home
|
about
|
news
|
contents
|
gossip
|
photographs
|
venues
|
brighton
|
dublin
|
edinburgh
|
film
|
features
|
interviews
|
awards
|
fashion
|
recipes
|
no more drinks
|
newsletter
|
links
|
contact
Latest items? Unedited? Fringe Report Uncut
Qian Wu
Verdict: The perfomer as an instrument
Piano Recital
London - Purcell Rooms, Royal Festival Hall - 17 May 06 - (free)
Qian Wu plays piano as though she were an instrument herself. A small, unassuming 22-year-old, she is studying at the Royal Academy of Music under a full scholarship, having won just about every award there is going.
She moved from China at 11 to study at the Yehudi Menuhin School, and was required to practise for three hours a day. Her 82-year-old music teacher Vivian, who used to look after her in the holidays, is present, and is the first to run backstage to hug her, clearly very proud. Dwarfed as Qian Wu is by the massive beast of a Steinway on the Purcell stage, she makes music that stops breath.
It is sacrilege to rustle paper, cough, or even shift position when she plays. This audience of old shirts and young bloods that make up the music world are gripped by fingers seeming barely to touch the keys. She gives the experience of music not as a series of pictures, or as a message, journey, or any other metaphor - but as pure - music. The encounter ripples through the aural cavity onto the nerve.
Qian Wu is not an aggressive or confrontational performer. Her absorption draws the listener into the sound, from the youthful trills of Mozart (1756-1791) to the more contemporary discordance of Leos Janacek (1854-1928). There is an element more than faultlessness in her delivery - something that makes it necessary to listen. Her self as an instrument is so perfectly tuned, that melodies written centuries ago are reawakened. She is a weaver, bringing forth new creations from old patterns. There is a respect in her delivery - and the intimate familiarity of a wife.
She plunges into Mephisto by the demonic abbé Liszt (1811–1886), and thought becomes no more than the music filling the room - a communication without words or sense. Qian Wu reveals that music, far from being a language or means of expression, is an end of itself.
Credits: Performer - Qian Wu
END
(c) Philippa Tatham 2006
reviewed 17 May 06 / Purcell Rooms, Royal Festival Hall
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012
www.fringereport.com
