This was the concert as conundrum; Kit Armstrong and Michael Wollny are two very different pianists. Alfred Brendel has praised Kit Armstrong’s “understanding of the great piano works that combines freshness and subtlety, emotion and intellect”, whereas Richard Williams has described Michael Wollny as “one of the jewels of contemporary European jazz. (*)” So the prospect was intriguing: what would they sound like as duo? What common ground would they find? What music would these two phenomenal musicians actually choose to play on their two Bechstein grand pianos?
For me, such uncertainties were at least part of the appeal of the concert. And it is to the credit of the Kings Place and the London Piano Festival teams that, in the years since 2008 and 2016 respectively, they have built sufficient confidence in their programming to have attracted no fewer than a few hundred other curious souls: the lower part of Kings Place Hall One was almost full.
The form of the evening was an improvised programme, “created in the moment”, I had been officially told. It started in an extreme of abstraction, searching, without clear pulse, and then as each of the halves evolved the two musicians found a series of “islands” or stopping-off points which they had agreed on the day. Some, like Jerome Kern’s “All The Things You Are” were easier to spot than others. I thought I could hear some Liszt and had it confirmed that the two pianists found an idyllic spot on their journey: “Les Jeux d’Eau de la Villa D’Este”. They had also agreed to stop off at Ligeti’s Etude No. 5, “Arc-en-ciel,” Miles Davis’s “Flamenco Sketches” and a couple of Wollny’s own tunes, notably “Hexentanz” which provided the architecture the inexorable intensity build the set ending of the second half.
That set-conclusion was a reminder of how completely Wollny masters musical pacing, how well he finds clearly discernable paths and shapes in a musical narrative. It really is one of his very great strengths. He also has a leaning into the daemonic and sorcerous, and what was fascinating about the concert was to see how Kit Armstrong seemed to be enjoying the lure of that darker side. Armstrong is thirty-two years old, but has the look of someone much more youthful and ostensibly impressionable.
I had not heard Kit Armstrong in concert before, so this was a first impression. I knew about his explorations of Bach and Mozart, and also the depth his scientific background. And therefore was taken surprise to experience the sheer beauty, balance and clarity of his musicianship when playing in the idioms of, say, Rachmaninov or Ravel. He is a composer and I would be fascinated to hear him taking that repertoire and extending it in his own way. As I listened I started to dream of the yellow label of Deutsche Grammophon on a new “À la manière de Ravel” album. That I would love to hear.
The encore – played four-hands on one piano, with the pair constantly swapping positions on the piano stool – was a delight. It sounded as if it was inspired by Bernstein’s song “Some Other Time”, and also demonstrated the respect which these two musicians clearly have for each other. That expression of warmth, affection and a shared collaborative, communicative spirit set the seal on a fascinating evening.
