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Pianist Suejin Jung at Central Park West

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Suejin Jung at Central Park West 2/15/2010

Suejin Jung, 2/15/2020 at Central Park West

Suejin Jung and Gustavo Miranda-Bernales

Pianist Suejin Jung brought a guest pianist to her February 15th recital at the Shoemaker Salon at Central Park West.  Chilean pianist Gustavo Miranda-Bernales and Suejin took turns at the piano, ending with a four-handed duet.

Curtis Curtis-Smith: Etude No. 9

Gustavo Miranda-Bernales opened the recital with Curtis Curtis-Smith’s Etude #9 “for the Independent Rubato of the Right Hand”. A millenial work published in the year 2000, it quickly revealed its own unique and pleasant harmonic spatter. There were also hints of jazz and new age piano.

Debussy: Feux d’Artifice

Gustavo Miranda-Bernales

Gustavo Miranda-Bernales plays Debussy

Debussy’s Feux d’Artifice (“fireworks”) is a swirling, percussive drama. Mr. Miranda-Bernales gave a clear, jagged rendition, climaxing with a gut-punch from the bottom A of the Shoemaker Steinway, followed by a searing glissando and then fading away over a distant thunder of rolling bass.

Published in 1913, the work now appears to herald the opening salvos of the First World War.

Debussy: Étude 7 pour les degrés chromatiques

Suejin Jung played this challenging étude with ease. Musically, it felt somewhat harsh and unrewarding, but as a technical exercise it was impressive.

Debussy: Préludes, Book 1

Suejin Jung played the following well-known preludes from Book 1. I particularly appreciated the first, Les sons et les parfums. Apropos of nothing, Les sons ends with the same bottom A that I mentioned in Mr. Bernales’ Feux d’Artifice.

Franz Schubert: Fantasie in C major Op. 15 “Wanderer”

Schubert’s restless, charming Fantasie contains hints of the darker edge of his later sonatas. But even in Gustavo Miranda-Bernales’ commanding hands, it could not rise to the level of e.g. the great D 960 sonata in B flat Major.

Nevertheless, MIranda-Bernales’ compelling execution of this difficult work earned him raucus applause.

Frédéric Chopin: Sonata No. 3 in B minor

Robin Shoemaker, Gustavo Morales and Suejin Jung

Robin, Gustavo and Suejin

Chopin’s Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor Op. 58 is like a tray of jewels spread in front of the listener. How can one describe such glittering beauty and magical craft?

I was struck by how balanced Suejin Jung’s presentation was. Each movement and every section felt not too hot and not too cold, but just right. Her Largo was exquisitely paced and luminous, Chopin at his most sublime.

And even the galloping Presto, which opens with weighty romanticism reminiscent of Schubert, was reined back sufficiently by Suejin that it morphed from manic to majestic.

For this reviewer, Suejin Jung’s Chopin was the highlight of the evening. It was still playing in my head on the long ride home.

Encore: Fauré Le Pas Espagnol

Le Pas Espagnol is the last section of Faure’s Dolly Suite for four-hand piano. For this rousing Spanish dance, the pianists sat together with Gustavo playing the primo (upper) part. It was a delightful way to close the evening, leaving everyone with a smile on their face.

Pianist Ivan Gusev plays at Private Event

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Ivan Gusev

Pianist Ivan Gusev was born in Kazakhstan. He has two degrees from the Moscow Conservatory, an institution that produces pianists of the pedigree of Emil Gilels, Sviatoslav Richter etc.

So when I received an invitation to attend Ivan’s recital in a private home, I was thrilled. A Russian School pianist playing Rachmaninov! I couldn’t wait to hear him play.

The program opened with some light Mozart. Thereafter the recital grew progressively more intense, closing with fireworks in the form of a virtuoso Rachmaninov prelude.

Mozart: Sonata No. 12 in F Major K322

Mozart’s Allegro opens friskily, bouncing back and forth to minor key arpeggios, with glimpses of Beethoven-like drama. Gusev glided through this with confidence.

The gentle Adagio over a clockwork (Alberti) bass introduced us to Gusev’s signature head-back eyes-closed happy face. Mozart can have that effect on people!

The closing Allegro Assai was a little more rambunctuous, giving Gusev room to show some pianistic flair.

Schubert: Four Impromptus, Op. 90

Gusev addressing the audience

Schubert’s weightier warmth allowed Gusev room to be more expressive. Here, as throughout the recital, I was struck by how focused he was and how rich his sound. The deep low end of the house Steinway helped.

Grieg: Six Poetic Tone Pictures, Op. 3

These short Grieg works are, as Gusev noted, very romantic. He played them with passion, but to me the works themselves were incoherent.

Here and there we heard echoes of a folk dance or a lullaby. At other times, Grieg sounded like Chopin having a bad practice day.

Rachmaninov: Three Etudes-Tableaux

Of the selected Etudes-Tableaux, I most enjoyed the first (A minor Op. 39 No. 2 “The Sea and the Seagulls”). Gusev’s resonant harmonics glowed. His right hand crossed his left in a slow, mesmerizing arc for the bass motif. Indeed his presentation of Rachmaninov’s cacophonous layers was so riveting that I momentarily forgot to breathe.

The E-flat minor had more of a movie-theme feel. It was expansive, pounding and appropriately slushy. After the opening drama and subsequent clatter the theme returned, crumbling into dissonance. Again Gusev projected emotion with controlled intensity.

