Naomi Campbell performs her Sonata for Piano (according to Samuel VII and YouTube)

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2012
(Click here to go directly to the Festival web-site)

3 March

And a cracking performance it is!

Shunning designer wear for a frock borrowed (on the sly) from Katie Derham, Campbell cuts a stunning figure, as she sits silently, contemplating the black interleaved with the white.

Then, in a shot of her actually at the piano, we see her hesitate, before unleashing this piece of compressed energy. For the entire sonata, although in two quite different movements, lasts just 15 seconds, without repeats. (With repeats, which are intermeshed in a complicated way, it could take days, which is longer than can be uploaded to the relevant web-site.)

In a naive act, as if of rage, we are reminded of nothing so much as Bartók's Allegro barbaro, and then, in the contrasting mood, of his well-known nuance for 'night music'. How good, then, that Campbell turned down, in favour of this work, a commission for a Theme and 57 Variations on an Original Melody by Thomas Adès!

Just the first in a strand dubbed 'Supermodels play Sonatas'*.


End-notes

* Although, personally, I'm with Nietzsche still - and waiting for the hypermodel to emerge.


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