Benjamin Grosvenor Live from Wigmore Hall

[amateur51]

I enjoyed Mark Viner's performances on Bryn's video a lot

My reason for not wanting Ben G to go down the Alkan route too far too soon is that I know that Alkan can become an all-consuming passion for some pianists and it would be a shame for a fine pianist to go down that route early in his career, that's all. I have no doubt that Ben could play it, just that I'd rather hear his Kreisleriana or Carnaval first

I look forward to hearing more from Mark Viner too

[Bryn]

I enjoyed Mark Viner's performances on Bryn's video a lot

My reason for not wanting Ben G to go down the Alkan route too far too soon is that I know that Alkan can become an all-consuming passion for some pianists and it would be a shame for a fine pianist to go down that route early in his career, that's all. I have no doubt that Ben could play it, just that I'd rather hear his Kreisleriana or Carnaval first

I look forward to hearing more from Mark Viner too

I have to thank Jonathan Powell for introducing me to Mark Viner's playing. This was when Mark played in one of the Schott Spring seiries of piano recitals organised by Jonathan. He played a varied programme which included Alkan's Sonatine, plus works by Méreaux, Beethoven and Chopin. Last year he won first prize in the first C. V. Alkan competition in Athens.

[amateur51]

I have to thank Jonathan Powell for introducing me to Mark Viner's playing. This was when Mark played in one of the Schott Spring seiries of piano recitals organised by Jonathan. He played a varied programme which included Alkan's Sonatine, plus works by Méreaux, Beethoven and Chopin. Last year he won first prize in the first C. V. Alkan competition in Athens.

Many thanks, Bryn and congratulations to the prizewinner

He's the same age as Ben Grosvenor - 22!

[edashtav]

I enjoyed Mark Viner's performances on Bryn's video a lot

My reason for not wanting Ben G to go down the Alkan route too far too soon is that I know that Alkan can become an all-consuming passion for some pianists and it would be a shame for a fine pianist to go down that route early in his career, that's all. I have no doubt that Ben could play it, just that I'd rather hear his Kreisleriana or Carnaval first

I look forward to hearing more from Mark Viner too

Ahem, where did I claim that Mark's was "great piano playing"? I do, however, quite expect him to get there before his 40s.

I have to thank Jonathan Powell for introducing me to Mark Viner's playing. This was when Mark played in one of the Schott Spring seiries of piano recitals organised by Jonathan. He played a varied programme which included Alkan's Sonatine, plus works by Méreaux, Beethoven and Chopin. Last year he won first prize in the first C. V. Alkan competition in Athens.

Many thanks, Bryn and congratulations to the prizewinner

He's the same age as Ben Grosvenor - 22!

Full marks, Bryn, for making your trenchant and well-constructed case for Mark Viner's excellent qualities when playing the works of Alkan. Ams has added two important qualifiers: mark is no longer a schoolboy and his fears re a diet of Alkan. I would agree that a diet of Alkapops may have deleterious effects - the musical equivalent of excessive consumption of alcopops. I don't want to damn Alkan with faint praise but it's important for pianists in their 20s to confront the peaks of the piano repertoire and not become the doyen or doyenne of a sect devoted to Alkan, Scriabin or York Bowen.

I let you nurture Mark Viner, Bryn and I'll return to him when he offers an Alkan-free Concert. Meanwhile, this thread is about his Essex contemporary, Ben Grosvenor. Let me share a worry - the structure of this Wigmore recital - it was personal and unusual but did it stray a little too far from the straight and narrow? There was, for instance no sonata and none of the works showed its composer at his most profound and cerebral.

I'm now beginning to listen to its first half, returning to the well-known Schubert Impromptu that I heard live. I find it a lovely, loving performance, beautifully paced and full of marvellous insights by Ben. It is not metronomic but is played with poetic licence. No need for it to be qualified as "promising", this is a fine performance to be bracketted with the best on offer in the 21st century.

[Anna]

Benjamin Grosvenor will be down here in a few months time, it just says "includes Mendelssohn, Schumann, Ravel and Liszt" so I'm assuming it'll be the same programme as the Wigmore? (which I haven't heard, as yet) I think having read ed's above that I'm tempted to go to this.

[Bryn]

Do listen via the iPlayer, Anna, and continue to listen after the end of the recital. The 'fill-up' items from Kopatchinskaja and her dad are not to be missed either.

[Anna]

Do listen via the iPlayer, Anna, and continue to listen after the end of the recital. The 'fill-up' items from Kopatchinskaja and her dad are not to be missed either.

But then I may not, having listened, feel the need to shell out to go to the concert just to see it live! (last pianist I saw live was Llyr Williams!)

[Sir Velo]

A bit of a mixed bag for me, this recital, I'm afraid. No denying BG's obvious facility at the keyboard but some of the interpretations are still works in progress. I differ slightly from E-Tav in finding the two Medtner skazki well imagined, with Op.14's Paladin march clearly presaging one of the themes from the epic 2nd piano concerto. The Mendelssohn and the Schubert also went well. However, he has someway to go to getting to the core of the gallic grace and wit at the heart of the Valse Nobles et Sentimentales. In these elusive pieces, he seemed to misjudge tempo relationships, with the slower movements grinding to a halt, while in the faster dances Grosvenor drove on relentlessly, seemingly under the impression that Ravel had written these as galops.

Finally, for once, I have nothing good to say about a piece by Liszt: the operatic transcription of themes from Gounod's Faust. This work really does nothing to defend Liszt from accusations of vulgarity or empty note spinning. Quite what Katie Derham meant when she said that Liszt's transcriptions were frequently more admired than the operas on which they were based is beyond me.