Gusev gave an expansive, weighty performance of the C minor Op. 33 no. 3 (compare with Yuja Wang, Berlin 2018) . When the big theme came forward over a dominant low end, the result was quite different from what you hear in other performances. I loved it.

Rachmaninov: Prelude in B-Flat Major, Op. 23 No. 2

From the resounding opening through dazzling two-handed descents to glittering right hand swirls, Gusev threw everything he had into this showpiece. He appeared enraptured, playing with such vigor that the piano shook.

This was a remarkable performance, larger than the pianist and the setting. While one could nitpick here and there, I felt that this was Rachmaninov as he should be played. As the final chord faded, someone shouted “yeah!”. The pianist stood up with a huge grin. He knew that he had nailed it.

Encores: Chopin Waltzes

The first encore was Chopin’s Waltz in A minor Op. Post. This is a forgiving work that pianists can easily put their personal stamp on. Gusev’s Waltz was adventurous, with liberal rubato and fast upper register runs.  Finally, Gusev played Chopin’s Minute Waltz Op. 64 No. 1.

Russian soul?

Ivan Gusev’s performance style is low-key. Sometimes he leans into the piano or tilts his head back. At other times, he raises an arm to punctuate a phrase. His facial expressions are not theatrical. They are those of a pianist immersed in creating an authentic musical experience.

With the exception of Grieg (for which I hold the composer responsible), Gusev’s entire recital was enjoyable. But his Rachmaninov outshone everything else. It was simply stunning.

Was this because Gusev is, as he explained to me, culturally 75% Russian? Or is it more a product of his Moscow Conservatory education? From either perspective, I miss only the vodka and zakuski.

Pianist Jocelyn Lai at Central Park West

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Jocelyn Lai at the Shoemaker Salon, February 2019

On Saturday evening of February 23rd 2019, I was privileged to attend pianist Jocelyn Lai‘s recital at Robin Shoemaker’s residence on Central Park West. The program was an interesting mix anchored by one of Schubert’s last piano sonatas.

Haydn: Sonata No. 55 in B flat Major, Hob XVI 41

In Haydn’s time, Ms. Lai noted, the Sonata would normally be a salon performance. Indeed the tight acoustics of Robin’s salon suited Haydn’s chirpy 1784 work. His twirls twinkled like confetti from Ms. Lai’s fingers, making for a delightful start to our evening.

Jacques Hétu (1938-2010): Variations pour piano, Op. 8

If Haydn was an icebreaker, Hétu’s dissonance-driven work was more like shattered icicles. As Ms. Lai explained, Hétu explores the complete range of expression of the modern piano in just 9 minutes.

Although Hétu was somewhat opaque to me, I take comfort from the fact that a musician of Ms. Lai’s caliber values it. It is a credit to her interpretation that the rest of us could find moments to appreciate in this eclectic work.

Ravel: La Valse (arr. for solo piano)

Jocelyn Lai speaking

Jocelyn described Ravel’s La Valse as a waltz that gradually disintegrates. In her luxuriously lugubrious performance we heard (and felt through the floor) that disintegration. It was a sonic feast on Mr. Shoemaker’s deep-voiced Steinway.

Although the work is often associated with the collapse of Austro-Hungary during the first World War, I heard also in Jocelyn’s performance what Ravel referred to as “the light of the chandeliers bursts forth at the fortissimo”, an early and positive motif that recurs later in the work.

In Ms. Lai’s hands, Ravel’s conflicted masterpiece lurched from order to chaos, joy to anguish and back. And yet in its final downward slump it somehow was triumphant. I could not help but think that the pianist must have felt similarly after such a workout.

Jocelyn Lai with Robin Shoemaker

Schubert: Sonata No. 21 in C minor D 958

Schubert’s Sonata was a huge contrast to the weight of Ravel. After opening with Beethoven-esque drama, the Sonata evolved into more Schubertian territory, with fleeting melodies and, as Ms. Lai noted, a somewhat haunting demeanor. The second movement was absolutely beautiful, and perhaps more haunting than the first.

In her introduction to the Schubert, Ms. Lai described the last movement (Allegro) as “incessant galloping” and joked about its pianistic challenges. However she sailed through all those hand-crossings and gave a rousing performance that had some of us practically dancing in our seats.

Albéniz: Triana from Iberia Bk. 2 No. 3

We laughed at Ms. Lai’s imaginative take on this work (a guy with too much cologne!) and enjoyed her performance. Albéniz’ hand crossings looked harder than Schubert’s, but Jocelyn Lai never let technical challenge get in the way of expression.

In Conclusion

Audiences appreciate when a musician introduces the works in their recital. Jocelyn provided insights that helped us get into the right frame of mind for each item, particularly valuable for the inscrutable modernism of Jaques Hétu, and for Ravel’s mercurial La Valse.

Beyond such professionalism, we saw in Ms. Lai a pianist immersed in her repertoire. Her performance was about Haydn, Hétu, Ravel, Schubert and Albéniz, not herself. This leaves it to your reviewer to note that she is an excellent pianist and her recital was a blast.

You can learn more about Jocelyn Lai on her web site. The site contains her calendar of upcoming events, including information about her participation in the Hilton Head International Piano Competition where there is a page devoted entirely to her.

UPDATE: Jocelyn Lai NYC recital March 4th 2019 – click for detail