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by John W. Lambert
It was a banner week in the Triangle for piano enthusiasts. The William S. Newman Artists Series, named in memory
of UNC's distinguished scholar, pianist, and teacher, got underway on
September 30 with a marvelous
recital in Hill Hall by Nelita
True,
of Eastman. Her concert was part of a three-day residency hosted by the
UNC Department of Music, and it was concurrently "family weekend" at
UNC, so there were some young prospects for UNC – and some parents
thereof – in attendance.
Her name is probably not familiar to the typical music lover or record
collector, although she's performed widely and recorded many works. Like
Dr. Newman, however, her life seems to have been devoted largely to teaching,
and her discography is limited for the most part to educational products.
That's a shame, for she's a splendid artist who can clearly do as well
as she teaches – and that she is a master teacher is evident from
her many, many students, including UNC's Thomas Otten!
The program itself was remarkable, even before she played the first
note, for although it encompassed many of the usual recital suspects – Haydn,
Beethoven, and Chopin – it began with Schumann and ended with works
by both Fauré and Poulenc. Now as our regular readers know, he
(or she) who plays Fauré is my friend – and he (or she)
who plays Fauré and Poulenc is automatically right up there with
the utmost cream of the crop. Wow!
True's performance of Schumann's Romance in F Sharp, Op. 28/2, seemed
a bit rushed but was finely shaded, and she brought out the inner voices
masterfully. She began Beethoven's C Major Sonata, Op. 2/3, like a house
afire but as her listeners settled into the reading her performance proved
engaging. The slow movement was spellbinding – she conveyed its
emotional depths with wondrous skill – and if the last two sections
again seemed somewhat pressed, her overview was sound. There is of course
much to be said for risk-taking in well-known works.
There weren't any program notes, but True introduced several numbers,
including Chopin's dark and – as she said – "ominous" Scherzo
in b flat minor, Op. 31. This, too, might have benefited from greater
lyricism but the interpretation was valid and gripping, and she was recalled
several times before the intermission.
Haydn's Sonata in D, H.XVI/37 was the evening's great revelation, perhaps
due to its placement on the program but surely augmented by True's magnificent
performance, which was clear and crisp and astutely paced. Her reading
gave constant delight, from start to finish.
So, too, did the closing groups – by Fauré (two impromptus
and an "improvisation" from the master's Op. 84) and Poulenc
(the Improvisation in a minor and the Toccata). There was exceptional
light and shade and insight in these works, surely the result of years
of study and thought, and in the last piece, True showed that she has
technique to burn, and the substantial audience knew it, too – she
was rapturously applauded and ultimately rewarded her listeners with
polished readings of a Chopin mazurka and a charming little waltz. This
was, by any standard, a brilliant concert, one that dazzled the intellect
and enriched the soul, too. Brava!
On the same night as True's UNC recital, Italian pianist
Gianni Della Libera made
his US debut in Asheville, at the Diana Worthham Theatre; he appeared
the next evening (10/1) in Ruggero Piano Company's Bösendorfer Hall,
playing a spanking new Fazioli
grand, which line the company now represents, and which instruments come
from
Sacile, the small town near Venice where the visiting artist was born
in 1966. Among premium piano lines, B'dorfer and Fazioli occupy special
places, and it's a feather in Richard Ruggero's cap that he offers both
brands. We've written about Faziolis previously – Marvin J. Ward
reviewed a wonderful book in which a Fazioli "plays" an important
role,
William T. Walker reviewed a CD by Susan
Chan
performed on one, and Carrboro pianist Greg McCallum encountered one
in New York in the fall of 2003 (cited in our news
column).
The relatively brief Raleigh program began with two Chopin polonaises – Op.
26/1 and Op. 53. Both were grandly played albeit somewhat larger than
life and almost certainly with more power than the composer himself might
have employed. The instrument took all the artist had to offer with room
to spare – it's a beauty to hear and to see, too, glistening in
the flattering light of the small, compact venue. Schubert's splendid "Wanderer
Fantasy" revealed a keyboardist who can bring light and shade to
his work although portions of this – like some of the Chopin – seemed
to these ears almost unrelenting in volume. For two sections of Keith
Jarrett's celebrated 1975 Köln concert – presumably in the
improviser's own transcription (described at http://www.eecs.umich.edu/~lnewton/music/KolnConcert.html
[inactive 5/06]) – Della
Libera used sheet music, and for reasons that are not altogether clear,
the results were not very satisfactory. Perhaps the idiom is not yet
part and parcel of his artistic profile. Gershwin's "Rhapsody in
Blue" (in its solo-piano incarnation) was altogether more successful,
although it often seemed hard-pressed – there are moments therein
for reflection, and surely in future performances those passages will
emerge a bit more relaxed than on this occasion. For sure, Della Libera
has a huge technique and awesome power. My chief regret is that there
were no samples of Italian keyboard music – neither early nor contemporary – from
this Italian artist, playing a great Italian piano. For the moment, he
shares a website with Alberto Crivellari at http://www.albertocrivellari.com/ilduopianistico/.
