Rochdale Music Society concert: Luka Okros

Members of the Rochdale Music Society had been eagerly looking forward to the return of Georgian pianist Luka Okros, who had dazzled them with his spectacular technique and musicianship two years ago. They were not to be disappointed in their expectation of another intensely satisfying evening of performances on 27 November bringing delight to their experience of live classical music making.

In spite of the bitterly cold weather outside, St. Chad’s provided a venue for heart-warming accounts by a masterly interpreter of music by both the late Baroque composer, Domenico Scarlatti, and the early Romantic, Frédéric Chopin, as well as offering glittering insights into the poetic soul of the performer himself in the form of three Impromptus of his own.

The Sonatas of Scarlatti, which were played before the concert interval, consisted of a selection of four of the many pieces for keyboard written over the years by a man whose music belongs to a period in European musical development when composers were seeking to simplify things and bring a lighter and more immediately appealing touch to musical expression.

This ‘galant’ style did just that, but without reducing the value of musical currency; as these examples of his artistry revealed in Luka’s finely attuned performances.

Most of the concert consisted of music by Chopin, regarded as perhaps the finest of composers for the piano of the nineteenth century ‘Romantic’ period, romantic meaning ‘adventurous’ rather than ‘starry-eyed’ or ‘sentimental’.

From the early 1820s through to the early 1900s European composers led the way in a new movement towards even greater immediacy of expression and appeal than had the likes of Mozart and Beethoven in the previous generation.

The four Nocturnes, with which the concert began, offered a range of melodic inspiration projected against backgrounds of finely woven harmonic textures. Like songs without words, they spoke to the audience of some of those significant and satisfying moments in life we find otherwise impossible to communicate.

The two Ballades, with which the concert ended, are the first and last in a series of four works of that title written by Chopin over the period 1835-42. They might be said to express his deepest thoughts about life in a world that calls for immense courage and determination if we are to measure up to its challenges and find any satisfaction in welcoming its opportunities.

Deceptively plaintive, simple-sounding and even tender melodies are to be found at the outset of both. Then, as their narratives progress, these are gradually transformed into climactic affirmations of the tormented - dysfunctional? - human spirit from which we can expect no release in the here and now.

The ending of No.1 suggests that there is going to be no solution at all to the problem of the human situation. No. 4 suggests the same, but with a magnificent gesture of defiance in the face of cruel fate as it plunges deeper into the depths of anguish.

All this was magnificently communicated by Luka, whose exceptional technical accomplishment enabled the musical message to register with the passion and clarity it deserves.

Before the Ballades, Luka gave the audience a vivid insight into his personal musical soul by performing three ‘Impromptus’, which he explained were going to be improvisations on ideas he had been turning over in his mind.

Organists still do this sort of thing, but it is no longer usual for other than jazz pianists to do so.

It would appear that Luka’s imagination thrives in a world of what I would describe as mid-20th century, mid-European romanticism refined by the sensitivity of the likes of Ravel. Searching for melody and form in a lush undergrowth of chromaticism, these improvisations produced moments of magic still being savoured as I write.

Luka should continue to include impromptus in his concerts, and perhaps turn them into published compositions to be enjoyed again and again.

The next Rochdale Musical Society concert will be on 5 March 2022 at 7.30pm in Heywood Civic Centre.

Pianist Ugnius Pauliukonis will perform a programme of music to include Preludes by Rachmaninov and Debussy’s Suite Bergamasque. For further information, please visit the website: www.rochdalemusicsociety.org

Graham Marshall