Ivana Gavric, Wigmore Hall, London, review: 'Played carefully and accurately'

The pianist performed Chopin’s Opus 24 Mazurkas, Haydn’s early Sonata in F HXVI:23, three late pieces by Grieg, and Schumann’s Kreisleriana

The Sarajevo-born British pianist brings a finely shaded virtuosity to early Haydn (YouTube/Ivana Gavric)

Classical piano music reflects the development of the instrument for which it has been composed, and at times it requires that instrument in its correct period form.

It’s safe to assume that Beethoven would have loved a big modern Steinway, but equally likely that earlier composers would have found the Steinway sound a positive hindrance.

Such thoughts were prompted by Ivana Gavric in the first piece of her recital: Haydn’s early “Sonata in F HXVI:23”, which would have been written with the harpsichord in mind, needed that instrument’s transparency of tone, not a Steinway’s beefiness. That said, Gavric still managed to bring to it a finely shaded virtuosity.

With three late pieces by Grieg – designed to evoke the drone of the Hardanger folk fiddle – she evoked a water-colour Nordic sound-world, but three of Chopin’s “Opus 24 Mazurkas”, which followed, were delivered with a similar touch; only in the fourth, in B flat minor, did she find the requisite mystery and poetry. In Chopin’s second “Scherzo” she seemed too ill at ease technically for the music’s magic to work.

But the real disappointment came with Schumann’s “Kreisleriana”. This work is richly-coloured and brimming with excitement, but neither of those qualities were in evidence here. Gavric played it carefully and accurately: until she learns to love it she will never find the key to Schumann’s most exuberant keyboard work.