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You are here: Home / Archives for Concerts / Public concerts

Pianist Yun Janice Lu in Rhode Island

Wednesday, January 8th, 2020 by Ken Leave a Comment

Yun Janice Lu, portrait by Craig Maynard

Yun Janice Lu, by Craig Maynard

Yun Janice Lu

On January 4th, 2020, I visited Craig Maynard’s Core Memory venue in South Kingston, Rhode Island for a recital by pianist Yun Janice Lu.

Born in Taiwan, Ms. Lu is currently a postgraduate music student at Yale University. I had never seen her play, but Core Memory hosts excellent artists so I had high expectations.

Shortly before the recital began, I noticed a young woman sitting nearby, reading sheet music on an iPad. It took me a few moments to recognize our soloist, sitting with her audience while preparing.

Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 24 in F Sharp Major Op. 78

Yun Janice Lu opened with Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 24 Op. 78, one of his shortest. (Sir Andras Schiff gave an excellent lecture about this work.)

She played an abbreviated version of the first movement, so the entire sonata lasted less than 8 minutes. It was a good introduction to Ms. Lu’s low-key, immersive approach. From the serene opening of the Adagio to the flirty call-response phrasing of the Allegro vivace, her Beethoven was fluid and convincing.

Janice plays Prokofiev

Yun Janice Lu playing Prokofiev

Prokofiev: Piano Sonata No. 7 in B Flat Major Op. 83

The jagged dissonance of Prokofiev’s Sonata No. 7 was in striking contrast to Beethoven’s harmonious sonata, taking us across time from the Napoleonic wars to World War 2.

Ms. Lu appeared to relish Prokofiev’s edgy rhythms, at times rising from the bench with her hair flying. It was a striking performance that mesmerized the audience. Afterwards, someone commented that her fingers must be glowing.

Despite the virtuosity that Prokofiev demands, Janice most impressed me in the opening of the second movement. Here, Prokofiev sets aside his personal idiom and borrows a progression from Schumann’s “Wehmut”, composed a century earlier. This was rendered with haunting beauty by Ms. Lu, as you can hear in the following audio snippet.

https://www.rovingpianist.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Janice-Prokofiev-1.mp3

 

Schumann: Kreisleriana Op. 16

Janice Lu at Core Memory January 2020

Yun Janice Lu at Core Memory, Rhode Island

There was a lot to like in Yun Janice Lu’s Kreisleriana. My favorite part was the second movement (“Sehr innig und nicht zu rasch”), which contains one of Schumann’s most beautiful melodies.

Here Ms. Lu’s graceful phrasing and artful pedal painted Schumann’s intertwining voices on a rapturous canvas of harmonics that seemed to rise over us.

Encore: Ravel Jeux d’Eau

Watching Ms. Lu’s nimble performance of Ravel’s melodious work, it seemed that she really liked it. At least once, a hint of a smile crossed her face. And a couple of times Ravel really got her bicycling (see Closing Thoughts).

Encore: Debussy Etude No. 11

New to me, Debussy’s Etude No. 11 was full of `sound-alike moments reflecting rhythms and harmonies from his other compositions. Like the preceding Ravel, Ms. Lu seemed to have a special affinity for this work and gave an evocative performance, full of impressionist sparkle.

Closing Thoughts

I greatly enjoyed our time with Yun Janice Lu. Sociable and at ease in the spotlight, she is not the kind of pianist to swagger at the keyboard or cue her audience on what to feel. Her performance had an unforced, natural flow, and she had a way of making everything look easy.

The only expressive flair that I noticed from Janice was her “bicycle”, which seemed to come out mostly during musical peaks. You can see it in the following snippet from her Beethoven.

Filed Under: Concerts, Public concerts Tagged With: Beethoven, Core Memory, Craig Maynard, Debussy, Janice Lu, Kreisleriana, Peacedale, piano, Prokofiev, Ravel, Rhode Island, Schumann, Yale University, Yun Janice Lu

Denis Matsuev Overwhelms Carnegie

Wednesday, October 23rd, 2019 by Ken Leave a Comment

Denis Matsuev

Denis Matsuev strode on to the Carnegie stage on Sunday October 20th, 2019.

Well over 6 feet tall, he looked powerful and solid, the proverbial Russian bear.

Outside Carnegie, a group of protesters chanted in Russian that Matsuev supports war. But surely there are more effective ways to critique Russian foreign policy than harassing a world-class pianist!

Liszt: Piano Sonata in B minor

Liszt’s Sonata opens with a deep pulse in the Steinway’s chocolately low end. Matsuev paced this perfectly. Then it explodes into drama and episodic wandering, interspersed with archetypally Liszt-ian hammering climaxes.

This is a self-consciously great work. It is difficult for the pianist to imbue it with gravitas, because the work is patchy and wanders a lot. In Matsuev’s hands it felt harmonically muddy and sometimes rushed. For comparison, here is a recording of Marta Argerich.

The Roving Pianist Concert Clown award goes to the man who stood and started clapping before the last notes died away.

Liszt: Mephisto Waltz No. 1 S. 514

The Mephisto Waltz gives the pianist more to work with. It is an adventurous, lively work and Matsuev was wholly on top of it, sometimes to excess. Again there was some rushing. To be fair, the audience wanted a virtuoso performance and Matsuev obliged. At times the piano shook visibly from his raw power. This was the Matsuev machine we had come to see, a massive performance that brought the audience to its feet.

