Born in 1992, Grosvenor began playing the piano aged 6 going
on to study at the Royal Academy of Music, where he was awarded the The Queen’s Commendation for Excellence
and has had lessons with Christopher Elton, Leif Ove Andsnes, Stephen Hough,
and Arnaldo Cohen.
Grosvenor first came to prominence as the outstanding winner
of the Keyboard Final of the 2004 BBC Young Musician Competition at the age of
eleven. Since then, he has built an international reputation performing with
orchestras around the world, working with such conductors as Vladimir
Ashkenazy, Jiří Bělohlávek, Semyon Bychkov, Andrey Boreyko and Vladimir
Jurowski.
He was aged just nineteen when he performed with the BBC
Symphony Orchestra at the First Night of the 2011 BBC Proms. He returned to the
BBC Proms in 2012, performing with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Charles
Dutoit http://theclassicalreviewer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/subtle-saint-saens-from-benjamin.html
and this year performing with Gianandrea Noseda and the BBC Philharmonic
Orchestra http://theclassicalreviewer.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/tonights-prom-brought-beautifully.html
In 2011 Grosvenor signed to Decca Classics www.deccaclassics.com and in doing so
became not only the youngest British musician ever to sign to the label, but the
first British pianist to sign to the label in almost 60 years.
His three previous recordings for Decca www.deccaclassics.com have received enthusiastic reviews. His latest
release from Decca is entitled Dances
and brings together works by Bach, Chopin, Scriabin, Granados, Schulz-Evler,
Albeniz and Gould, showing a variety of dance forms to remarkable effect.
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Bach’s Partita No.4
in D major, BWV 828 is striking right from the opening chord Ouverture, beautifully nuanced and
shaped. Grosvenor is alive to every dynamic and knows just how to lift the
music from the page. There is a beautifully paced Allemande, exquisite in its gentle flow with lovely phrasing and a Courante that shows his beautifully
light touch, where he keeps up a fine tempo. The varying rhythms of the Aria are equally finely done.
Grosvenor’s thoughtful, perfectly paced and phrased Sarabande precedes a beautifully judged and mesmerising Menuet and a crisp flowing Gigue, full of clarity. This is very
fine Bach indeed.
His performance of
Chopin’s Andante spianato et Grande polonaise brillante, Op 22 brings
delicacy and hushed restraint whilst keeping a forward movement in the Andante spianato. With the Grande Polonaise, again it is
Grosvenor’s fine control of dynamics and phrasing as well as a crystal clear
clarity that makes this such a fine performance. He is muscular when the music
requires it with his superb technique shown to the full in the coda.
All the same qualities appear when he brings us Chopin’s Polonaise in F# Minor, Op 44 to
which he brings power, breadth and subtlety with some fine control in the more
poetical moments.
Benjamin Grosvenor then turns to Scriabin, giving us three of the 10 Mazurkas, Op 3. It is lovely how Grosvenor handles the little
rhythmic oddities of the Mazurka No.6 in C
sharp minor with such fine phrasing. He again puts a lovely lift in the
rhythms of No. 5 in E major, with more
lovely subtleties. An especially fine performance. Finally there is the
particularly Chopinesque Marzurka No. 9
in G sharp minor, beautifully controlled, rising so naturally to its
central climax with exquisite moments either side.
He catches Scriabin’s freer harmonies of his later Valse in A flat Major. Op 38 perfectly with his silken, light touch bringing some lovely moments.
Granados’ 8 Valses
poéticos bring many changes of mood and rhythm with a wonderfully direct Preludio: Vivace Molto, a Melodioso that is beautifully phrased
with fine rhythms, light, transparent Tempo
de Vals noble, catching its fleeting moments and showing his subtle ability
to change mood in Tempo de Vals lento.
There is a rhythmically well sprung Allegro humoristico, a beautifully phrased Allegretto, a Quasi ad
libitum that brings a breadth of poetic charm and a wonderfully light and
dexterous Vivo before the Presto brings us full circle to the
theme of the Melodioso.
The Polish born, Adolf
Schulz-Evler (1852-1905) will be unknown to most people yet his Arabesques on
Johann Strauss’ ‘By the Beautiful Blue Danube’ is an attractive work. In
Benjamin Grosvenor’s hands it is simply terrific, as this pianist brings all
his lightness of touch, fine rubato, lovely phrasing, and wonderfully rhythmic
qualities to these variations on Strauss’ famous waltz.
Leopold Godowsky’s arrangement
of Albeniz’s Tango: España, Op 165,
No. 2 wears its virtuosity lightly in Grosvenor’s fine performance. To end we
have Morton Gould’s Boogie Woogie Etude where
Grosvenor really fuses Boogie-Woogie with the nature of a serious study, with
playing that provides a terrific conclusion to this disc.
I cannot think of a more satisfying recital from one of our
finest young pianists. With an especially fine recording made at Potten Hall,
Suffolk, England and informative booklet notes this new release should not be
missed.
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