Recitals involving the keyboard giants Stephen Kovacevich and Martha Argerich are regular and unmissable events in the London calendar around this time of year. The former celebrated his 85th birthday last Friday, adding an extra frisson to last night’s occasion.
Kovacevich began with a group of Brahms’s late miniatures: four intermezzi and a capriccio from opp. 116 and 118. These delightful pieces are known for their withdrawn, self-communing nature. In them, Brahms largely abjures the heroic, virtuoso gestures of his earlier period. Kovacevich has been playing them for many years: his 1994 recording is a benchmark, albeit one characterised by a contrast between aggressively fiery capriccios and tender intermezzi. Three decades on, the musculature and arm-weight are not what they once were: hence, no doubt, the preponderance of intermezzi here.
