Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin
Bach/Petri – Sheep may safely graze
Bach/Busoni – Chaconne in D minor
Schumann – Fantasie in C Op 17
Egon Petri (1881-1962) was a pianist and a pupil of Busoni. He was less known for his arranging than for his playing and teaching (pupils included John Ogden, pianist- comedian Victor Borge, and the late Earl Wild).
Yet he penned this nice transcription from Bach's Cantata BWV 208 of the well-known soprano aria Sheep may safely graze. His discreet triumph of cleverness is the successful condensing of soprano, accompaniment and two solo recorders into two hands on a single keyboard.
The triumph was even more discreet in the playing of Maria McGarry who allowed it vanish into the shadow of her interpretation, which was unbridled romantic indulgence. In fact, she skirted the border of sentimentality and you wondered had she actually saved any emotional release for the programme’s genuine Romantic still to come – Schumann.
But she reined in quite dramatically for her second Bach transcription, Busoni’s piano version of the D minor Chaconne from the Partita for Violin No 2. It’s music long associated with the death of Bach’s wife, and McGarry allowed its force to find its own voice. There were a few stray notes, and pedalling that I sometimes found over-rich. However, especially following the powerful central re-statement of the theme, McGarry achieved a strong affective connection – much deeper than in the Petri – and took hold of something whose intensity she tended with unbroken concentration right to the final note.
She exercised restraint again in the Schumann – his Fantasie in C Op 17 – with its episodes of explosive power, which she never over-cooked. It occasionally felt as though there were a struggle between player and composer to see who was truly in charge, with McGarry at times seeking a safety net in the pedal. And although her command of Schumann’s sometimes mercilessly virtuosic writing was impressive, what proved most moving was, again, the way she prepared and sustained the thoughtful closing chapters, notably the ends of the first and final movements.
