Page 503 - Media Coverage Book - 75th Aldeburgh Festival 2024
P. 503
09 June 2024
REVIEW – DANIEL PIORO PLAYS BRAHMS VIOLIN
SONATAS AT ALDEBURGH FESTIVAL 2024
9TH JUNE 2024
Daniel Pioro prioritises intentional acts, a behaviour evident in his stagecraft, musicianship,
posture and expression. This attention to detail establishes an unusual connection between
audience member and performer of the kind I’m certain he’d appreciate even if it is, as a
listener, slightly unsettling.
Pioro opened his Aldeburgh Festival’s residency with a crowd-pleasing all-Brahms
programme that met with raucous applause. This a reported fact that is at odds with his
Festival interview that fronts the weighty programme book. In it, Pioro communicates his
dissatisfaction with the classical music industry: “our industry is structured – largely – around
regurgitation, minimal rehearsal, and programming with a ‘bums of seats’ policy that is
destined to devour itself and fail by definition.”
This criticism not only of the industry but audience appetite has the perhaps unintended
consequence of distancing the crowd from performer before a single note is played. A way of
protecting or elevating? It’s difficult to tell for sure, but it’s thorny. Before Pioro steps out
onto the stage I read the programme notes experiencing feelings of hostility. Not great in the
final few minutes before a concert.
