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Compelling Performance
MIKE WHEELER listens to Robert Schumann, Schubert and Chopin, played by Turkish pianist Can Çakmur
Turkish pianist Can Çakmur launched the Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham's new Sunday morning piano recital season – Nottingham, UK, 13 October 2024 – with Robert Schumann's Papillons, Op 2, a dance-fantasy with characteristically Schumannesque literary connections, laying down the pianistic masked-ball concept that he went on to develop in his later Carnaval. Each of the short episodes was vivdly characterised, from the frisky to the sturdy to the whimsical. The arrival of the 'Grossvatertanz' (Grandfathers' Dance), to signal that the ball is coming to an end, did not feel at all heavy-handed, and led to an impeccably controlled fade-out.
Can Çakmur. Photo © Muhsin Akgün
The first of Schubert's two sets of Impromptus, D 899, begins with an extended sombre piece in C minor. Çakmur adroitly navigated both its structural and expressive complexity, from inward-looking to dark and stormy, while, at the same time, registering the fact that Schubert the songwriter was never far away. No 2 whirred like a spinning-song, with the more boisterous moments also given their head. The opening of No 3, the most song-like of the four, was fragile, treated as more introspective than flowing, and with its own share of darker moments – a compelling performance in its understated way. The last of the set could easily be one of Schubert's water-pictures. Again, Çakmur emphasised the music's introspective side, and tended to take a somewhat black-and-white approach to its dynamic variety. He also linked the four pieces with short (improvised?) passages of his own, which didn't really add much.
In Chopin's Ballade No 4 in F minor, Op 52 - a change to the previously advertised programme - the opening would have benefitted from a little more expressive warmth. And though Çakmur's delicate finger-work retained its freshness, by now, his withdrawal into very soft playing seemed in danger of becoming a mannerism, resulting in a rather black and white dynamic range. The energy of the stormy concluding torrent, though, was keenly focussed.
Can Çakmur
Çakmur's encore, Chopin's Waltz in E flat, Op 18, was exuberantly handled, but felt somewhat rushed off its feet.
But though the interpretative aspects of his performance were sometimes questionable, technically, his playing was beyond criticism.
Copyright © 17 October 2024
Mike Wheeler,
Derby UK
