concert review: Alexandre Tharaud, piano

So after two long and full days at university library research, I got to head up to the city for a piano recital. This was a replacement for the one on my series that was cancelled when the pianist fell ill. I'd signed up for it because he'd been going to play Beethoven's Diabelli Variations, an enormous work that I'd really wanted to hear.

So Tharaud, the replacement, played instead Bach's Goldberg Varations, an equally enormous work (it took 70 minutes to play) not quite as high on my personal want list. But he played it very nicely, with great distinction and separation among the canonic voices and a firmness that only the transfer to piano from harpsichord can provide. Without a break, that was enough, except for a brief encore.