Pianistic fireworks

ILAMS’ trio of January lunchtime concerts at St. James’s concluded on the 21^st with performances of great panache by the up and coming pianist Anthony Zerpa-Falcón.

The opening piece was Soler’s Sonata in C sharp minor, which was played with idiomatic sparkle and drive. This acted as a foil to the pictorial subtlety of Albeniz’ masterpiece, Iberia, from which Anthony Zerpa-Falcón selected four complimentary movements: Evocación, El Puerto, Al Albaicín and Triana. He succeeded in blending the elements of the composer’s colouristic palette whilst maintaining a seamless ebb and flow between the moments of poetic reflection and bravura passagework. The washes of sound and sizzling Andaluzian rhythms held the audience spellbound.

Liszt’s transcription of the Schubert song, Der Muller und der Bach, offered a pleasing interlude before the audience was caught up in the pianistic whirlwind of Liszt’s 12^th Hungarian Rhapsody. This was given a commanding performance and as the dying notes echoed through St. James’s, the audience showed great appreciation, assuring a future warm welcome for the return of this outstanding pianist.

Ray Picot