by Peter Sotheran (05.12.2019)
Swiss-born Susanna Braun returned to play at Stokesley in response to audience requests following her earlier performance at Redcar. Braun’s programme featured three substantial works, a Bach partita and sonatas by Beethoven and Prokofiev.
Bach’s Partita no. 6 ranks alongside the Goldberg Variations for the demands it makes of the performer. Braun faced its daunting complexity with brilliant display of technical skill. Referring to her mastery of the instrument, an audience member commented after the concert, ‘I’m sure that was exactly as Bach would have wanted it performed.’
Braun’s interpretation of Beethoven’s Sonata in A-flat (op.110) struck a fine balance between the changing dynamics of intimacy and introspection. Her light touch in the reflective passages contrasted well with the more assertive passages in this work of finely graduated light and shade.
The opening of Prokofiev’s single movement Sonata no.3 (op.28) was bursting with energy before subsiding in gentle lyricism. This was Prokofiev’s ‘lull before the storm’ and Braun gave full rein to the blasting energy of the middle section before once again subsiding to tranquility and an expectant pause with was followed by a virtuoso display of the composer’s fireworks. Susanna Braun is a name to watch for in the future.