In recent years Charles Rosen has proved to be one of the most sensitive of virtuosos in romantic music; he has given first performances of music by Elliott Carter and Pierre Boulez and is the author of a series of inspirational books on music from Haydn to Schoenberg. His Queen Elizabeth Hall concert presented major works by Brahms and Chopin, in a programme designed to demonstrate the parallels between these towering figures of romanticism. The Brahms selection contrasted the rapt intensity of the late Four Pieces Op 119 with the heroic confidence of the early Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel. The Chopin was carefully balanced between the improvisatory fantasy of the Polonaise Fantasie and the Fourth Ballade, and the limpid precision of the B major Nocturne Op 62 No 1 and the Barcarolle, Op 60.
Rosen's brand of virtuosity is intellectual rather than spectacular. He made the extraordinary harmonic ambiguity of Brahms's Op 119 No 1 sound lucid and natural, as his sparing use of pedal created an uncluttered line throughout. The first three intermezzos of the Op 119 set flowed into one another with a gradual increase of intensity and tempo. His performance of the fourth piece, the E flat major Rhapsodie, was both a self-contained drama and a mysteriously logical conclusion to the Op 119 collection. But his technique was stretched perilously close to its limits by the density of Brahms's writing in Op 119 No 4; his previous clarity of line was smudged, and sometimes lost in the abundance of Brahms's counterpoint. The Handel Variations demand virtuosic bravura and large-scale drama, but Rosen seemed to be wrestling with the final fugue, rather than mastering its complexity.
It was a similar story of inconsistency in the Chopin. The Nocturne was beautifully translucent, and Rosen gave the Barcarolle an unaffected tenderness. But his Polonaise Fantasie and Fourth Ballade foundered on the same technical problems. The opening theme of the Ballade was incisively articulated, but the coda was blurred and unfocused.
Rosen also played Chopin's Three Waltzes, Op 64, including the famous Minute Waltz. Here, as in much of his recital, it was like listening to a veiled reflection of what was once a great performance.
