Guitar Fest: Pro Musicis Concert in Review

 Guitar Fest: Pro Musicis Concert in Review
Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall
March 14, 2012
Duo Michel de Paula & Luiz Mantovani

Duo Michel de Paula & Luiz Mantovani

Luiz Mantovani

Luiz Mantovani

Emanuele Segre

Pro Musicis, a concert organization that began its auditions in 1965, has presented its awardees in more than 1,900 concerts in Europe, Asia, and North America, both in prominent venues such as Weill Hall and through community outreach programs. This season it presented a recital entitled “Guitar Fest” which included three of their four winning guitarists, Rafael Aguirre, Luiz Mantovani, and Emmanuele Segre. The three combined forces in solos and duos, joined by flutist Michel de Paula and cellist Nadège Rochat, in what was a thoroughly enjoyable evening. There was plenty of variety despite the fact that the program heavily favored music from Spain and South America, as the balancing of lyricism, pyrotechnics, intimate chamber collaboration, and solo virtuosity kept the surprises coming. David Leisner, composer, guitarist, and host for the evening, remarked on the generous spirit of the performers in sharing the stage, but really, the collaborations were to everyone’s benefit.

The first guitarist, Rafael Aguirre, chose to pair with Ms. Rochat, cello, to open with Manuel de Falla’s Spanish Dance from “La Vida Breve” (after which they’ve named their duo). Their blending was expert, and though the cello faced some intonation challenges, its sound did weave seamlessly into the guitar textures. Mr. Aguirre was restrained in his collaborative role. The same duo then played “Volver” by Carlos Gardels and two more selections of Falla, “El Paño Moruno” and “Polo” from “Siete Canciones Populares Españolas,” each player becoming more extroverted with time. Ms. Rochat showed some skillful bending of phrases, while Mr. Aguirre started to show more of the effortless virtuosity that would really come to the fore next in his solo works, including “Guajiras de Lucía” by Paco de Lucía (b. 1947) and Intermedio from “La Boda de Luis Alonso” by Jerónimo Giménez (1854-1923). An outstanding player with unquestionable technique, Mr. Aguirre showed an especially rare gift to make the guitar sing.

The second guitarist Luiz Mantovani took the stage with flutist Michel de Paula in the World Premiere of “Brazilian Landscapes No. 12” by Liduíno Pitombeira (b. 1962). A suite of contrasting impressions in five movements (Ponteio, Baião, Modinha, Frevo, and Acalanto), this set took listeners on a journey through Brazil with the aid of helpful program notes by Dr. Richard E. Rodda. Moving from its languorous prelude to the vibrant Carnival-inspired Frevo (with Mr. de Paula changing to piccolo), and back to its closing lullaby, the suite seemed not so much a mere set of vignettes as a deep immersion into the Brazilian tonal world, inviting many further hearings. The composer was present to bow and thank the performers, exceptional champions for this deserving work.

It was a joy then to hear Mr. Mantovani after intermission in a more familiar work by which one could concentrate on his solo artistry. His introspective rendition of the “Valsa-Chôro” from the “Suite Popular Brasileira” by Heitor Villa-Lobos was just perfect in its plaintive beauty.

David Leisner’s “Mirage” (1987) followed, bringing guitarist Emanuele Segre onstage in duo with Mr. Mantovani. The duo realized this finely wrought piece with tremendous dedication and projection. The contrapuntal opening was magnificently clear in its “dialogue” while in the rapid passages the duo combined as one in a single line. It is an excellent piece, and it was given a first-rate performance.

Mr. Segre continued the evening with two South American works, starting with “Canto de Ossanha” by Baden Powell (1937-2000). A captivating piece from its simple opening through its subsequent development, it was given an amazing degree of contrast and nuance by Mr. Segre, a most expressive and dramatic interpreter with one of the largest dynamic ranges I’ve heard from a guitarist. Prelude No.1 in E Minor by Villa-Lobos was followed by two works by Roland Dyens (b.1955), “Songe Capricorne” and then “Fuoco” from “Libra Sonatine”, alternately Bachian and jazzy, punctuated with percussive bursts, and full of intense expression. It was a dynamic close to an exciting evening.

