FANFARE:
American audiences—possibly even their British counterparts—may not be familiar with Sutton Coldfield born pianist and composer Christopher Langdown (b. 1971). After completing six years of study with Professor John Barstow and graduating with Distinction from London's Royal College of Music, Langdown was nominated by the RCM to perform the music of Shostakovich before the legendary exponent of the composer's music, Tatiana Nikolaeva. Twice recognized by The Wall Trust as a piano scholar of “outstanding talent,” Langdown went on to gather numerous awards and was a finalist and prize-winner in the 1997 Brant UK Pianoforte Competition. He has since appeared in recital at major London concert venues, including Wigmore Hall, South Bank Centre, LSO St Luke's and St John's Smith Square, and has appeared at music festivals throughout the UK and Europe. In addition to his active concertizing, Langdown is Head of Piano at The Kingsley School in Leamington Spa.

[This] is a two-disc set recorded live at Langdown's Wigmore Hall recital on June 9, 2009. Of Jewish Polish descent, the German composer Moritz Moszkowski (1854–1925) seems well-enough represented on record, yet his music somehow remains on the fringes of the mainstream late Romantic and early 20th-century repertoire for piano. Why that is, I'm not sure because Moszkowski's music—at least what I've heard of it—is gorgeous, and the four numbers that comprise the composer's Moments musicaux , op. 84, are no exception. Incredibly, the only other recording I find listed is by Elizabeth Wolff, and it appears to be available only as an MP3 download. It's a shame that these pieces have not been taken up by more pianists because they are really beautiful, especially the third in the set in C Minor. The good news is that Langdown plays all four of them with great technical skill and emotional sensitivity.

Book II of Debussy's Préludes contains 12 numbers, of which Langdown gives us seven: Nos. 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, and 12. Had this been a studio recording, I'm sure Langdown would have performed the entire set, but as part of a live recital that ran to an hour and 40 minutes, it would be ungrateful to ask for more. The pianist's Debussy is very fine, but his performances of these pieces are perhaps not as refined to the nth degree as are those in the classic recording by Michelangeli.

Arriving at the “Tempest” Sonata, it must be noted that Langdown's first and last movements are under tempo, at least compared to other major contenders in the field, such as Ashkenazy, Pollini, and Richard Goode. They seem to lack the impetus and anxiety suggested by the work's title. In an e-mail exchange I had with Langdown, however, he took pains to explain to me that his choice of tempos for this particular performance was not representative of a fixed interpretation he has of the sonata, but rather a response to the acoustics of Wigmore Hall where the recital took place. At a pre-concert rehearsal, it was determined that the reaction or responsiveness of the hall was better attuned and more conducive to the slightly slower reading. In every other way, Langdown's “Tempest” is solid and satisfying.

As an aside, I did find his explanation quite fascinating in that it tended to bolster my argument with Red Priest's Piers Lane in the Letters Column that the adoption of bracing tempos in period instrument performances would not have been the norm in the churches and other reverberant acoustic venues of the late 17th and early to mid 18th centuries.

Frank Bridge's Dramatic Fantasia is another piece that hasn't had much exposure on disc; yet coincidentally there is another recording of it on this same label, Divine Art, by well-known British pianist Anthony Goldstone. Since I haven't heard it, I can't offer a comparison, but Langdown's performance of it sounds quite effective to me. The Bridge is a very early work by the composer, but one that didn't surface until 1975, having remained in the possession of a fellow RCM student, Florence Smith, until her death. The piece is nothing like Bridge's post-1920s works which tend towards a more radical musical vocabulary and style. The Dramatic Fantasia , written in 1906, is a full-blown Romantic tone-poem for solo piano which resonates with the grand 19th-century virtuoso tradition. It's a magnificent alchemic mix of Alkan, Liszt, and Scriabin from which every so often emerges a passage in the whole-tone or pentatonic parallelism of Debussy.

From Scriabin's 12 Études, op. 8, Langdown chooses six: Nos. 1, 2, 5, 9, 11, and 12. He also includes the very popular and well-documented-on-disc C sharp minor Étude, op. 2/1. These etudes, like everything else on this live recital program, are aimed at presenting the audience with a mix of familiar and less familiar items, all of which are nonetheless rooted in the florid, virtuosic Romantic style guaranteed to be safe and pleasing to the listener.

