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  MARK BEBBINGTON

Wigmore Hall, London

 Over the years Mark Bebbington has developed into a pianist with a remarkable mastery of texture, judiciously weighting the balance of his flexible hands to draw out and colour every line. This, allied with a wonderful warmth of dynamics, the softest of pianissimi never thin, the power of the beefiest fortissimo never ear-jangling, permits performances which are totally engrossing and always musically rewarding.

A packed and enthusiastic Sunday morning audience at the Wigmore Hall responded to these qualities with a huge ovation at the end of a well-planned hour-long programme. which began with Cesar Franck’s mighty Prelude, Choral et Fugue.

Waiting for the “Bernstein moment” (the precise moment the great maestro said was the only time to launch a performance), Bebbington set forth on a journey focussing our concentration as well as his own, building a sombre atmosphere in which the transitional passages became equally as important as the three main sections, gradually clearing the air until the final bars brought triumphant descending scales and a concluding flourish.

Very different was Poulenc’s Improvisation no.15, “Hommage a Edith Piaf”, its sweet lyricism and melancholy tenderly delivered, and ending with a gripping, fading ending on the sustaining pedal. Introspection was then dispersed by the same composer’s Napoli, its three movements purporting to reflect elements of that vibrant city, and Bebbington playing with both vivacity and a sense of the picturesque (incidentally, the programme-sheet gave 1959 as the work’s date; it was in fact an early effort of 1925).

Finally came a Liszt sequence, beginning with the rare, very late Mephisto-Polka, an experiment in dissonance and economy of texture. It was so good to meet this piece, with its laconic ending, Bebbington turning to the rapt audience with a raised eyebrow.

Les Jeux d’Eaux de la Villa d’Este rippled along with expertly-built crescendo, hands beautifully balanced, and then came the riproaring Paraphrase de Concert sur Rigoletto, Bebbington playing with an affection which raised a smile at these delicious snippets from Verdi, culminating in the rampant virtuosity of the Bella Figlia del Amore quartet, rounded off with Bebbington’s thunderous double octaves.

I was disappointed that he hadn’t included the Liszt transcription of the Liebestod from Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, which had so transfixed the audience when Bebbington gave a recital at the end of November in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon, in aid of the Gwyn Williams Bursary for young viola players, but his encore more than made up for it. Granados’ Andalucia was given with tenderness and immense sensitivity, so much so that I felt Bebbington was playing directly for me.

Christopher Morley


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