The 2024 London Piano Festival opened with fanfare at King’s Place, London, as renowned pianists, Charles Owen, Katya Apekisheva and Lara Melda, performed Mozart’s Piano Concertos with the Carducci String Quartet*

Apekisheva brought her intense concentration and intelligence to Mozart’s exquisite Concerto in A, K414, the Andante movement being particularly delicious! Charles Owen’s beaming countenance and sheer physical energy, communicated all the playfulness and joy of Mozart and his Concerto in C K415. Owen’s entente with the ensemble and audience, brought an infectious warmth to the auditorium and his seamless execution of the fast passages were a delight.

I had never heard Lara Melda, play, though she has won many music awards over her young years. Her Concerto in E flat, K.449 impressed.

The musical conversations and games which took place between the pianists and string players were all the more discernible as pianist and string players had no other instruments, such as woodwind, to drown them out. The piano – quintet combination was beautifully balanced.

Day 2 of the Piano Festival, Charles Owen and Katya Apekisheva, celebrated music from the fin de siècle Parisian Salon. Gabriel Fauré’s beautiful nocturnes were played and the programme also included French female composers, Cecile Chaminade and Mel Bonis, who were contemporaries of Fauré.

To recreate the Parisian salon mood, Charles Owen sat down to listen to his colleague Apekisheva play and vice versa. They also performed a duet – Fauré’s Dolly Suite!

Apekisheva’s introduction of woman composer, Mel Bonis, was of particular interest. Bonis was from a French middle-class background. She fought to study music at the Paris Conservatoire, where she received lessons from César Franck. Of a romantic disposition, she fell in love with fellow student, Amédée Hettich, who was a poet and singer. Bonis’s parents put a stop to the relationship and made Bonis marry a much older businessman. She had children with him but Bonis didn’t forget Amédée. They met up again and she fell pregnant by him and amazingly she was able to hide the pregnancy from her husband. Bonis’s daughter was raised by a maid. The most extraordinary part of the story is that it was only when Bonis’s son from her marriage, fell in love with her daughter years later, that Bonis was forced to come clean with her affair!

Apekisheva played Bonis’s Omphale, and what a work it was. The words ‘intense’, ‘exciting’ and ‘dramatic’ come to mind and the cascading waterfall effects pointed to a lot of turbulence and passion! A big thank you to Apekisheva for introducing us to this talented composer!

KH

On this occasion, the Carducci String Quartet played with double-bass player, Stacey Watton.