Legato Arts Presents Sean Botkin, piano
Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, New York, NY
February 24, 2016
Beauty and frustration are often lifelong companions of the artist—and also of the reviewer. Thus were my thoughts last evening at the powerful performance given by pianist Sean Botkin. I will confess that when I saw the program, including four mainstream composers, I was afraid it might be unimaginative. However, Mr. Botkin did program two rarities by two of them: Prokofiev’s First Sonata and Rachmaninoff’s First Sonata. The Russians clearly suit his type of pianism, and he has an affinity for them.
Every time I tended to get annoyed by a patch of sound that was too unrelievedly massive or too loud, then something sublime would occur, and I could forgive all. If I had any suggestion to make to this obviously well-equipped pianist, it would be: It is more interesting to “draw the listener in” to your sound world and the music, rather than to “push the music out” to them. This type of over-projection reminds me very much of “old-school” Juilliard thinking.
Mr. Botkin began with the Prokofiev, his Opus 1, written at age sixteen, revised a couple years later, and obviously well-thought of enough that it is included in his complete sonata corpus. Botkin played with controlled passion—there was lovely elasticity in the cadences and where the composer has indicated ritardando. The tone quality was beautiful, never bangy, and his architectural sense made this uncharacteristic work sound better than it actually is, albeit a bit blustery.
Mr. Botkin then followed with one of the great middle-period Beethoven sonatas, the G major, Op. 31 No. 1. It was in the Adagio grazioso middle movement that some of the loveliest playing of the whole evening occurred. He handled the extravagant pre-Rossinian operatic lines and accompaniments with sensitivity and elegance—his trill ability is miraculously even. However, in the first movement, he didn’t seem to emphasize the parodic element: Beethoven was either mocking a string quartet whose first violinist played before everyone else, or a pianist whose hands couldn’t play together, inverting the usual “left-hand before right.” It lacked impish humor. “However” however: he did scrupulously observe every single phrasing and articulation marking, even the ones that are less than convenient for the interpreter. The Rondo finale, was played too fast for a true Allegretto, despite Schindler’s unreliable testimony (as always) that it was to be played Allegro.
The first part of the recital concluded with a headlong performance of Chopin’s Fourth Scherzo, Op. 54 in E major. Here, in the sorrowful middle section, was the other highlight of the evening for me—absolutely gorgeous, intimate, lyrical playing. The outer sections lacked transparency and, for lack of a more politically correct word: “anima.” It was aggressive rather than elegant, and the harmonic shifts were not savored with sufficient sensuality.
After intermission, Mr. Botkin tackled the daunting and huge First Sonata by Rachmaninoff, the one the composer himself said that no one would ever play. Mr. Botkin has recorded it, and his mastery is evident in every passage, as is his clear point of view, again emphasizing power, volume, and big-line architecture over other aspects. Rachmaninoff had originally underscored the music with thoughts of a “program” dealing with the Faust legend: with Faust, Gretchen, and Mephistopheles symbolized in the three movements. It is a sort of concerto or symphony “manqué,” with all the unwieldiness that implies.
Mr. Botkin took a freely improvisatory approach to the beginning, with a sort of giant feeling of “leading-in” instead of a metrical obedience. Certainly this is one viable way to do it, however, one wonders if the basic rhythm of the “Faust motto” would have benefited from more discipline. Also ignored (I’m sure it was intentional, all part of his concept) were numerous dynamics, all on the softer side. Where I was sitting, there wasn’t much played below mezzo-forte, and all the louder passages were “scaled up.” This sort of sound tires the ear after a while, and the piece is long. This is not to say that he didn’t have beautiful lyrical moments, because he did. He was playing so strongly however, that the unisons of the piano’s strings were progressively going out of tune (first noticed in the Chopin, it got a lot worse later). I feared that he wouldn’t have anywhere left to go for the true fff on the final page of the last movement, but by golly he did. The sound impressed a lot of people, but to me it seemed like the distortion when a stereo is turned up too loud.
I predict good things for Mr. Botkin. I certainly don’t wish him to take my detailed listening habits and preferences for anything definitive or negative. But please, do think of varying your sound palate even more. There is incalculable charisma in charming the listener’s ears, and always making people think that you have something in reserve, that you are never at the outer limit of what you can do. And thank you for providing a correct program with program notes. Next time: an encore?
