Listening With Peter Cooper

New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 736, 21 August 1953, Page 11

Listening With Peter Cooper

PETER COOPER is a New Zealander, but there seems little if anything in his piano playing of what is popularly regarded as the New Zealand temperament. It is neither brash, ebullient nor sentimental; nor is it polished in the 20th Century chromium-plated sense. lt is, in fact, quite unlike the playing of any other concert pianist who has been this way recently. Peter Cooper’s piano» playing is very much like Peter Cooper himself --- modest, thoughtful without being overwhelmed by conscious intellectualism, lively but not exuberant, assured but never bombastic. His performance of two Preludes and Fugues from "48," those in C Sharp, Minor and C Sharp Major respectively, illustrated clearly Peter Cooper’s interpretative

approach. The music was unfolded calmly and meticulously, and while one would have appreciated the glint of a little more gaiety both in the Prelude and the Fugue in C Sharp Major, the quiet reflectiveness seemed to create a sympathy between music, player and listener, revealing the depths of the music if not all its heights. The Beethoven Sonata, Op. 111, which followed was notable for the restrained dignity of the interpretation. Peter Cooper never over dramatised Beethoven's excitements nor sentimentalised the sorrow of the music, ‘confirming again his very personal style of playing. Peter Cooper neither plays the piano "at" you

= nor "to". you.: He: seems -through the radio at least-to be playing the piano to himself. You listen -with him. Maybe, after all, this is the best way of enjoying music over the

alr.

O.

J.