Biography

The career of British pianist Christian Blackshaw is a most unusual one. Following studies at the Royal Northern College of Music, the Royal Academy of Music, the St. Petersburg Conservatory, and private work with his pianistic hero, the legendary Clifford Curzon, Blackshaw embarked on the concert circuit only to abruptly stop in 1990, partly due to the death of his wife from cancer, but also because of a reluctance to continue per-forming at any level short of the Platonic ideal he had set himself. Blackshaw made a remarkable comeback just a few years ago, performing Mozart’s sonatas in London’s Wigmore Hall to tremendous critical acclaim. A supreme control of dynamics, great emotional depth, and a ‘singing soul’ marked these performances. His recordings of this repertory have been described as ‘captivating’, ‘magical’, and ‘masterful.’ The Guardian remarked that, on the basis of the first two volumes, ‘if Blackshaw retired tomorrow, he’d never be forgotten’. Return engagement.

Notes

Christian Blackshaw’s recital opens with three short, highly contrasting works by Mozart, each unique and fascinating. The Fantasia derives from the Baroque practice of on-the-spot improvisation (an art pretty much confined to jazz musicians today). Essentially this genre was an opportunity for a composer / performer to let his ‘fancy’ prevail over formal considerations. The Rondo K. 485 is a totally misnamed title as this is no rondo at all, but rather a sonata-form movement built on a single theme. The Adagio is one of Mozart's most mature and profound compositions, written in a key used on only the rarest of occasions in Mozart's time. 

Schumann’s Humoreske takes its title not from the English cognate meaning ‘humorous’ or ‘amusing’, but rather partly from the ancient Greek sense of the temperaments and partly from the German understanding of the word that includes a good dose of wit. Nevertheless, despite its moments of exuberance and brilliance, the music seems infused with a deep vein of melancholy.

Olympian in scope, expansive yet coherently organized in its concern for proportion and balance, saturated with gorgeous lyricism, and often discussed in terms of hushed reverence by its admirers, Schubert’s last piano sonata, composed just months before his death in 1828, stands as a land-mark in the history of musical achievements. It might well be regarded as the ‘sonata of heavenly length’, just as Schumann had dubbed Schubert’s final symphony (the Great C-major), also composed in 1828, the ‘symphony of heavenly length’. The sonata was published in 1838 (the year of Schumann’s Humoreske) by Haslinger, who dedicated it to Schumann.

https://www.christianblackshaw.com/

Robert Markow