This preview has been provided by St. Stephen’s Concert Series.
“Sunday afternoon at Isabella Stewart Gardner’s Calderwood Hall, Andrew Tyson took us on a journey across three centuries of keyboard experiences, from Handel to Scriabin. By turns thoughtful, introspective, daring and energetic, his playing made the lidless piano evoke a great campfire, uniting and enthralling the audience. Tyson is not just another virtuoso pianist doing quadruple axels. Our great pleasure was seeing a pianist who has thought deeply about every phrase, every cadence, and has decided on his own interpretation; more often than not, he is convincing.”
The above paragraph comes from a review written by Leon Golub for the Boston Musical Intelligencer. The review is titled “Virtual Campfire at Gardner.” At the Gardner recital the audience surrounded the piano. This accounts for the piano’s being lidless and it no doubt promoted the image of people gathered around a campfire. But to conjure up a “great campfire” required some pianistic magic from Durham native Andrew Tyson.
There may be another virtual campfire on June 1 at 4:00 pm when Andrew performs essentially the same recital at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Durham. This recital is the final event of the 2013-2014 season of the St. Stephen’s Concert Series.
The first half of Andrew’s concert will consist of works by Handel (his genial “Harmonious Blacksmith” variations), Mendelssohn (the Rondo Capriccioso), and Mozart (two splendid pieces in c minor, the Fantasy, K.475 and the Sonata, K.457). Then, following intermission, will come the featured work, Schumann’s monumental Symphonic Etudes. (According to Golub, “Tyson presented Schumann as a force of nature.”)
Many significant events have occurred in Andrew’s blossoming international career since his last solo recital at St. Stephen’s: debut recitals in New York and Washington, a performance this May with the St Luke’s Chamber Orchestra, a UK tour last fall as soloist with the Hallé orchestra, an all-Chopin recital in Brussels, concerts in Switzerland and Poland, concerts last January in Moscow, not to mention local appearances with the Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle and the Ciompi String Quartet. Is it any surprise that Andrew is a 2013 winner of the prestigious Avery Fisher career award?
Tickets ($21) will be available at the door and the concert is free for those 18 or under. Should one bring virtual marshmallows for the virtual campfire? Not a bad idea.