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by Rorianne Schrade  for New York Concert Review; New York, NY

Young-Ah Tak, Pianist in Review

Young-Ah Tak, piano
Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall
March 8, 2012

Young-Ah Tak

There was a buzz in the air preceding this concert. Was this just an excited audience of friends and colleagues, or was there something about the pianist I didn’t know? My curiosity was peaked. And just a few moments into Young-Ah Tak’s New York debut recital, one realized that something special was happening; we were in the presence of an extraordinary pianist. The program began with a brilliant performance of Muzio Clementi’s Sonata in B-flat Major, Opus 24, No. 2. Here we first heard the characteristics which were to make this a most memorable recital – crystal–clear articulation of rapid passages, beautifully phrased legato melodies, note–perfect octaves. Even the trills, sparkling and energetic, were notable. As you read on, you will see that I was very, very, very impressed by every aspect of Ms. Tak’s playing. But although I want this to be considered a rave review, I must chide her for not repeating the exposition of the first movement of Clementi’s sonata. This repeat is not ad libitum, and leaving it out trivializes the movement, upsets the balance and distorts the structure. I urge her to think about this when performing similar movements in the future.

Next we heard the New York premiere of Judith Lang Zaimont’s “Wizards – Three Music Masters.” Commissioned in 2003 as the required work in the San Antonio International Piano Competition, it is a work which exploits many aspects of pianistic color. Even though—to this listener—this piece was just another example of a 20th/21st century work in which one has no idea why one note follows the other, Ms. Tak’s playing was so convincing that I was sure she was playing exactly what was written in the score. Ms. Zaimont could not have asked for a better performance.

This was followed by scintillating performances of Liszt’s delightful transcriptions of two Schubert songs, “Gretchen am Spinnrade” and “Ständchen von Shakespeare.” Although I would have liked a bit more rhythmic clarity in the left–hand accompaniment of “Gretchen am Spinnrade,” Ms. Tak easily mastered the more difficult Lisztian virtuosic additions to both songs. What fun! The first half ended with a convincing performance of Leon Kirchner’s Piano Sonata No.1 (1948).

The entire second half was devoted to Schubert’s Piano Sonata in C Minor, D.958. Of three magnificent piano sonatas written in the last year of the composer’s all too short life, this dark and strange work is the least performed. And what a pleasure it was to hear Ms. Tak’s superlative rendition. Instead of writing a rhapsodic paragraph, I think my reaction will be made clearer if I just quote from the notes I took during the performance:

First movement: clear left-hand accompaniment during the second theme – so difficult ravishing pp (pianissimo) scales again didn’t repeat exposition
Second movement: singing legato melody with clear rhythmic accompaniment – beautiful!
Third movement: danced, great tension during silences
Fourth movement:thrilling!

After prolonged and well-deserved applause, Ms. Tak’s encore was a mesmerizing performance of Schubert’s Impromptu, Opus 90, No. 3. This was a recital I will long remember.

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by Harry Saltzman  for New York Concert Review; New York, NY

Flury-Prinz Duo in Review

Dieter Flury, flute
Maria Prinz, piano
Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall
March 5, 2012
 

Flury-Prinz Duo

 

In a concert sponsored by MidAmerica Productions, the Vienna Philharmonic’s Principal Flutist, Dieter Flury, was paired up with Bulgarian pianist Maria Prinz. It was a program dedicated to the 150th Anniversary of Debussy’s birth, and it contained two works written by the master: “Syrinx” for solo flute, and an arrangement of his “L’Apres Midi d’un Faune” by the Russian flutist and composer, Nikolay Ivanovich Platonov. “Syrinx” was given a beautifully shaped account; expressive and atmospheric. “L’Apres…” was given fine continuity of the work’s perfect architecture. The middle section, where the tempo is more driven and playful, was performed with more than a few missed notes in the piano part. Yet it was the music’s endearing serenity that made the lasting impression.

The Bach Sonata in B minor, BWV 1030, contained some lovely give-and-take of the musical line. In general, Flury played lightly, with horizontal phrasing that gave the music direction, and Prinz played more vertically, giving each note more equal attention. Balance was good; thankfully, the piano was on the short-stick, and one could hear all the flute lines throughout the entire concert. On many other occasions in this hall, I have heard the piano drown out the flute, so kudos to Prinz for her awareness to balance. Perhaps it was her cautious type of playing–a sensitivity to the flute’s vulnerability to the weight of the piano sound–that caused Prinz to play without much musical phrasing.

