Music

Clare Hammond

Perth Concert Hall

Keith Bruce, four stars

THE unpredictable wild woman with a hidden musical past that Maggie Smith portrays in the screen version of Alan Bennett’s The Lady in the Van could scarcely be further from the real pianist who performed as her younger self and played on the film’s soundtrack.

There is passion in Clare Hammond’s playing, a robust left hand complementing the delicate melody in the most familiar Andante movement of Schubert’s Four Impromptus, and a palpable joy in her embrace of the contrasting rhythmic playfulness of successive pieces in Chopin’s Opus 25 Etudes, but it is combined with a focus and sense of purpose that speaks of someone with a burning desire to communicate as clearly as possible.

Most obviously, perhaps, that is apparent in her eloquent and informative spoken introductions to each work on her programme, whether classic piano repertoire or contemporary work.

As billed, that latter category applied only to a new work by Scottish composer Malcolm Hayes, which continues his exploration of Dante’s Divine Comedy in the two-movement Purgatorio.

With the first part requiring very precise pedal use for the sustained bass notes of this state of suspension, Hammond steered the work masterfully from foreboding to hope, and it is no surprise that the composer (who was present for many of her recitals this past week) is enthusiastic that she adds his Inferno and Paradiso to her repertoire.

As a bonus, however, the audience for Perth’s lunchtime concert was treated to an encore of an Etude by South Korean composer Unsuk Chin to follow those of Chopin, and as included on one of the pianist’s acclaimed recordings for Sweden’s BIS label.

Such range only hinted at Hammond’s repertoire and breadth of interest, so those fortunate enough to hear her on this debut Scottish tour will be hoping for a return visit as soon as her schedule permits.