There was still more Schubert on the evening of October
2 when Frank Pittman, whose playing has meant so much to this writer
since he (Pittman) was
a student at UNC more years ago than either of us might care to remember,
offered a short program prefaced with Bach and Schoenberg in Meredith's
Carswell Recital Hall. Pittman's interests are wide-ranging, as his recital
demonstrated. Chances are good that his passion for literature has been
enhanced by his studies at UNCG, where his DMA awaits only the completion
of his dissertation. His remarks on the three selections – the
Prelude and five-voice Fugue in b-flat minor, S.867, from WTC I,
by Bach, Schoenberg's astonishingly brief and often (but not invariably)
astringent
[6] Kleine Klavierstücke, Op. 19, and Schubert's Sonata
in B-Flat, D.960 – were right on the money and delivered with a
bit of wit, too. The Bach was splendidly played, the inner voices radiant,
the architecture
of the great fugue clearly etched. Pittman made a strong case for the
Schoenberg – how sad it is that music now 94 years old must still
be argued for! – and brought its components to vivid life. At the
end of the last one, there was barely a second's pause before he launched
into the Schubert, creating in the process an extraordinary effect comparable
to one or two of Ray Kilburn's Peace College recitals but otherwise virtually
unheard – and unheard of – since the heyday of the great
Josef Hofmann, who was known for improvising bridges between selections
to avert the intrusion of applause. Here, in Carswell, a small room with
great "presence," the effect was like seeing a blossom open
at dawn – and it made the fact that the sonata was Schubert's last
major work all the more poignant; as Pittman had reminded us, this was
it, as the master was then cut down in the flower of his youth and creativity.
The performance was engaging and often gripping – this is great
stuff. It was yet another reminder of the importance of live performances,
as opposed to recordings by whomever, made whenever.... There were some
lapses in the finale, but the artist recovered fairly quickly. Pittman
is a significant artist by any standard, and an important teacher, and
a wonderful collaborator (who will on October 24 embark with Carol Chung
on a season-long survey of all the Mozart violin and piano sonatas – see
our calendar for details).
That he's living and working here is just one more plus about life in
the Triangle. He's worth going out of the
way to hear, anytime, anywhere.
To continue a sports analogy begun elsewhere in this
issue by Jeffrey
Rossman, it was pianist Kent Lyman, of Meredith College,
who found the bases loaded when he came up to bat on Tuesday, October
4, and the home run he hit brought in the other three and more, too.
Lyman's work – like Pittman's – has attracted our notice
many times before, and his recital – of music by Mozart, Brahms,
Richard Faith, and Prokofiev – was practically de rigueur for
area keyboard buffs. Never mind the piano itself, which – in retrospect – surely
gave Pittman fits, too, two days before.* It's apparently problematical
action was almost certainly responsible for some of the gaps in what
would otherwise have been crystalline runs in Mozart's frothy Sonata
in B-flat, K.281, which (like Nelita True, in her Beethoven last Friday)
began like a house afire. Fortunately, Lyman has the requisite chops
to pull it off at high speed, and pull it off he did, in the opening
and closing sections, too. The slow movement, marked "Andante amoroso," was
truly gorgeous, singing with great lyricism, straight from Mozart's and
Lyman's hearts to ours. Five selections from Brahms' Klavierstücke,
Op. 76, then enriched the proceedings. It's a fact that good pianists
can play anything, but this was a wide-ranging program, and insightful
readings of introspective pieces by Brahms don't come our way every day,
by any means. Carswell is small enough to be considered an intimate venue,
and Lyman's work in three capriccios and two intermezzi suggested the
rare experience of having a distinguished artist play for just one or
two other people.
Composer Richard Faith (b.1926) is all the rage hereabouts; his music
has turned up on Meredith programs and offerings of the Raleigh Symphony's
Free Spirits Ensemble. Lyman explained one possible reason – the
composer was here, a while back, and he played his Sonata No. 1 (1945-62)
during his visit. The pianist liked it enough to work it up himself,
and his performance was outstanding. This is contemporary music that
envelops listeners, rather than assaulting them. It's loaded with heart-warming
melodies including, in the finale, a close quotation of a grand old hymn
(George J. Evey's "Come ye thankful people, come"). It was
very enthusiastically received, too.
And then with only a few preparatory remarks, Lyman hauled us to another
place and time for the percussive and virtuosic Sonata No. 6 of Prokofiev,
which some find not very user-friendly, despite a few tunes that might
have been lifted from the composer's great ballets. It doesn't
do to play the "Wartime Sonatas" as if one were a machine,
but it helps to have machine-like repetitive-motion skills, and Lyman
does. As a result, the fast portions were very, very fast and precise,
the tempos were steady, and the cumulative effect was exhilarating. In
addition, the pianist's interpretive skills made the waltz movement
a gem within somewhat iron-clad – or perhaps armor-plated – surroundings.
For the record, Lyman's in the import-export business on the side, and
this program is going to get "the treatment" – he's taking
it to Brazil next week. One would be hard-pressed to come up with a better
sample of outstanding US musicianship.
*Note: That piano.... Hummm. UNC has two fairly new Steinways. "The
Symphony" (as in the NCS) has a new one (albeit with some probs).
NCSU just got a new piano. And Meredith needs a new one. Someone with
a passion for pianos – surely Meredith has trained such a person! – is
welcome to step forward. I'll bet that naming rights could be arranged.
And think how much the Meredith keyboard people – and area music
lovers – would appreciate it!
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