It is salutary to be reminded sometimes that a performing artist should not be expected to produce results with the predictability of a slot machine responding to sixpences.
According to the programme, John Antoniadis, who played at the Barbour Hall last night, is learning a radically new technique under the guidance of Claudio Arrau, with whom he is studying in the U.S. under scholarship.
There were so many signs in his playing of exciting accomplishment that several miscalculations and inaccuracies can be blamed on the technical and emotional problems of adjusting to a new approach. An unsatisfactory piano did not help.
Noble tone
He attacked the Brahms Variations on a Theme of Handel so fiercely that it is not surprising that he was physically and mentally spent by the time he came to the great fugue. However, a noble singing tone in the slow movement of Bach’s Italian Concerto, a moody and brilliant account of Liszt’s B. minor Ballade and a strong spiky performance of Prokofieff’s third sonata, allowed that in all.
Antoniada has made great progress When he is able to marry his intensity of feeling to a technique which will consistently express his intentions, he promises to be a pianist of whom Rhodesia will be proud.