Prinz and Flury played perfectly together throughout the program, with excellent ensemble at all tempo changes. Flury has excellent rhythm and played with clarity throughout the program. His intonation is stellar as well, although at times, I wish his tone was more robust. Prokofiev’s masterful Sonata in D Major, Op. 94, received an excellent interpretation, one with smooth transitions, smart pacing and admirable cohesion of musical ideas. The classic scherzo had a wonderfully catchy tempo; unfortunately, Prinz had a difficult time with some of the passage-work in this movement.

In Milhaud’s Sonatina for Flute and Piano, there were lovely nuances of tempo, and the character of the music was infectiously playful. Enescu’s “Cantabile et Presto” from 1921 needed more dynamic range and contoured phrasing. It seemed that many passages within the forte dynamic started at a moderate sound and ended the same way. There were some nice subito pianos, but that wasn’t enough to always show the arch of the music.

In an encore, Faure’s “Fantasie”, Op. 79, Flury gave an outstanding virtuoso performance with a brilliant technical display. The second encore was Debussy’s “Le Petit Negre”, arranged from the original for solo piano. The work is somewhat jazzy for Debussy, but the piano playing did not swing on the syncopations; the short notes and the long notes had equal amounts of finger pressure, thus the beats and off-beat syncopations were heavy and sounded the same.

There was a full-house of flute enthusiasts in the hall; this was a worth-while celebration –not only of the flute–but of the master, Claude Debussy, who knew the instrument better than most.

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by Anthony Aibel  for New York Concert Review; New York, NY

Pro Musicis Concert in Review

Elsa Grether, violin
Delphine Bardin, piano
Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall
New York, NY
February 15, 2012

 

As a result of winning the Pro Musicis International Award in Paris, the violin and piano duo Elsa Grether and Delphine Bardin (both born in France) made their Carnegie Hall debut on February 15th. They always played precisely together, with excellent rhythm and well-timed tempo changes, and their program was well thought-out. The Handel Sonata in D, Op. 1, No. 13 and the Brahms first Sonata opened the program fairly well, but the second half, comprised of Szymanowski’s “Mythes” and Debussy’s Sonata in G Minor, defined this duo as polished, adventurous and compelling.

The Handel Sonata, which was given an expressive approach, had lovely moments that were only marred by Grether’s occasionally uneven vibrato and a sense of pitch that was not completely accurate. The Handel and Brahms sonatas were sensitively played by pianist Bardin, but with the piano on full stick, it was sometimes difficult—here and elsewhere on the program—to distinguish some of the important violin phrases with clarity. In the Brahms, Grether was not in her element with regards to intonation during shifting and the high register, and there was a tentative approach to her playing—an approach that I’m certain was meant to sound sweet or tender, but left me wanting more richness of tone quality and less of an airy (“impressionistic”) sound.

 The atypically thin texture Grether applied to the Brahms worked well in the Debussy Sonata, and ironically—when she needed to—she also applied a beautifully strong tone that was sometimes missing in the Brahms. Perhaps she became more confident as the recital progressed, or perhaps she has greater familiarity with the Debussy, son of her soil. The Debussy interpretation contained poignant, memorable moments that reminded us that the composer was at his wistful, yet sometimes defiant end.  The Szymanowski was played with impressive virtuosity and an ear for its unique special effects and mellifluous colors of sound. Grether and Bardin were equally impressive at handling the variety of pyrotechnics. The duo excited the audience, who received two encores and left the hall happy.

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by Anthony Aibel  for New York Concert Review; New York, NY

Ang Li, Pianist in Review

Ang Li, piano
Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall
December 18, 2011

The recent New York recital of Chinese-Canadian pianist Ang Li was billed both as her Weill Recital Hall debut and as a Franz Liszt 200th birthday year celebration entitled “Years of Pilgrimage.” Referring to the masterful suites of Liszt’s, “Années de Pèlerinage,” the program actually included only one work from these sets, “Les jeux d’eaux à la Villa d’Este” from Book III; beyond this selection, the program title was mostly a gentle suggestion of unity for music that also included Liszt transcriptions of Schubert and Wagner and Liszt’s Ballade No. 2 on the first half, and two contemporary Canadian works, plus music of Debussy and Granados on the second half. It was certainly more wide-ranging than other “Liszt celebrations” heard this year – some would even say that some stated connections were rather tenuous – but it did demonstrate that it is hard to find any music not connected to Liszt by “six degrees of separation” or fewer.

