KEY POINTS:
Beethoven's late sonatas are the ultimate challenge for any pianist. Michael Houstoun, in tackling the final three, gave a large, appreciative audience rare insight into some of the most visionary music ever written.
The late Claudio Arrau drew on words like "erupting" and "busting" to describe the unpredictable terrain of the Opus 109 Sonata. From the mercurial mood-swings of the first page, Houstoun shaped the music as if he were sculpting in sound.
If his Prestissimo was driven by a possessed fury, then the variations of the great Andante were a series of revelations; the fourth buoyed on evanescent waves and the fugal fifth was playfully stern.
The lyricism of Opus 110's first movement was beautifully gauged, followed by an Allegro molto that caught the breath with its bold dynamics. The Adagio, one of Beethoven's most fragmented utterances, had us hanging on every note.
Its Arioso dolente sang the saddest of songs and, when the melody returned, Houstoun stressed more than ever its pungent dissonances.
Similarly, when the fugal Allegro reappeared later in the Sonata, Houstoun used pedal and the gentlest of touches to give it a dream-like quality.
The final Sonata, Opus 111, opened with a thunderbolt; yet, within seconds, we were hushed in marvel by a finely gradated fall of chromatic chords.
Many listeners could well have been swept away by the sheer heft of the Allegro con brio; yet, here too, Houstoun used telling moments of rubato, with fugal playing of the utmost clarity. What is more, with this section being repeated, our pleasure was twofold.
The final Arietta is far from the innocuous little song that its title might suggest, and Houstoun had the measure of its dozen pages.
Its theme was stated with the utmost simplicity and the boogie-woogie that Stravinsky described was a full-on rumble.
A page later, when Beethoven lets air and space into his score, Houstoun created an uncanny premonition of John Adams' shimmering piano scores, capitulating in ecstatic trills.
A momentous concert and, if you missed it, Radio New Zealand Concert will schedule its recording later this year.
