EIF Music reviews: Raphaël Feuillâtre | Jordan Rakei | Rising Stars with Leonore Piano Trio

Raphaël Feuillâtre ★★★★★

Queen’s Hall

What already felt like quite an ambitious programme surveying guitar music from the Baroque to our own times also proved a slow reveal of the formidable talents of Djibouti-born French guitarist Raphaël Feuillâtre. His technical prowess was breathtaking, his musical insights striking.

Things began simply enough with a silky smooth, sensitive Bach C major Prelude and a more dramatic Couperin Medée, full of appropriately fiery fury. Feuillâtre’s recital really burst into vivid life, though, in Miguel Llobet’s Variations on a Theme of Sor just before the interval, which demonstrated the performer’s dexterity beyond any doubt: from glassy, ghostly harmonics to flashy left-hand-only plucking. The second half stayed largely in Spain for some classic guitar tunes, though Feuillâtre’s vision of Albéniz’s famous Asturias was a crisp, almost violent one, delivered with laser-like precision.

After the madcap and thoroughly entertaining antics of the closing Triaela III: Clown Down by French composer Roland Dyens, Feuillâtre returned for what is surely one of the best-known guitar pieces of them all – Tarrega’s Recuerdos de la Alhambra – but not before a quick check of his fingertips to make sure they were up to it. He was a focused, self-contained performer, apparently in communion with his instrument at times, and he charmed and captivated the Queen’s Hall listeners with his modesty, his sincerity and his unassuming flamboyance. David Kettle

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MUSIC

Jordan Rakei ★★★

Usher Hall

With five albums under his belt, including new release The Loop, London-based New Zealander Jordan Rakei made his belated Edinburgh debut to an audience hungry for his 21st century soul music. On a stage decorated with homely standard lamps, he peppered his set with songs of domestic contentment: Flowers, for his wife, and Hopes and Dreams, a bare piano ballad inspired by his baby son.

Thoughtful opener Learning set the tone with his five-piece band locking into a mellow groove embellished by a rising tide of backing vocals, with plangent bass and shimmering percussion flowing straight into the next song. At times, the sound balance was a touch boomy with tom drums dominating.

Rakei flitted between upright and electric piano, acoustic and electric guitar, strapping on the latter for the mild reggae inflections of Bruises. The audience followed through on Feel It, clapping and singing along on cue. There were whoops of recognition for Wildfire with its fluid piano lines and tight Afrobeat-accented guitar licks and much appreciation for a tabla solo. Rakei was open to requests but the rapt audience left it late. Happily, there was mutual agreement that the final song of the set should be the slick, poppy R&B number Mind’s Eye, before the band were easily coaxed back for an encore. Fiona Shepherd

MUSIC

Rising Stars with Leonore Piano Trio ★★★

The Hub

It felt like being granted a privileged glimpse of an exclusive world. Three older musicians, several younger ones, talk of intensive rehearsals, unnamed repertoire. If you knew, you knew. If you didn’t – well, maybe you should.

There was a bit of a comms issue with the otherwise enjoyable evening at the Hub in the company of the three established musicians of the Leonore Piano Trio, plus five younger players they had been mentoring. Was nobody going to spell out what was going on? It seemed not – which was a shame, because the performances were strong and characterful.

Leonore violinist Benjamin Nabarro and cellist Gemma Rosefield sat flanking violinist Letizia Gullino and violist Wanshu Qiu for what was quite a raw, urgent Ravel String Quartet, with a nervy slow movement and a fiery finale: probably not how you’d want to hear the piece often, but provocative and enlightening all the same.

The Schumann Piano Quintet that followed – led by Leonore pianist Tim Horton, plus a full quartet of younger players – was far more immediately persuasive: it was rich and densely argued, with beautifully smooth gear changes and an abundant sense of childlike joy. A little context, however, would have made the evening all the more fulfilling. David Kettle