Langdown's own very beautiful and moving Deo Omnis Gloria follows. It's an 11-minute work written in 2001. Yet you would swear that its three movements—“Hymn,” “Lake of Gennesaret,” and “Resurrection”—sound like a reincarnation of Liszt. With this piece, Langdown demonstrates his considerable talent for composition as well as for the piano.

Satie's Gnossienne No. 1 with which disc two of this set closes was, I suspect, offered as an encore at Langdown's live recital, as most programs of this nature end with a bang rather than a whimper. I don't know what the word “gnossienne” means, and it wouldn't surprise me if Satie didn't either. It's certainly not a word in the French dictionary. Satie made it up, and it may or may not have had some connection in the composer's mind with an interest in Gnosticism. But then probing Satie's mind is like examining the inside of a foam pillow; it's mostly air-pockets and empty space, which is what much of his music is made up of. The piece in question has no time signature, no bar-lines, and is peppered with cryptic instructions to the performer like “From the tip of the thought,” “Postulate within yourself,” and “On the tongue.” The strange thing about Satie's non-music is that in spite of itself it often has a hypnotic beauty, and the Gnossienne is no exception.

Langdown is an accomplished and polished artist who, I would submit, possesses the musical intelligence and sensitivity to hear the voices of a number of different composers and to speak to us in their individual tongues. Strongly recommended.
Jerry Dubins

CLASSICAL MUSIC SENTINEL (USA):
This CD is a live recording of Christopher Langdown , capturing his recital at Wigmore Hall in London, in June of 2009. If anything, it presents to us a young pianist whose versatility could lead to a bright future on the world stage of pianism. He has already received various awards and collaborated with many chamber music groups.

The variety of styles and periods comprising this recital could have been a challenge to some pianists, but Christopher Langdown seems to feel right at home no matter which composer he tackles. Some of the highlights of the evening include very atmospheric Book II Preludes by Claude Debussy . A solid interpretation of the Piano Sonata in D minor, Op. 31 No. 2 (Tempest) by Ludwig van Beethoven . A rarely recorded but eloquent Dramatic Fantasia by Frank Bridge which I had not heard before. It is harmonically rich and uses the keyboard's full range very effectively, and Langdown seems to relish the demands it puts on the player. There are seven Etudes by my favorite composer for the piano, Alexander Scriabin , which are very well shaped although the profound sadness is lacking in Op. 8 No. 11, and the extremely demanding Op. 8 No. 12 is missing the fiery passion and bravura it requires to really take flight. When Vladimir Horowitz would play this dramatic work, his disposition immediately following its performance would show a man who had just attained nirvana. The recital concludes with a very Islamic sounding Gnossienne No. 1 in F minor by Erik Satie . And if that was not enough of a varied program, the recital also includes a few pieces by Moritz Moszkowski and one of Christopher Langdown's own creations, a very harmonically rich and neo-romantic work titled Deo Omnis Gloria .

Collectors of piano recordings should definitely obtain this strong snapshot of a pianist captured live at the beginning of what points to be a strong concert and recording career. The variety of the pieces on this recording is enough to satisfy any piano lovers appetite, and might even present new discoveries to some and certainly shed some new light on old favorites. The Divine Art recording fully captures the recital's atmosphere and nervous energy, and delivers a focused and solid sound throughout.
Jean-Yves Duperron

