not overdone. After the conclusion and in his genial words of welcome and introduction to the rest of the programme, he expressed relief that it was over and he had got through it without incident. Seriously? It was superb.
The B-flat is an altogether different beast, more overtly complex in construction, but the same sensibilities and interpretative skills were brought to bear with equal effectiveness. Phrasing made sense of the structure; flawless articulation let it speak naturally and compellingly. I am not normally a fan of fast tempi (the Adagio was almost Andante; the Allegretto was virtually Allegro) but when the execution is so perfectly clear and the interpretation so convincing, I’m happy to waive a point. Frankly, I have a new Mozart hero.
There was a charming, short and sweet encore: the Andantino from Khachaturian’s ‘Children’s Suite’, rounding off a morning of fine pianism.
Cover photo: James Cardell Oliver