(Christopher Duigan)
A difficult, challenging programme delivered with great
verve and authority. (Review by Michael Green)
Christopher Duigan of Pietermaritzburg is a true
professional of the piano. He is an accomplished and indefatigable performer
with a wide-ranging repertory in solo recitals, chamber music and orchestral
concerts.
He plays in about 70 concerts every year, and it was entirely
in character that he should step into the gap when a Friends of Music concert
due to be held at the Durban Jewish Centre was cancelled by two musicians who
are based in the United States.
In their place Duigan presented an all-Chopin recital,
familiar music of rare quality, and he was rewarded with an enthusiastic
response from a big audience.
Frederic Chopin is of course a supreme artist of the
keyboard, and Duigan gave an impressive display of the poetry and romance, power
and passion, of this music. Four Nocturnes, two Waltzes and three Etudes
represented the shorter Chopin pieces that have been much loved by listeners
and (advanced) students over the past 200 years, and there was an ample
selection from the big virtuoso works – two Ballades, the Fantasie-Impromptu and a Scherzo.
Duigan has an outstanding keyboard technique, and he
delivered this difficult, challenging programme with great verve and authority,
sometimes with a speed and agility that drew cries of Bravo from his audience.
He introduced sections of the programme with brief comments
from the stage. As a general rule I find this style of presentation a trifle
tedious, but Christopher Duigan was an exception. His remarks were to the
point, informative, informal and humorous.
The prelude performer of the evening, supported by the
National Lotteries Commission, was Tazlo Jacobs, an 18-year-old pianist from
Eden College, Durban. He played Debussy’s Clair
de Lune and some jazz pieces. - Michael Green
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