MUSICAL OPINION (review of the actual recital)
The young pianist and composer Christopher Langdown's programme at Wigmore Hall on June 9 th was certainly a demanding one, but a challenge to which he rose admirably. The range of repertoire appeared on paper to be particularly wide, but in practice subtle threads ran between the pieces, from Beethoven's Tempest Sonata (Opus 31 No 2) which was extremely well played, to late-19 th – early-20 th century groups of pieces from Poland, France, Russia and Britain (if one includes Bridge's Dramatic Fantasia as an essential ‘grouping' of textural ideas). Throughout the evening, Langdown's playing was exemplary: it was a great pleasure to hear Moszkowski's four Moments Musicaux Opus 84 in total, for audiences hardly ever get the chance to experience such outstandingly well written music (in terms of the keyboard) as this, the more so for being so very well conveyed by this pianist, who also found himself thoroughly at home in the Impressionistic mastery of Debussy's Second Book of Preludes and the more introspective colourings of five of Scriabin's early Études, alongside Bridge's powerfully combative piece. With such undoubted musicality and total pianistic technique at his disposal, we looked forward to Langdown's own work, Deo Omnis Gloria , a striking and original piece of positive and compelling expression which was also extremely well laid out for the instrument. Needless to say, the performance was thoroughly convincing, and we look forward to hearing more of this fine musician's work.
Alexander Leonard

AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE:
Once you get used to the slightly recessed (but very clean) sound from Wigmore Hall, this recital becomes very impressive. To begin with, it has a considerable amount of variety, from Beethoven to contemporary (Langdown's own piece). His notes are detailed and make interesting reading: every piece is discussed.

Hearing this 39 - year old English pianist for the first time (his website lists two more recordings) puts me in contact with a mind that considers every detail, yet carefully avoids any feeling of the ordinary or academic.

Moritz Moszkowski's rarely – heard 4 Moments Musicaux is a breath of fresh air. These are gentle pieces, charming, melodic, without a whiff of virtuosic demands. For the most part, the sequence of sebven Debussy Preludes is also drawn from the less technically demanding of both books, though ‘ Feux d'artifice' is a virtuosic challenge for anyone. ‘Bruyeres', ‘La Terrace des Audiences du Clair de Lune', ‘Canope” are delicate, beautifully nuanced, and imbued with an almost pastel color palette.

Beethoven's Sonata 17, Tempest , is less tempestuous than usual here. While I admire his endlessly refined phrases in 1, the music often emerges as soft-edged. This works beautifully in the Adagio, and the final Allegretto benefits from all the refinement, smooth execution, and episode contrast. If we finally wind up with two thirds of a terrific performance, the accomplishment is definitely nothing to sneer at.

Frank Bridge's Dramatic Fantasia is an early work, dating from 1906. It is well crafted, as are all the works by this great composer. Comparisons with Mark Bebbington and Peter Jacobs shows all three fully satisfying. It is a welcome inclusion in this recital and makes one long for more Bridge, and more programming imagination from today's players.

Langdown's own Deo Omnis Gloria (All Glory to God), composed in 2001, “comprises three neo-romantic pieces conceived in the late 19 th Century style” (the composer's words). The first piece, ‘Hymn”, evokes the sound of organ, choir, and church bells. The second, ‘Lake of Gennesaret', concerns the miraculous catching of fish in the Gospel of St Luke; and the final piece depicts the Resurrection. All is pleasant, melodic, and falls graciously on the ear.

The Scriabin group includes Etudes Op.2:1, and Op8:1, 2, 5, 9, 11, and 12. These emphasize the lyrical and more placid side of the composer. The famous D-sharp minor Etude that closes the set is given the most refined reading I have ever heard of this stormy powerhouse of a piece. In keeping with the lack of bravura and virtuosic display evident in the entire program, Satie's ‘Gnossienne 1' concluded a program totally without any “wow” factor. The audience responds with gentle, ultra-refined applause.
Becker

[note: Applause was "gentle" as audience numbers were very small due to the tube strike on the night (the hall was less than 15% full).

INTERNATIONAL RECORD REVIEW:
Christopher Langdown has a lovely tone, smooth legato and a technique equal to the pianistic challenges in this programme. On the other hand, he is overly reliant on the pedal and not always careful about articulation.

