Eric Lu got stranded in the USA by travel restrictions and was replaced by the recent Leeds winner Alim Beisembayev. His programme began with Mozart’s sonata in D K311 and two of Ravel’s Miroirs, but became more heavyweight in the second half with the sort of interpretation of Beethoven’s Appassionata that makes you wonder whether the instrument will remain playable in future. He concluded with Chopin’s 24 Preludes so we certainly got our money’s worth, and it was interesting to compare his interpretation with Isata Kanneh-Mason’s from a couple of years ago. He played the Preludes with great fluency and a different range of interpretation from what we heard in 2019; there are many possibilities with these pieces.
My husband went to hear the Leonore Piano Trio in another morning concert at the Assembly Rooms. The programme included Mozart’s trio in B flat K502 and Mendelssohn’s trio in C minor op. 66, but centred on Dvořák’s Dumky trio, which he’d also heard the previous month. He thought the Leonore were successful in giving this tricky work – a rare example of formal innovation by Dvořák – coherence.
Evidently the sale of Mozartkugels was thought to carry a Covid risk – at any rate none were to be seen at the Mozartfest – but I was able to buy a bag in Oxford soon afterwards to remedy this.