It was a wise decision for Ang Li to branch out, as she came to life most with the more modern works on the program. There is no question that Ms. Li has the technical equipment for the rigors of Romantic virtuoso piano music, and her credentials, including numerous accolades and international tours, point to her mastery and versatility; her temperament, on the other hand, seemed a better fit for works by the non-Romantics. She showed a particular affinity for Debussy’s timbres through her finely controlled touch in “Brouillards” (“Mists”), while Minstrels had just the right bumptious feeling. “Feux d’artifice” (“Fireworks”) closed the group of three Debussy Preludes with brilliance, leaving one wondering whether an impressionistic theme program can be far behind in his upcoming 150th anniversary.

Prior to Debussy, we heard the US Premiere of  “Es ist genug!” (2007) by Jérôme Blais (b. 1965). An intriguing, partly improvisatory work, it incorporates into a dreamlike tonal backdrop various fragments of music by J. S. Bach, as representative of the sacred in this composer’s otherwise atheistic view. One heard, among other fragments, bits of Bach’s D Major Prelude (WTC, Book II) and the B-flat Partita with bits of the title Chorale. What could have resembled (and at times approached) an Ivesian dream of Juilliard’s practice floor before a Bach recital was held together powerfully in Ms. Li’s inspired and focused conception. The composer was present to speak and receive applause, as was Jared Miller (b. 1988) whose “Souvenirs d’Europe” (2011) were given a persuasive account. Prompted by recent travels in Europe, Mr. Miller’s three pieces suggested fountains (“Fontaines”), the cathedral of Notre Dame (“Origines”), and a Spanish tourist scene (“¡La Rambla!”). Kinship with Liszt stopped at the travel-themed title, though, as these were in a new, individual tonal language (perhaps with the exception of “Origines” which struck one as resembling Messiaen – appropriately enough, given the inspiration). Miller writes brilliantly for the piano and shows remarkable accomplishment for one so young. He was quite fortunate, one must add, to have a pianist as skilled as Ms. Li to perform his music.

Also very successful was the Granados Allegro de Concierto, which closed the program. The end of the program’s westward travel arc concluding in sunny Spain, it seemed to warm the musical temperature of things, in phrasing and timbre, where the opening Liszt half had not.

The opening work, the Wagner-Liszt transcription of Isolde’s Liebestod had plunged the audience into high drama perhaps too suddenly, and the three Schubert-Liszt song transcriptions (“Wohin?”, “Der Müller und der Bach,” and “Gretchen am Spinnrade”) were well done, but felt somehow disengaged. Liszt’s “Les jeux d’eaux à la Villa d’Este” was technically stunning (and a beautiful precedent for the Jared Miller fountains), but even the octave fusillades in the Ballade No. 2 in B minor, though confidently executed, seemed to leave performer and audience a bit cold.

All in all, I look forward to hearing Ms. Li again in ever more personally expressive playing. Encores of a Chinese folk song (Chen Peixun’s “Autumn Moon Over the Calm Lake”) and Alexina Louie’s “Memories In An Ancient Garden” showed where some of that more personal involvement might lead.

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by Rorianne Schrade  for New York Concert Review; New York, NY

Kotaro Fukuma, Pianist in Review

Kotaro Fukuma, Pianist in Review
Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall
December 6, 2011
Kotaro Fukuma

Kotaro Fukuma

 

In a Weill Hall recital presented by New York Concert Artists and Associates, Kotaro Fukuma, who was born in Tokyo but now resides in Berlin, performed a beautifully varied program for a full house audience. The first half consisted of selections from Bach’s “Art of the Fugue” plus a work that was inspired by them: the Sonata No. 31 in A-flat Major, Op. 110 by Beethoven. The Beethoven has a fugal movement of its own, and Mr. Fukuma performed it–like the Bach–with great clarity of rhythmical articulation. Indeed, his technique is superb. I would have preferred a little more delineation of the fugal entrances—i.e. more dynamic contrast between the entrance and subsidiary counterpoint. There could also have been better phrasing in terms of showing the direction of the melodic line; for example, phrases beginning with a softer, lighter touch and ending with fuller climaxes.

