Maurizio Pollini Live in Salzburg

Solo Recital: Maurizio Pollini, pianist

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Großes Festspielhaus Salzburg

9pm

Program:

Schumann - Kreisleriana, Op. 16

Schumann -Piano Sonata no. 3 in F minor, Op. 14 (Konzert ohne Orchester)

Intermission

Chopin - Piano Sonata no. 2 in B flat minor, Op. 35 "Funeral March"

Chopin - Berceuse in D flat, Op. 57

Chopin - Polonaise in A flat, Op. 53

Some 2,200 people turned out in their best attire at the Großes Festspielhaus Saturday night to hear what was tauted to be one of the great musical events of the year. Maurizio Pollini's recital at the Salzburg Festivals this year was one of its centerpiece concerts, along with the Mahler Symphony Cycle and the emphasis on El Sistema. The recital both was and was not what I hoped it would be, but we can talk about that after a brief overview of all the pieces.

He came out on stage to thundering applause, bowed quickly and charged into the stormy opening of Kreisleriana before he had completely sat down at his personal Fabbrini Steinway. He must have done something wrong in his rush to get started because he played almost exclusively wrong notes for the first four phrases of the piece. It flew by so quickly he couldn't get his bearings, wisely skipped the repeats, and reset himself for the B section, which was moderately better but disturbed. The return of the A section was hardly improved. From where I sat on the left side of the hall, I could see his shaking and uncertain hands rushing from one place to another, trying to find the right notes. The second movement was very beautiful in the slow themes, but the faster intermezzi were weak in every sense of the word. Although the third movement and most other fast movements of this piece were much better "technically," I could hear nothing but a wall of sound being thrown at me. The pedal was cleared at most once a measure, and he made no apparent effort to bring out any particular voice. Perhaps this was an attempt to cover up any more flubs? Nevertheless, his fifth and sixth movements were so good that they redeemed the entire piece for me. I have never heard those figures at the opening of the fifth in particular played so well. He completely did away with the pedal and let that glorious piano of his shine for what it is. It was spooky! The last movement began very well. The single sixteenth notes in the right hand sounded like grace notes (an interesting and satisfying effect), but as the piece went along he lost the 6/8 feeling and instead started to play as though in 2/4 - i.e. with two equal eighth notes per beat separated by a grace note.

I see I am getting a little wordy here. Suffice it to say that the Schumann Sonata was infinitely superior to Kreisleriana. At intermission we learned that Mr. Pollini was quite sick and was ready to cancel the concert, but after significant convincing from the audience and management, he decided to play the second half after all. Aren't we all glad he did! His Chopin Sonata was a marvel of pianism. He knew exactly the sound he was going for and drove forward through the piece relentlessly, maintaining a strong sense of pulse, which can be an especial challenge with this sonata. The second movement was smooth and effortless. The third "moved" a bit more than I was used to, but to good effect. The fourth was so quiet that I was unable to pinpoint exactly when it started: it seemed to fade in from nothing, like some creature darting here and there in the fog.

As said, Pollini's playing through all of his pieces, no less in the Berceuse and the Polonaise, was very fine for the most part. His sound was very carefully crafted, note by note, and he had a good amount of energy to move the pieces forward (often rushing to an extreme!). His interpretation of little things here and there was quite unusual, and I dare say he would not advance very far in an international competition against today's generation of the newest hotshot pianists like Daniil Trifonov, Benjamin Grosvenor, Sean Chen, or Vadym Kholodenko. It's hard to say. He is very old, but I wouldn't say that he is past his prime. His playing made an impact on me, but it didn't move me. He is a very calculated, intellectual player, a fine artist to be sure, but the performance lacked something I needed - an emotional connection with the audience which, I claim, is critical to become a really transcendent performer.

What do you think? Do you have to be emotionally involved in the music in order to "make music"? Voice your opinion in the comments below.

Rupley's Rating:

Fellner Fills Big Shoes at the 2013 Salzburg Festival

Solo recital: Till Fellner, pianist

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Großes Festspielhaus Salzburg

9pm

Program:

