The program proposed by Dumont who, as a good connoisseur of musical rhetoric, takes as much care to please as to teach and convince, is rich in intricacies. His recital ended on the Prelude and Fugue in A minor BWV 543, work played by Mendelssohn, commented by Schumann and finally transcribed by Liszt for the piano.
On a trip to Montpellier, the latter would have shown an organist friend three ways of interpreting this masterful score: a classical, sober and measured version, a more colorful version, but respecting the subtle principles of balance and moderation, and a third performed “like a charlatan” to dazzle the public.
In the vast constellation of possible interpretations, Dumont’s style unquestionably joins the second proposal of the renowned Hungarian concert artist. The Romantics had seen in this vast opus a potential for rhapsodic freedom that Dumont excels in highlighting, imprinting slight inflections on the tempo to underline the sequences, finding the right balance between the magical infinite progression of the rigorous writing and the spontaneity of the moment – like the dazzling final cadence – reminding us that Bach was himself a remarkable improviser.
Striking stylistic contrast
Anxious to capture the attention from the outset, Dumont begins his recital with an accessible exordium, the Italian Concerto in F major, of pleasant and sunny style, imitated from Vivaldi, before continuing with the more demanding and very elegant English Suite No. 3. It took a few moments to realize that the ingenious interpreter was playing these two works by Bach, imitating on the piano the phonic sobriety of the harpsichord, whereas, later, in the prelude and fugue, the Steinway will sound with the monumentality of a cathedral organ.
The English suite is not devoid of refined poetry: in the Saraband in particular, Dumont deploys a treasure of affects, of an intense musicality, articulating there like silks the generous embellishments of the reprise, obtaining a tasty legato in the transitional Gavotte II – Musette, or driving more freely the periods of the Jitter.