In the second half, Fukuma confirmed his stellar technique with Liszt transcriptions. “Ab Irato” from “Grande Etude de Perfectionnement” was fantastic. “La Campanella” could have had more Romantic-period exaggeration of dynamics; like in earlier pieces, he needed to play with a more varying touch and bring more shape (crescendo and diminuendo phrasing) to the musical lines. He ended it brazenly and powerfully, however, with polished octaves that were as clean as a whistle. One became riveted by the music’s concluding dramatic intensity.

In Ligeti’s Book I Etudes (selections), Fukuma played with a wonderfully articulate left hand, and excellent all-around clarity of rhythm. In “Arc-en-Ciel”, he could have brought more dreaminess to the atmosphere. In general, more phrasing within the given dynamics and subtleties of color were missing, but his interpretation of “Automne a Varsovie” seemingly held the audience spellbound with its sudden flare-ups of high octane heat.

Sergei Liapounov’s music from the “Etudes d’execution transcendante”, Op. 11

displayed more of Fukuma’s technical strengths, with thunderous, blazing octaves. His encores (Chopin/Liszt: “Meine Freunden” and another Liapounov Etude) were equally impressive, as they were permeated with impeccable virtuosity. Come to think of it, he didn’t miss a note all evening.

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by Anthony Aibel  for New York Concert Review; New York, NY

Aglaia Koras pianist in Review

Aglaia Koras pianist in Review
Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, New York, NY
November 29, 2011

Aglaia Koras

A large and most enthusiastic audience was on hand for this very demanding recital by Aglaia Koras. Works spanning over 150 years of music history, from Bach to Rachmaninoff were performed. She began with Mozart’s Fantasy in D minor, K. 397. My first impression was “too romantic,” as she used lots of pedal and much rubato. The “fantasy” aspects of this piece are built in and don’t need to be exaggerated to be clear. The final D Major section, however, was played with crystalline classical clarity. My curiosity was aroused. What would happen next?

And next were two Impromptus from Schubert’s Opus 90. In the first, No.3 in G-flat Major, we heard an example of a quality of Ms Koras’ playing which, for this listener, was the most memorable aspect of the recital – her beautiful legato playing of lyrical melodies. In addition, the left hand accompaniment, which is so often the weak point in performances of works by Schubert, possessed the same clarity we heard at the end of the Mozart.

What would be Bach’s Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue in D minor be like? It was thrilling, one of the best performances I’ve heard of this work when played on the piano. In my notes I wrote of the Ms. Koras’ playing: “clear craziness.” I could have done without the exaggerated ritard at the end of the fantasy, but the fugue, which often sounds anticlimactic after the wildness which it follows, was played so that every line in the polyphonic web was clearly delineated – no mean feat.  Towards the end, however, things began to rush and seemed to get out of control, a problem which returned in some of the following works.

The first half concluded with Beethoven’s “Appassionata” Sonata No.23 in F minor, Opus 57. The first and last movements suffered from rushing the already much too fast tempi. My notes said: “out of control.” So on the first half of the recital we saw both positive and negative aspects of Mr. Koras’ playing: beautiful singing legato melodies and clear passage work in both hands vs. rushing and choosing tempi which are so fast as to make everything a blur.  What would the second half bring?

During the Brahms Rhapsody in B minor, Opus 79, No.1 both the good and the bad were again present: a beautifully played middle section with its soft legato melody and clear accompaniment was preceded and followed by quite a mess. The following Chopin Nocturne in C-sharp minor, Opus posthumous was beautifully played, as one would now expect of a soft, lyrical piece on this recital. This is not to infer that Ms Koras does not have the technique to play loud and fast music. To the contrary. In many of tonight’s works she showed that when she chose a tempo that remained within the parameters suggested  by the structure of the music, she played forcefully with no loss of beauty in her sound or control over the clarity of the texture. In the Schubert E-flat Impromptu her finger work in rapid passages was perfect. She made a crescendo in the same Schubert that was breathtaking. But it was her choice of tempi (much too fast) and her inability to control them (rushing) that brought her to grief in the Beethoven, Brahms and in the recital’s final work, Chopin’s Sonata in B-flat minor, Opus 35. And yet, in the b section of the sonata’s funeral-march-third-movement we heard the evening’s most exquisite very, very soft and legato playing. The other movements just didn’t make sense.

Three Chopin encores (a waltz, the “Revolutionary” Etude and the Fantasy Impromptu) followed a tumultuous standing ovation.