J. S. Bach - Well-Tempered Clavier II, nos. 1-4

            Prelude and Fugue in C major BWV 870

            Prelude and Fugue in C minor BWV 871

            Prelude and Fugue in C sharp major BWV 872

            Prelude and Fugue in C sharp minor BWV 873

W. A. Mozart – Piano Sonata in F major, KV 533/494

Intermission

F. J. Haydn – Piano Sonata in B minor, Hob. XVI:32

R. Schumann – Symphonic Etudes, Op. 13

Pianist Till Fellner had no easy task in front of him in preparing a recital program on such short notice that would satisfy the 2,500 disgruntled music lovers who had purchased tickets to see legendary pianist Evgeny Kissin perform live in the Großes Festspielhaus last night, a recital which was to be one of the highlights of this year’s Salzburg Festivals. Kissin had canceled the performance three days prior due to a “critical finger injury” leaving him unable to play. As his first solo concert in over a year, Fellner daringly chose a program of mostly “personal premieres”, excepting the Bach set, which he learned about the time he released his recording of WTC I under the ECM label in 2004. Curiously, the Bach was the most questionable set on the program – his heavy use of pedal throughout most of the pieces, although carefully cleared now and then to maintain the independence of the contrapuntal lines, did obscure the ornamentation, muddy the texture a little and make more some too-bell-like long notes. Most people I talked to agreed that it was too much. Still, the warmth of tone he was able to create with it was captivating – especially in the C sharp and C sharp minor preludes and fugues. His skill in developing an intense, churning fugal texture is first-rate; the preludes, by comparison, were rather flat and seemed poorly thought-out.

The tremendously difficult, exposed, cheerful opening line of the Mozart was very carefully executed, but I could hear him shaking as he played it. For most of the first movement, his lines were uneven and forcedly cheerful, and the dynamic range was narrow. He got gradually better as he went, finally closing out the movement quite nicely. His second movement was the highlight of the evening: absolutely brilliant. His tone was stunning; varied; directed; full of sensitivity, pain, and happiness. It was everything that one could have dreamed of hearing at the festival – to my young ears, in any case. Not everyone was equally enraptured, and I heard more rustling of programs during the B section of that movement than at any other time during the concert. After the final movement came intermission.

After intermission, he played a lovely Haydn sonata that I was personally unfamiliar with, and which I did enjoy. His final piece were the devilishly hard Symphonic Etudes by Robert Schumann, which was obviously his most immature piece. All of the “impossible parts” he played flawlessly, but the lostness, the forced phrasing, the mechanical pounding out of notes and even a memory lapse managed to work themselves into the darker corners of the performance. My favorite parts of the piece were disappointingly unmusical, but there were other moments I had never noticed before that were truly beautiful. Such is life in the world of live performance!

At the end of the concert, he bowed four times before the audience finally convinced him to play an encore, a thing which he should not have been expected to do on such short notice. He played the Sarabande from Bach’s A minor English Suite, and he was clearly unprepared. It sounded tired, shaky, and uneven. There were some beautiful, musical moments in it, but for the most part it was weak. The entire audience felt this with me, too, because the stopped clapping and were heading out the door before he even made it to the stage door. To be fair, it was a long walk to get offstage.

So, what’s the final opinion? In that same 1836 article by Schumann, he writes that criticism always has a million letters more than praise. Such is the case here, sadly enough. His performance was worthy of the stage he was on, and the audience enjoyed his performance very much, a thing I was skeptical of when going into the hall, seeing all the bored faces. There’s nothing more difficult as a performer than substituting for a world-famous artist at a sold-out concert.

Rupley’s Rating: 

The not-so-romantic-as-one-might-think life of the 21st century pianist.

It's a little after 10pm, and I'm here in one of the practice rooms at UNM playing bits and pieces of the 4th Chopin Ballade under tempo. I keep thinking, "why didn't I ever realize I was supposed to phrase it like this before?" It's amazing what preparing for a competition will do to you. I have learned more about phrasing on this piece in the last 12 hours that I've been here than in the last few months I've spent on the piece.

It's not my first competition, but it's my first international competition. I don't know that there's any real difference (MTNA pays more prize money by far, and it's a national competition) except that the word "international" attracts every little hotshot teenager within a few thousand miles to apply. It's the International Keyboard Odyssiad and Festival in Fort Collins, Colorado. So far it seems to be well-organized and have a lot of community support (this is the first year for the competition). We'll see. I leave tomorrow for Colorado, and I'll have a day and a half to prepare there before I perform on Saturday. That word "international" also causes some sort of unusual stress to rise up in me... It's not like I'm going to be the shame of the piano world if I don't place. But I suppose I just want to connect with the judges. The networking is far more important to me than winning or losing, for which I feel I can hardly compete with the prodigies that also were accepted. I'm sure they are nervous too; they are probably all practicing right now too.

I haven't done much of anything with Ravel the last few days for obvious reasons. More on that Monday, probably. Wish me luck! And pray.

Well, back to practice. Goodnight.