At the start of Debussy's prélude ‘La puerta del vino' ( the first in Langdown's group of seven from Book 2) he pedals through the left hand accompaniment's two rocking quavers (eighth notes) on the second beat of each 2/4 bar, rather than playing them either détache or staccato, as the scores indicates. This compromises the clarity and incisiveness of the piece's Habanera rhythm, which should be audible even though its expressive character is sultry and sinuous. In ‘Feux d'artifice' (the final prélude of the 12 and also the last in this group of seven) he keeps the pedal down right from the beginning, even though Debussy's first pedal mark only occurs three –and-a-half pages later, precisely at the point where brilliant cross-handed arpeggios (a dominant seventh chord on C that never resolves to F) start to splash across the top half of the keyboard. By pedaling the entire previous section Langdown dampens the right hands' high-octave ‘flying sparks. He is obviously trying to simulate the pianistic version of a murmuring harp bisbigliando that Debussy's middle-register ostinato represents, but it is perfectly possible (though much harder) to do this without recourse to the pedal.

Such details apart (and there are others), my real concern is the overall structure of this programme. Individual, innovative programming is all to the good, and there is no reason why a piano recital has to proceed in chronological order, starting with Bach, Haydn, Mozart, or Beethoven, travelling through the nineteenth century, and then reaching at the least the early twentieth. When one attends a recital the sequence of works is a given, to which one simply listens, and then evaluates afterwards. In this live recording, however, hearing the pieces in Langdown's chosen order can strike the listener as a series of non sequiturs. The first half consists of Moszkowski's salonesque Quatre Moments Musicaux , then the seven Debussy Preludes, with Beethoven's Tempest Sonata coming before the interval. The second half starts with Frank Bridge's Dramatic Fantasia (1906), continues with Langdown's own Deo Omnis Gloria (2001), and ends with seven Scriabin Etudes. I assume that the last track, Satie's Gnossienne No. 1, was played as an encore.

In the first half, the Beethoven Sonata sounds very illogical after Moszkowski and Debussy. I kept imagining a different, much more relevant preparation for the Beethoven, and eventually this crystallized as Mozart's Fantasia in D minor, K397, a quintessential embodiment of ‘small but perfectly formed'. The rhythmically notated arpeggios of its opening Andante forecast the upwardly rolled arpeggiated chords that pervade Beethoven's Largo Introduction, while the suddenly faster, anxious appoggiaturas in Mozart's next section audibly evoke the Allegro ones that follow Beethoven's slow harp-like chords. To precede Beethoven's Tempest by the Mozart Fantasia might seem like chronological programming, but the listener would certainly respond to the two works' mutual echoes.

In the second half, the Bridge Dramatic fantasia tends to ramble, rather than being very strictly composed, yet creating the illusion of free improvisation that truly great keyboard fantasies (for example, those by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann and Chopin) do. Next, Langdown's own piece is, unfortunately, embarrassing. It mixes tonal, neo-Romantic harmony with a more atonal idiom, and often tends to the grandiose in a way that compromises and lets down his no-doubt genuine religious feelings. In compensation, he plays the Scriabin Etudes very well, and the fact that he chose seven of them at least mirrors the number of Debussy Préludes in the first half.

Langdown's booklet note is engaging and informative, though an editor should have caught his incorrect spelling of “complemented” as ‘complimented'. The title of the CD, ‘Christopher Langdown Live in London' also causes concern. There are many CD piano recitals that are recorded live, and the title is more redolent of a pop-or rock-music event than a classical recital. I was interested to hear this release once, because Langdown is really a very good pianist, but I'm not sure how well it would stand up to repeated listening.
Stephen Pruslin

*we accept the views of all reviewers - however to quibble at length about the order of works in a recording of a live concert is surely not relevant - it is a personal opinion and the reviewer should learn to use the pause or track order programming on his CD player if he does not want to hear Beethoven immediately after Debussy.. and his objection to the title - well really.... of course there are many live recordings but only one in London by Christopher Langdown! - What could describe the CD better? As to the pedaling, the pianist says that in order to sustain certain harmonies adequately, it is not possible to play the left hand Habanera rhythm of La puerta del vino detached throughout even when using the middle sostenuto pedal. In the interest of consistency, Christopher employs the pedal right from the start (as do Gieseking and Michelangeli). Secondly, the reviewer's assertion is incorrect – Debussy himself did not provide any pedal markings whatsoever in Feux d'artifice , so the matter is left to the performer. Christopher uses the pedal for the opening to add resonance and colour.