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by Harry Saltzman  for New York Concert Review; New York, NY

Lloyd Arriola pianist in Review

Lloyd Arriola, piano
Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, New York, NY
November 20, 2011
 
Arriola Lloyd, pianist; Photo Credit by Kristin Hoebermann of Hoebermann Studios, New York

Arriola Lloyd, pianist; Photo Credit by Kristin Hoebermann of Hoebermann Studios, New York

 
 
 

Continuing the celebration of Franz Liszt’s 200th anniversary, Lloyd Arriola added his Weill Recital Hall debut to the festivities, bringing works to the table that are less than familiar to the average concertgoer. One could dedicate this entire review to Mr. Arriola’s bold and original programming, but the performer himself warrants full focus here; suffice it to say that the unconventional selections underscored the freshness that pervaded the recital in every way.

My first impression of Mr. Arriola was of his highly entertaining program notes, written in a conversational style with occasionally irreverent humor (e.g., a comparison of two of Liszt’s “sister” works to Wynonna and Ashley Judd), but always with expertise and insight. After decades of attending concerts, these are among the few sets of program notes I am actually tempted to save. I’d like to devote a separate article to this subject –how program notes should not read like a college theory essay or worse – but will meanwhile say that they do matter. Mr. Arriola “sells” his music, and it starts before the concert. The pianist’s biography, listing a doctorate from Juilliard and numerous performances as soloist, collaborator, and conductor, was similarly refreshing, avoiding the puffery one sees so often, but presenting the portrait of a working musician wearing many hats, all requiring top-notch skills. Following the biography was a page of grateful acknowledgments that would make an Oscar-winner blush.  If all this text painted the picture of Mr. Arriola as a passionate “people person” his first steps onstage confirmed it. Cheers greeted him before he played a note, not the work of a claque, but the intense, spontaneous outburst of many friends present.

In an instant summoning of concentration, Mr. Arriola took on an opener of Liszt’s “Grand solo de concert,” composed as a test piece for students at a Paris Conservatory competition in 1849. A test it is, chock full of every kind of technical stunt possible (and some impossible!), but Mr. Arriola handled it with polish and aplomb. It is a substantial and exhausting work, especially when played with the intensity given on this occasion, so one marveled not only at its choice (it is understandably neglected), but also at its placement as opening piece.

A hard act to follow, it was followed nonetheless by another neglected giant, Liszt’s Fantasia and Fugue on the Chorale “Ad nos, a salutarem undam” (Illustration No. 4 from Meyerbeer’s “Le Prophéte”) transcribed by Ferrucio Busoni. Here Mr. Arriola coupled his large-scale technique with an absolutely solid mastery of structure and difficult fugal writing. It was a dramatic performance – a rare combination of passion and extroversion with laser-sharp cerebral focus. Occasionally, I felt Mr. Arriola overplayed dynamically, producing some unduly harsh sounds along with some rather distracting foot stomping, but I would take his commitment any day over its opposite. The excitement of the evening was, after all, palpable.

After intermission came an assortment of what one might call curiosities. Liszt’s shortest composition “Prélude omnitonique” (about six seconds long) was summarized by the pianist’s announcement that “every birthday party deserves a gag gift.” All jokes aside, Liszt was in many ways a visionary (as one might see in a more serious vein in the “Bagatelle sans Tonalité” and other works), and a listener enjoyed this break from the pyrotechnics. After some laughter, the Prelude was replayed (a nice touch) as an introduction to “Vagyodas Amerika Utan” (“Longing for America”) by the late Liszt proponent Ervin Nyiregyhazi (1903-1987). It was a welcome discovery for those of us who know the name Nyiregyhazi mainly as a controversial pianistic figure. Also most welcome was Liszt’s introspective “En Rêve (1884-85) played with sensitivity. In addition we heard Fantasia in D (2011), a work Mr. Arriola commissioned from Harrison Gross, a 17-year-old student at the school where Arriola is a pianist. It was a touching gesture.

Liszt Magyar Rapszódia No. 12 (Heroïde élégiaque), an earlier version of the Hungarian Rhapsody No. 5, closed the program with brilliance and spirit. An encore by the pianist cleverly fused Gershwin’s “Someone to Watch Over Me” with bits of Liszt’s Piano Concerto in E-flat (along with touches of Fats Waller and others). One could only guess that Liszt, the quintessential performer, would have approved. The audience certainly did.

