Michael Houstoun's much-deserved mana is very much bound up with this music. Photo / Robert Catto
Two lockdowns have scuttled so many planned tributes during Beethoven's 250th anniversary year, but Michael Houstoun has achieved the extraordinary — a Beethoven Birthday Concert on the actual day itself.
Throughout, one felt an air of collaboration across centuries, as the pianist's much-deserved mana is very much bound up with
this music. Not only has he twice recorded the composer's complete sonatas but, in 1994, he made history by touring these works nationally.
Tonight, we were thrust, without warning, into a storm-tossed Opus 10 No 3, a few moments of nervousness adding the drama of vulnerability. Volatile humour would break through later but the high point was its soul-searching Largo, in which the weight of every note, chord and silence was rendered with absolute authority.
In his pithy, whimsical programme notes, Houstoun described the Opus 119 Bagatelles as snapshots from Beethoven's vast repertoire of subtle moods — vividly brought to life by this mercurial musician.
