Richard Uttley

Manchester Mid-day Concerts Society

Tuesday 13th March 2012

Bridgewater Hall

Richard Uttley (piano)

We had been told that Richard Uttley had given a compelling audition to the friends committee towards the end of last year and so there was no surprise that this young man opened his recital with a flawless performance of Bach's Partita No 1.  Perhaps all lunch time concerts should begin with Bach!!
 
The recital was built around dance and from Bach we moved seamlessly to 5 Chopin Mazurkas op7.

Each full of melody and charm, Richard displayed great skill in his interpretation without any flamboyance or histrionics!

3 of Debussy's Image from book one followed and for me these were the highlight of the recital.  Beautifully played rich in colour and touch. I hope we will get to hear him play more Debussy if he returns to the Bridgewater Hall as I'm sure he must.

Very cleverly Richard followed the Debussy with 3 Mazurkas by Thomas Ades. I hadn't heard these previously but found them to be quite delightful.  They were quirky, full of humour and scatty imaginings.

The recital was  brought to an end with Chopin's Polonaise in A flat, op.53 “Heroic”.  A truly virtuosic piece which was played with apparent consummate ease!!!

story published on  Wed, 14 Mar 2012