Tchaikovsky: Dumka in C minor Op. 59

Denis Matsuev at Carnegie Oct. 2019

Denis Matsuev with flowers Carnegie 2019

Tchaikovsky’s symphonies and concertos are the core of this cinematic Russian composer’s public image. Piano-lovers are familiar with his The Seasons. The Dumka is less well-known. It combines oh-so-Russian descending minor progressions with a dance that alternately sounds like fairies and trolls. Alas the dancers are unable to rise above the beautiful gloom.

From a pianist famed for how much noise he can get out of a piano, Matsuev’s Dumka was an unexpected treasure.

Stravinsky: Three Movements from Petrushka

Here again was a percussive showpiece for Matsuev to strut his stuff. I’ve heard many pianists play Stravinsky, and Matsuev’s rendition was one of the more impressive. But my response was muted because by then my appetite for hammering was overshadowed by the need to hear something more fulfilling.

Encores

Like Yuja Wang at Carnegie in 2016, Denis Matsuev really came alive with his encores.

As I have mentioned to other concert pianists, the audience may not recognize your encores. Even just naming the composer will help us figure it out. But Matsuev did not talk to us, and I recognized only two of his four encores. Later I identified the Sibelius by browsing recordings of Matsuev. Of the remaining unidentified encore, I can only say that it was light and possibly Russian.

Rachmaninov Études-Tableaux Op. 39 No. 2 in A minor

Rachmaninov was, for this reviewer, the highlight of Matsuev’s recital. It was lighter in the left hand than I prefer, but still had that heart-bursting cacophonous climax that I first heard played by the young Russian pianist Ivan Gusev.

Sibelius Etude No. 2 from Thirteen Pieces, Op. 76

I did not recognize this encore, but I could tell it was Russian. Wrong! Although it could pass for a Russian sailors’ hornpipe, it turned out to have been Sibelius. Not so far off geographically, I suppose.

Grieg-Ginzburg In the Hall of the Mountain King

Matsuev’s last encore was the Ginzburg arrangement of In the Hall of the Mountain King from Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite No. 1. Matsuev sauced it up by playing the declamatory first note and extending the subsequent pause while chuckling with the audience. There followed an unashamedly hammered, ridiculously over-speed performance that was breathtaking to watch.

Final Thoughts

I enjoyed this concert, but I wish that Denis Matsuev had chosen a more integrated Liszt work, e.g. Harmonies du Soir. Compared with Rachmaninov’s Études-Tableaux, Liszt’s B minor Sonata seemed like a waste of Matsuev’s talent. If his audience wants him to hammer the piano, Rachmaninov offers plenty options.

Filed Under: Concerts, Public concerts Tagged With: Carnegie Hall, Denis Matsuev, Dumka, Edvard Grieg, Etudes Tableaux, harmonies du soir, Liszt, Mephisto Waltz, Petrushka, Putin, Rachmaninov, Russian Bear, Sibelius, steinway, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky, Vladimir Putin

Pianist Gábor Farkas at the Classical Bridge Festival

Tuesday, July 30th, 2019 by Ken Leave a Comment

Gabor Farkas in New York

Pianist Gábor Farkas performed at the Bruno Walter Auditorium in New York on July 29th, 2019. This event was part of the Classical Bridge Festival organized by New York Concert Artists & Associates.

Farkas’ program of Chopin and Liszt was enticing. It consisted of 4 Impromptus, a Mazurka (C sharp minor Op. 50 No. 3) and a Ballade (No. 1, G minor) by Chopin, followed by selections from Liszt’s Années de Pelèrinages.

Farkas has a long list of credentials and came on stage projecting relaxed confidence. His technical prowess was soon evident. His fast runs were so smooth that one could (hypothetically) balance a glass of wine on the back of his hands. He looked VERY good.

Chopin

I love Chopin and if you play Chopin well, I love you too! I wanted to be enchanted by Gábor Farkas, but somehow I wasn’t. Nowhere was this more evident than in Chopin’s painful yet ultimately triumphant Ballade No. 1 in G minor.

Farkas lost me in the opening bars due to a moment of unconvincing rubato, but regained his momentum and turned in a respectable performance with plenty of fireworks. When he finished, there was rowdy cheering.

While Farkas was agile and expressive, something felt “off” about this Ballade. I consulted the gentleman in the next seat. We agreed that it was a problem of authenticity. Farkas’ played with great competence, but the music did not seem to inhabit him.

Liszt

In contrast, Gábor Farkas was in his element with Liszt, excelling in low-end hammering power, octaves and huge climaxes. There are few more entertaining composers than Liszt for such drama.

Later, Farkas joked that the piano would no longer be in tune. Of course Liszt would have broken it… but I digress! Liszt is not at the top of my list (sic), but it was good… listening.

Conclusion

Gábor Farkas’ signature move at the piano is tilting his head back and staring into space as he plays. This communicates little. And that was my quibble with this otherwise impressively competent pianist when playing Chopin. His feelings were opaque.

The pianist is the conductor of the audience. We like him/her to lead us, particularly with a Romantic composer like Chopin. That’s not to say that we want the pianist to over-act at the keyboard. We can leave that to the adorable Lang Lang! But give us some cues, show us that you feel something.

There are subtle and not-so-subtle ways to project emotions to an audience. But you can’t just stare into space and expect us to know what you feel.

Filed Under: Concerts, Public concerts Tagged With: Chopin Ballade, Classical Bridge Festival, Gabor Farkas, Lang Lang, Liszt

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