Gary Cooper

Lakeside Arts Centre, Nottingham, 20 Oct 2007

Little Missenden Festival, 21 Oct 2007

Gary Cooper gave an all Beethoven recital of a period piano from 1820s - entirely appropriate to late Beethoven

BEETHOVEN

• VARIATIONS, OP.126
• SONATA OP.111
• DIABELLI VARIATIONS

Nottinghamshire Eveneing Post wrote :

Beethoven may have written his late piano music nearly 200 years ago, but it has lost none of its power to challenge. Just as well, then, that a friendly guide was on hand to enlighten Saturday's audience.

Gary Cooper is a star performer on early keyboards, so who better to explain how his modern copy of an 1820s fortepiano produces its distinctive and subtle sound.

His performance of Beethoven's last Piano Sonata captured all the drama of its compressed first movement as well as the sublime spirituality of the second.

The Diabelli Variations are a rarity in the concert hall: staggeringly difficult to play and challenging to listen to. In tempo and character the variations cover just about every mood and style known to early 19th-century musicians. Gary Cooper's combination of intellectual authority and transparency of texture made even this most daunting of piano works seem accessible.

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