Paul Badura-Skoda is a much-vaunted pianist, and I have listened to some of his recordings of Mozart (on fortepiano) and Schubert with much pleasure. However, tonight’s concert, for various reasons, left much to be desired.

It’s a most frustrating thing, but it happens sometimes – the encore pieces turn out better than the main program itself. Tonight was such a night. Throughout the evening, there was nary a trace of Professor Badura-Skoda’s beauty of tone that I heard in his recordings; instead there was a constant heavyhandedness about his playing which infected everything he played.

From the Haydn Variations to the Sonata, to the Fantasies, there seemed to be a lack of consideration for the tone. In particular, the left hand figures often predominated so much so that the right hand was obscured.

The F minor variations by Haydn did otherwise have an elegance and refinement of phrasing, but on the other hand suffered from a kind of tonal monotony, with little attempt to bring out the character of the different variations. The Sturm und Drang middle section was well brought out, however, as was the finale.

I found the “Appassionata” disappointing. The sonata is so familiar to music lovers that every performance of it has to be special. It is like the Ninth Symphony of Beethoven – it is such a powerful piece that mediocre performances just won’t do – they just wouldn’t do the work justice. (On the other hand, I am well aware that it is the weak works of a composer that need the most help, simply because they are weak). Badura-Skoda’s performance did not deliver on several counts.

The first was structurally. The strength of so many of Beethoven’s pieces is that they are written so as to be inevitable – the sense of logic behind the composition thus has to be elicited, through careful use of dynamics, tempo relations etc. His music, though employing straightforward repeats, is organic, and each repeat has to be justified. I wouldn’t go as far as to say that Paul Badura-Skoda's choice of tempi made nonsense of this inner logic, but it certainly seemed as if little care was put into the structural design of the performance of the first movement, and again the last. For example, the coda to the first movement was rushed so much that the notes could not be made out clearly, and the speed seemed to have little relation with what had gone before.

“Secondly, I think Badura-Skoda also had to master his resources more efficiently.  In the last movement for example (marked Allegro ma non troppo), he started at such a clip that he was unable to adequately deliver the ensuing Presto (indeed, it was slower than the Allegro), which only succeeded in destroying Beethoven’s intended effect.”

Another example was in the Schubert – I feel he should have taken a slightly slower tempo so that he could manage all the notes better, and at least deliver the all-important middle section flawlessly. I am aware that Schubert places huge demands on the pianist (Liszt for example was shocked by the emergence of Schubert the Klaviertieger), and that the piece is virtuosic. But far better to be able to perform everything well using a slightly slower tempo than to risk a fast tempo and still not be able to deliver the goods. If he had from the start of the Fugato section started a little slower (it is only marked Allegro) the all-important (and very difficult) coda could have been much more satisfactory.

I want to spare a little room to talk about the Mozart and the Martin pieces. Of all the traditional pieces, I found the Mozart the best done. The quality of exploration as well as that Mozartian feel of tragedy was well brought-out, though I found the playing still rather heavy-handed.

The Frank Martin piece was commissioned by Badura-Skoda and premiered by him in 1974. The composer claims flamenco roots, but I suspect the unwary listener would be hard-pressed to find the similarity. Form-wise it is rather diffuse and is also rather free in its use of harmony. I found it rhythmically rather uninteresting as well. Badura-Skoda would have considerable authority with this piece, no doubt, and I am grateful that I had the chance to hear it played by him.

I don’t want to seem to be giving a seasoned performer instructions on how he could have bettered his performance, and I do know that he must be nearing his eighth decade by now and certain concessions will have to be made. But it seems to me that his fingers have not yet been afflicted by the problems such as those facing Mr György Sandor (third night of the piano festival, reviewed here), though they probably aren’t as fast as they might have been. A judicious choice of tempo and knowing his current limitations goes a long way to delivering a good performance.

The two Schubert encores only go to prove my point. Unemcumbered by technical worries, they were informed by a beautiful touch, a sense of taste second to none and a musicality that until then hadn’t quite come through. It was a fresh breath of air, marvelous.