Edinburgh Jazz Festival
Stefano Bollani
Festival Theatre Studio
Rob Adams
FOUR STARS
When the Brazilian bandolim master Hamilton de Holanda told the Herald last year that he enjoyed playing duets with Italian pianist Stefano Bollani because, musically, they could go anywhere, he clearly wasn’t kidding. Frank Zappa’s Bobby Brown juxtaposed with Beethoven’s Fur Elise – two items about as far apart romantically as music gets – was just one of the interludes Bollani delivered in a performance that made the promise of Chopin, Scott Joplin, Bill Evans and blues in the jazz festival brochure seem quite tame by comparison.
Chopin was in the set and the spirit of Joplin, Evans and blues permeated an almost all-encompassing hour and a half that began with Bollani stating then developing - and then some - a child-like, innocent-sounding melody on the grand piano and transferring, by way of an inter-keyboard conversation, onto a Rhodes electric piano for some supercharged boogie-woogie.
That piece was given the title “Edinburgh” and later, after a few entertaining observations on Chopin (Bollani’s quite the charmer), we were treated to “some music” – a throwaway introduction to beyond-virtuosic keyboard explorations and gymnastic percussive use of the piano stool.
A bottle of water and the piano’s lid and strings were also pressed – or more accurately punched – into service as Bollani sang Bobby Brown with mad relish and played Beethoven with extraordinary tenderness, laced with cheeky wit, before turning into a cruise liner cabaret turn for an ironic Quando Quando Quando. Just occasionally it felt like he was trying too hard to impress, when he can probably do so effortlessly, but the touch he brought to Satie and the theme from Fellini’s Amarcord was truly gorgeous.
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