Joseph Tong, Chichester Cathedral, October 22
Joseph Tong delivered a captivating piano performance at Chichester Cathedral, with Schubert, Schumann, and Ravel in the programme. His sensitive touch brought Schubert’s familiar Impromptu to life with subtle modulations, while Schumann’s Arabesque showcased his ability to balance lush melodies with darker undertones. Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit, the highlight of the evening, was especially striking, with Tong’s delicate, precise playing in Ondine and powerful crescendos in Scarbo. Although a thematic connection to the cathedral’s Mars installation remained elusive, the performance transported the audience to other worlds through music.
Mars has arrived in Chichester Cathedral, just missing an alignment with Holst’s Planets a few weeks ago but Luke Jerram’s installation is welcome late rather than never. Try though I might to find connections between it and Joseph Tong‘s programme of piano music, it’s best not to contrive anything too far-fetched.
Schubert’s Impromptu, D. 935, would be familiar to many, its variations on the beguiling innocence of its original theme moving through something jazzier, the tragic, minor key, a prettier mood and a recapitulation. Joseph’s modulations are subtle and nothing is overdone and that continued into Robert Schumann’s Arabesque, op. 18, which was for the most part shadier but still as lush as he often can be.
Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit was the main feature, based on poems by Bertrand. Immediately more pictorial and ‘modern’, Ondine is a water nymph, sparkling with the delicacy of Joseph’s light touch and balletic, often-crossed hands. In contrast, Le gibet means what it sounds like it should, B flat becoming the most heard note of the day as it represents the tolling bell and the swaying cadaver in a sombre, minimalist poem that surely no language could evoke like music does. Equally atmospheric is Scarbo, but in an entirely different way, still sinister but devilish in its mischievous antics. If Joseph had rated somewhere like 3 on my Richter scale of pianistic extravagance, he demonstrated the capacity to raise it to about 8 in some ff or fff before an ending that came surprisingly quietly.
I don’t remember having heard that Ravel before and it was an introduction to be grateful of and, supported by such charm from Schubert and flowing Schumann, we could have been in other worlds although probably not on Mars. You see, I still can’t find a satisfactory connection even to end on.
David Green
