Five Etudes - Gyorgy Ligeti
90+ - Elliot Carter
Evryali - Iannis Xenakis
Authority and intelligence were hallmarks of Rolf Hind's piano recital at the Bank of Ireland Arts Centre at lunchtime last Thursday. A large audience heard him play music by three of the most important living composers as part of the bank's "Mostly Modern" series.
Hind is no stranger to Irish audiences. His success in communicating each component of this contrasted programme rested less on dazzling virtuosity than on his extraordinarily wide range of dynamic, tonal and rhythmic control.
The recital opened with five of Ligeti's 18 Etudes. Hind's independently-thought-out approach was typified in "En suspens", which is usually played in a long-spun, even way, but on this occasion was pregnant with events without doing violence to those essential qualities. The urgent drive needed for "L'escalier du diable" was always there, but with a rare sense of timing.
In Carter's 90+, just six minutes long, compositional tautness and expressive purpose seemed inseparable. Xenakis's Evryali combined astonishing energy with expansiveness - appropriate for a piece whose title means "broad sea".
This was among the best recitals presented by "Mostly Modern" in recent years. The organisers chose a true interpreter of contemporary music who can shed light on musical meaning and, where appropriate, on the extra-musical.