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by Rorianne Schrade  for New York Concert Review; New York, NY

Aglaia Koras, Pianist in Review

Aglaia Koras, Pianist in Review
Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall; New York, NY
May 9, 2011

Aglia Koras

Aglaia Koras devotes much of her performing to the music of Frederic Chopin, and on May 9th, she continued her passion for his music with some Nocturnes, Mazurkas and Etudes, among others. This concert, performed for a packed audience, was presented by MidAmerica Productions. Koras played with elegance–particularly in slower, more serene works, and she performed impressively from memory.

The C-sharp minor Nocturne, Op. Posth., which opened the program, was played exquisitely and poetically. The same could be said of the A minor Mazurka, Op. 67, No. 4 that followed. There was lovely shading and phrasing in both the Barcarolle in F-sharp major, Op. 60 and in the Nocturne in D-flat major, Op. 27, No. 2.

In the Fantaisie-Impromptu in C-sharp minor, Op. 66, Koras could have played more clearly in faster passages, but her devoted, stormy playing was captivating indeed.

In the Polonaise in A-flat Major, Op. 53 (“Heroic”), agitated passages were slightly rushed,

and phrases were sometimes muddied due to over-pedaling. Nonetheless, her audience was very enthusiastic–and so was I, as her eloquence comes across as very heartfelt indeed. A special Kudos to Koras for her insightful programming as well; the “Harp” Etude in A-flat, Op. 25, No. 1 and the “Cello” Etude in C-sharp minor, Op. 25, No. 7 lent an air of orchestration to the evening. Even though Chopin was hardly a symphonist (he is considered to have been a rather uneducated orchestrator), he seemed to enjoy incorporating instrumental sonorities–either consciously or subconsciously–into his piano works.

This season–according to biographical notes–Koras has been invited to perform with the St. Petersburg (Russia) Symphony Orchestra and to perform again with the Beethoven Festival Orchestra at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. In recent seasons, she was invited to perform an all-Chopin recital in Mexico City and at the Wolf Trap Ball, among other appearances. Clearly, Chopin is in her blood, and audiences consistently fill Weill Recital Hall to hear her play his music.

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by Anthony Aibel  for New York Concert Review; New York, NY

New Asia Chamber Music Society in Review

 New Asia Chamber Music Society in Review
Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall
April 19, 2011 
New Asia Chamber Music Society

New Asia Chamber Music Society; Photo Credit: Richard Termine

There is an infusion of fresh blood in the chamber music world, if the recent performance by the New Asia Chamber Music Society is any indication.  This newly formed ensemble, comprised of many young and gifted players, is an impressively organized and professional group.  Their debut at Weill Recital Hall was tight and well rehearsed, which allowed the players to make music with sense of pleasure and spontaneity. 

In the Brahms F minor Quintet, the heart of soul of this particular performance rested squarely with the cellist Nan-Cheng Chen and the violist Wei-Yang Andy Lin.  Mr. Chen is a natural musician, who plays with a beautiful, singing tone and a keen awareness of ensemble.  Mr. Lin, just as integral, but in a quieter way, is an ideal collaborator.  He uses vibrato as a measured, expressive tool, and his pure intonation anchors the group.  Although this quintet didn’t quite master the blend and uniformity of style that more seasoned players achieve, this was still a compelling performance.  The use of nuanced dynamics and articulation, especially in the middle movements, gave texture and life to the music.  Mr. Lin spun a pristine, cantabile melody in the Andante second theme, and the entire ensemble dispatched the Scherzo with breathtaking fire and precision.

Jay Lin’s, “…as time flows and eclipses…” was given a dark hued, richly vibrant reading by the New Asia players.  Mr. Lin has a real gift for layering sound and color to create tension.  Both his piano writing and his shimmering string figures sounded fresh and evocative.

The program finale, Tchaikovsky’s Sextet, op. 70 (Souvenir de Florence) was the least convincing offering on the program.  All the elements that go into a good performance were present.  Each individual made important, musical contributions to the whole, yet there were whole passages in which the players seemed to have conflicting ideas about interpretation.  The Adagio movement especially felt too tightly controlled, so that I missed that floating, Italianate quality.  This is a piece that would benefit from more instinctual impulses.

In general though, this is an ensemble of a very high standard.  I enjoyed their music making and I congratulate them on generating a large and enthusiastic audience.

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by David La Marche  for New York Concert Review; New York, NY