United Kingdom Adès, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, JS Bach: Louise Alder (soprano), Joseph Middleton (piano), Thomas Adès (piano), Cédric Tiberghien (piano), Alina Ibragimova (violin), Ian Skelly (presenter). Wigmore Hall, London, 25.5.2026. (CSa)
On the hottest May night in London on record, Wigmore Hall, launched its 125th birthday celebrations. Marking the start of a two-week festival, the opening Gala evening mirrored many of the works performed at the inaugural 1901 concert when, before anti-German fervour generated by the First World War forced a change of name, it was known as the Bechstein Hall. Tickets for this starry event were as hot as the weather. Eager anticipation surrounded a programme last heard in the year Marconi sent his first transatlantic radio message from Cornwall to Canada, and scarcely four months after the death of Queen Victoria. Fellow artists, chamber music cognoscenti, and many of the Wigmore Hall’s old friends filled the alabaster and Verona marbled foyer before taking their seats in an intimate and air-conditioned 545 seat auditorium, a space so sensitive, legend has it that that you can hear someone unwrap a mint in another postcode. On this occasion the concert was broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 and elegantly presented by a tuxedoed Ian Skelly, a reminder perhaps of the Corporation’s older traditions of ceremony and polish. One might even have thought of Lord Reith himself, who insisted that BBC newsreaders wear evening dress when delivering the news on the wireless, believing that sartorial formality instilled the necessary decorum.
In place of Madame Helen Trust and Signor Ferruccio Busoni, British soprano Louise Alder and pianist Joseph Middleton, the latter appropriately attired in white tie and tails, opened the proceedings with a stirring rendition of God Save the King, and returned later to perform three Schubert Leid: a serene and introspective Nacht und Träume D827, an evocatively rippling, restless Der Jüngling an der Quelle D300, and an urgent and dramatic account of Erlkönig D328.
Before that, in an innovative nod to the 21st century, we heard a specially commissioned work written and premiered by the composer-conductor Thomas Adès: a new piano version of his 2023 guitar piece Vesper (for Henry Purcell). This hypnotic miniature projected Purcell’s own Evening Hymn through a modern lens in what became a gently discordant and meditative plain song. But it was Adès the accomplished concert pianist who went on to dominate the first half of the recital with a majestic account of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No.30 in E, Op.109. Composed in 1820, it is one of Beethoven’s final and most deeply introspective piano works. History does not relate how Busoni played it on the hall’s opening night, but Adès’s reading – deeply intelligent and emotionally intuitive – gave the first movement Vivace and Adagio espressivo with its fragmented melodies, sudden pauses, and abrupt changes of tempo, an elusive, almost improvisatory quality. A turbulent Prestissimo was followed by a spaciously paced and spiritual third movement, marked Gesangvoll, mit innigster Empfindung (Songful, with the most intimate feeling) in which Adès alternated passages of dance-like delicacy with moments of lyrical transcendency.
After the interval, Alina Ibragimova played Bach’s Partita for solo violin in B minor with crystalline precision and sweetness of tone. She must surely have been a match for the great Belgian violinist Eugène Ysaÿe, who had performed it back in 1901. She was then joined by her regular piano partner Cédric Tiberghien to offer a graceful and perfectly poised Romance in G by Beethoven. But the biggest technical challenge of the evening fell to Tiberghien who bookended the second half in a display of breathtaking virtuosity and explosive rhythmic vitality. His account of Brahms’s Variations on a Theme by Paganini (Books 1 and II) was articulated with razor-sharp precision and control which generated enough incendiary firepower to light at least 125 candles on the Wigmore Hall’s metaphorical birthday cake.
Chris Sallon
Featured Image: Louise Alder (soprano) and Joseph Middleton (piano) © Richard Cannon
Adès – Vesper (for Henry Purcell)
Beethoven – Piano Sonata No.30 in E, Op.109; Romance in G, Op.40
Schubert – Nacht und Träume, D827; Der Jüngling an der Quelle, D300; Erlkönig, D328
JS Bach – From Partita No.1 in B minor for solo violin: V. Sarabande, VI. Double, VII. Bourrée
Brahms – Variations on a Theme by Paganini, Op.35: (Books I & II)