Surprise Recital at Friends’ Celebration
VICTORIA KINGHAM
Fairlight Hall recently hosted a party to acknowledge the support of friends and patrons of Hastings International Piano Competition. The competition, launched just thirty years ago, has evolved into one of the premier British music competitions and is internationally acclaimed. This year it has just announced the exciting news that composer, writer, painter and internationally-renowned concert pianist Sir Stephen Hough has agreed to be its patron.
During the evening, there was an unexpected recital given by the American Kenny Broberg, who won the competition in 2017; he is now, rightly, highly-regarded as a concert pianist across the USA and internationally. The stage was shared by violinist Sara Dragan, who at 23 years old has already won a violin Grand Prix, numerous awards and competitions, recorded her first CD, and played thousands of concerts.
Not only was I stunned by their astonishing techniques and highly sensitive performances, but was also educated by their choice of composers. Dragan introduced two sonatas by Leopold Godowsky, a Lithuanian-born American virtuoso composer, pianist, and teacher. Beautiful, lyrical, profound, these sonatas are complex works only attempted by highly-accomplished musicians. Godowsky’s lyrical searching phrases, with multiple changes in time signature and key, are a joy to listen to. His work is probably less well-known in this country than it should be, and the same applies to Nikolai Medtner, lifelong friend of Rachmaninoff.
Broberg played solo piano on two of his Skazki (Fairy-tales) where the right and left hand chase one another (as do the elves in the fairy-tale) and the melodic lines weave in and out in an evocative, whimsical and staccato way, with endless darting changes of tempo. I’ve been listening to them again and again since, on my favourite streaming service, but to hear them played live, so brilliantly, was a rare privilege, especially in this unique setting.
Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition no 17 takes place in 2024 between 22 February and 2 March. Further details: hastingsinternationalpiano.org/concerto-competition.
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