Simon Callaghan

Reviews

Howard Thomas, Croydon Advertiser (Mussorgsky’s ‘Pictures’ at Fairfield Hall)

Tuesday Lunchtime Concert: September 19th 2006

With never a note out of place, Simon Callaghan stayed within the bounds of safety as he reasonably could in a programme of varied styles.  His ‘Mainly Mozart’ concert of last January in this series led us to expect great fluency and he didn’t disappoint in the slightest as he glided dream-like through Schumann’s.Arabeske, Op. 18 and moved fluently into the subtle humour of Haydn’s Sonata in G (1776).

That much alone was impressive enough, not the least because at a few days’ notice, he was replacing his teacher, the ailing Yonty Solomon, which is no enviable position in which to be.

But the remainder of the admirable programme was a major tour-de-force,  highly-coloured reading of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, in which Callaghan vividly and faultlessly described each tableau, powerful (that Gate) or delicate (The Unhatched Chicks), without ever losing sight of the balance of the whole. If there were any reason not to want an encore, it was only so as to leave this ringing in the ears as we departed.