Michael Houstoun's latest touring recital, titled Inspired by Bach, offered music, both local and international, taking its lead from the Baroque master. Bach's B flat major Partita was the starting point, opening a fascinating musical showcase, presented with the pianist's customary blend of grace, elegance and intellectual rigour.
Faster dances kept their sparkle through to the final Gigue; the subtle tempo melt at the Prelude's cadence points was irresistible, as was the almost iridescent ornamentation in a poised Sarabande.
Ross Harris playfully describes his specially commissioned Fugue (for Piano) as a somewhat impressionistic soundscape with three fugue subjects smuggled into it.
These three themes are announced within the first minute, providing a linear framework for the evocative textures around them. One was sorely tempted to hear birdcalls in the brilliant pianism, but sharp ears would also have picked a true Bachian spirit in the crisp articulation of contrapuntal argument. An early Houstoun recording of Lilburn's Chaconne was praised by its composer for catching the mighty work's structure, spatial beauties, clarity and changing moods.
And so it was here, especially with a few minutes shaved off the pianist's award-winning 2007 recording. Those massive chords (seen by Lilburn as banks of ferns and moss) were sheathed in gleaming passagework worthy of Ravel, while the formal Baroque-inspired logic was unflinchingly laid out.
