His hands hovering high above the keyboard rather like a hawk selecting its prey, pianist Olli Mustonen holds you in a state of suspense before he begins each movement of each piece. In this recital his hands were aloft quite frequently, for he had selected a programme of impressionistic works, each divided into several movements, and each painting a series of different pictures.
First came Tchaikovsky’s The Seasons, a comparative rarity divided into 12 individually descriptive movements, one for each month of the year. Thus January depicts a snug fireside, with the bass line suggesting gently flickering flames, while February moves outdoors for a pre-Lent carnival, its tempo suggesting that the revellers have been spiced up with good shots of vodka. Mustonen’s bright tone and sensitivity to dynamics meant that The Seasons, designed for performance at home, expanded clearly into the large, lively St Mary’s acoustic, although some passages did end up sounding a bit too steely and analytical.
