Three Impromptus - Chopin
Fantaisie Impromptu - Chopin
Fantasia in C - Schumann
One of the pleasures of Neil Cooney's piano recital at the National Concert Hall's John Field Room at lunchtime on Friday was his command of tone and part writing. It was especially rewarding to hear this in those most subtle and contrapuntal of Romantic composers, Chopin and Schumann.
Cooney's playing has matured over the last few years. It shows an intelligent type of musicianship which seeks out the character of each piece, blending attention to detail with awareness of context. And he can deliver that detail, because he understands the part writing which lies behind these composers' elaborate textures and can differentiate lines in different registers of the piano.
The opening of Schumann's Fantasia in C can easily sound like a flummery of arpeggios with an off-beat tune on top. Cooney revealed its complex motion with striking clarity. In this piece and at least two of Chopin's Impromptus he took risks with tone. Some sounds had breath-holding quietness, and while the playing was never strikingly powerful, it felt right for this venue.
Cooney's knowing approach did have limitations. Chopin's Fantaisie Impromptu and, especially, the Schumann Fantasia, were a bit too calculated to create the character which reveals them at their best - as if they were wonderfully spontaneous improvisations. Yet this was absorbing playing, which seemed scarcely concerned with the performer's ego, and totally concerned with the music.