Michael Houstoun at Auckland Town Hall

There was the feeling of an old friend returning when Michael Houstoun walked on to the Concert Chamber stage for his first solo recital after too many years away.

From the first magisterial sweep of B minor in Bach's French Overture, it was apparent that Houstoun had lost none of his charisma.

The repeat of the opening slow section was subtly cast in softer tones, making the Gigue-like Allegro doubly forceful.

Houstoun's pianism was a model of how to achieve clarity and a solidity of tone without any sacrifice of tonal beauty, particularly apparent in the poised rubato of the Sarabande.

What made this performance so winning was the fact we were never allowed to forget the dance-like nature of the work, right through to the adroitly echoing Finale.

We were given only four of Schubert's Moments Musicaux but I would gladly have had all six. The best known, in F minor, came first, infinitely finessed, with the flick of a backbeat in the final cadence showing the pianist's impish humour.

In both of the substantial A flat works, one marvelled at Houstoun's generous casting of Schubert's phrases, especially when the composer seemed to be looking forward to the world of the Chopin Nocturne.

The second half of the programme was Debussy's first book of Preludes, in which the pianist's formidable intelligence applied itself to a dozen pieces that meld the diaphanous with the diabolical.

Here and there, the music did not always fire. Debussy's Delphic Dancers seemed a little more stately than some might wish, and at the end of the set the minstrels were a mite rowdy at times.

Nevertheless, Houstoun caught that sense of intimacy the composer requested. Voiles floated in misty pedallings and the mingling of sounds and perfumes in the fourth piece was sonically intoxicating.

Those footsteps in the snow caught in the sixth seemed more bluesy than ever, while blistering passions burst out of the Serenade Interrompue.

Gluck's Dance of the Blessed Spirits, delicately transcribed by Sgambati and similarly delivered by Houstoun, was the sweetest encore imaginable.

Review

*Who: Michael Houstoun
*Where: Auckland Town Hall Concert Chamber