Maria Luc in Chichester

Maria Luc, Chichester Cathedral, Oct 5th

Get there early if you can. I was in by 12.30 for the 1.10 start and was still only on the fifth row but where I've sat before with a good view of the keyboard. I hope to make it my seat but getting a good seat could become the next Olympic sport. However, one can spend half an hour with a book or enjoying the increasingly familiar architecture.

Beginning gently with Debussy's Prelude Book 4, no 1, Maria Luc made time her own thing in the spacious, lingering of a piece which has the line, 'les sons et le parfum tournent dans le soir...' appended to it. Beginning gently rather than with a big opening is a good strategy and one we will bear in mind when we finish with Debussy, too.

Domenico Scarlatti's Sonata in E major, K.20 is chirpy and in a programme that could have been designed to demonstrate Maria's versatility in a variety of piano moods showed her agility rather than the restraint she began with. For then it was all drama, going close to both ends of the keyboard at times in Prokofiev's Sonata no. 3 in A minor which moved into a second movement that was forever spilling forwards. For all his difficulty, Prokofiev has been proving a popular choice in recitals recently, it seems, which is fine except I haven't heard anything from the Shostakovich Preludes and Fugues and I wouldn't want it to be at their expense.

It was only then that Maria took a break and a round of applause. That first half was one of considerable contrasts. Chopin's Barcarolle op.60 featured a drowsy left hand behind a chiming, prettier left before broadening out into very much the gorgeousness that Chopin's name is guaranteed to bring with it.

By now the time is well overdue that I should express no surprise that Debussy is often not as easy and impressionistic as my pre-conceived idea of him was for so long. In his Op. 23, Pour le piano, he is dark and potentially dangerous in the prelude with tempestuous intent and repeated runs up the keyboard that glissando sounds too genteel a word for. The sarabande takes us back into calmer waters and a haunting or haunted atmosphere.  One might expect a toccata to involve quick fingers and that's what it did before flowing towards a fuller finish that Rachmanninov would have presumably been happy with and an ending as big as anyone would wish for.

Being able to attend more of these local concerts these days does nothing to diminish my gratitude for them or the great respect one has for all the performers. The wonder has only become less how good they are in favour of how many of them there are. Maria Luc's range is impressive, her forte as compelling as her piano and her fluency. She'll be welcome back any time.