Wigmore Hall's 115th anniversary with Elisabeth Leonskaja - classical review: an evening of the music of their patron saint, Franz Schubert

Never was private wealth better employed in the service of public culture

Michael Church
Tuesday 07 June 2016 12:01 BST
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Elisabeth Leonskaja at Wigmore Hall
Elisabeth Leonskaja at Wigmore Hall

Celebrating its 115th anniversary, Wigmore Hall in London gave loyal supporters an evening of the music of its patron saint, Franz Schubert. And no better way of kicking things off than with Elisabeth Leonskaja playing Schubert’s greatest piano sonata, the B flat D 960, which casts a serenely valedictory light on all the works that preceded it. Born and raised in Georgia, Leonskaja trained in Moscow, when Soviet pianism was at its apogee – Sviatoslav Richter was her mentor. She brings a unique weight and power to her Schubert, and here she was on top form, giving every phrase telling force.

Next came Cuarteto Casals, playing the late String Quartet in G, with the precision and grace for which they are famed: their playing had that persuasiveness that results from absolute unity in both intonation and intention.

Then it was song, with James Baillieu presiding at the piano. All the young singers acquitted themselves with distinction – soprano Mary Bevan, mezzo Tara Erraught, tenor Allan Clayton and baritone Henk Neven. And here’s a thing: one realised that almost everyone on stage had been spotted and nurtured by that uniquely canny artists’ charitable agency, the Borletti-Buitoni Trust.

Never was private wealth better employed in the service of public culture.

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