Masterpiece of thwarted love

Piers Lane

Piers Lane is a little mystified when I mention his Saturday night recital is being marketed as "Playing Romantic Favourites".

"I have never heard that before," is the Australian pianist's guarded comment. "The programme is called Obsessions and it's all based around the Schumann Fantasie which is one of the two greatest works from the Romantic literature, the other being the Liszt B minor Sonata."

The whole concert will build up to Schumann's masterpiece. Lane explains how the dotted rhythms from the opening movement of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata appear in Schumann's first movement, the triplets in the last. There are triplets, too, in the Schubert G flat major Impromptu and more dotted rhythms in Liszt's transcription of the Allegretto from Beethoven's Seventh Symphony.

And, finally, Schumann's magnum opus which Lane calls "the greatest love letter ever composed, as it was written at a time when Clara's father wouldn't allow her to see Robert, and an extraordinary amalgamation of intellect and heart".

Lane's visit also coincides with the release of his new Hyperion CD of etudes by Adolf von Henselt (1814-1889), "a historical figure", Lane explains, "whom serious pianists know by name although few know his music".

He lets me in on some of the legends that sprouted up around the composer, such as Henselt's propensity for practising for hours and hours a day while reading the Bible.

"He got terribly nervous and would rush on stage during the concerto performance after the orchestral tutti just in time for his solo. One time he forgot to take his cigar out and had to play the whole work with a cigar hanging from his lips."

I ask whether the Henselt works have been overshadowed by the better-known Chopin and Liszt Etudes.

"You can't always have meat and potatoes," Lane admonishes, with a twinkle in his voice. "You want all sorts of other things as well. Some of Henselt's Etudes are terribly, terribly virtuosic and not always obviously so to the ear. Pianists were amazed by what he could do but the general public didn't always realise it.

"For me, the main thing is the texture of history, finding out the whole background. History didn't lurch from one genius to another. There was a whole lot of other stuff going on and I find it fascinating to feel that fabric of history."

Lane has a busy year ahead of him. He will be recording the original version of the Delius concerto and, working with the Bergen Philharmonic under Andrew Litton, two concertos by two Norwegian composers, Christian (Rustle of Spring) Sinding and Eyvind Alnaes.

Among concerts coming up is a Wigmore Hall date where Auckland's Saturday programme will be perfect for Valentine's Day. Before that he is anticipating a fiery work-out in September when he's giving a recital of Devil-inspired music in Amsterdam which means a line-up of Brahms' Paganini Variations, Ravel's Scarbo and a Liszt Mephisto Waltz.

A lesser-known aspect of Lane's career is his collaborations with contemporary composers. Dave Heath and Colin Matthews have written for him and Lane is "amazed that composers are often so free with what you do with their music. They get inspired by you when you play.

"It is so difficult for composers to communicate what they want," he continues. "This makes you realise how difficult it is looking back at music of the past and the whole issue of authentic performance."

Performance

* Who: Piers Lane
* Where and when: Auckland Town Hall, Saturday, 8pm
* On disc: Piers Lane, Henselt Etudes (Hyperion CDA 67495)