Classical Music Review: Cliburn pianists let down their hair in Bass Hall performance

11:26 AM CDT on Wednesday, March 18, 2009
By SCOTT CANTRELL
The Dallas Morning News
from here

FORT WORTH – In just two months, Bass Performance Hall will be the center of the pianistic universe, as 30 young musicians compete for one of classical music's highest-visibility prizes. In the meantime, four past winners of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition were showing off Tuesday evening – in all the best ways – in a concert aptly billed as "Gold Fingers."

The players, in various pairs and sometimes all four together, were Olga Kern and Stanislav Ioudenitch (who both took gold medals in 2001), Jon Nakamatsu (1997) and José Feghali (1985). With two big Steinways nestled cheek to tail, there was plenty of musical personality as well as flashy fingerwork. By the concert's second half, which involved a good deal of cutting up onstage, the audience response ranged from smirks to guffaws.

For purely musical virtues, one highlight was the Schubert F minor Fantasy (D. 940). In a performance that reminded us how much quieter pianos were in Schubert's day, Nakamatsu and Ioudenitch really probed the music's emotional subtleties.

Feghali and Kern gave a brilliant account of the Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski's Variations on a Theme by Paganini. The theme is the same used in Rachmaninoff's famous Rhapsody, but here the treatments are more aggressive and harmonically tart, but engagingly so. Their performance of the Waltz from Rachmaninoff's Second Suite for two pianos was sometimes too notey to suggest an actual waltz.

Dismissing one another in increasingly stagy skits, the three guys took turns partnering Kern in four of Brahms' Hungarian Dances. Both physically and musically, Kern and Nakamatsu got all moony with each other in moony passages of one of the dances, to entertaining effect.

Ioudenitch and Nakamatsu took the first movement of Darius Milhaud's saucy Scaramouche too fast – made it a blur of notes rather than a dance – but the rest was quite fetching.

It's hard to be subtle with four pianists playing at once, and subtlety wasn't exactly to the fore in the eight-hands arrangements of the Liszt Rákóczy March, the Waltz from Gounod's Faust, Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee (here a formidable swarm) or Sousa's Stars and Stripes Forever. But, hey, they were great fun. Nakamatsu stood up and marched in place while playing the Sousa's piccolo descant, and then all four pianists stood for the last strain.

This would be a show worth taking on the road. Especially if Kern packs her steamer trunks with all four of the dresses she showed off in turn this time. The red-finned number was a knockout.

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reading/watching

想說分析曲子到一個段落, 只剩打進電腦而已, 禮拜六就來看電影吧.
wanted 看完一點都不想再復習一次啊..... 看完失落的很. 有種: "啊?就這樣?" 的感覺.不要糟蹋Morgan Freeman 啊...

嗚嗚嗚, 想吃菜市場的飯團.

A Well-Tempered Pianist Presents an Odd Couple

Richard Goode has been closely linked to the music of Beethoven since he released a distinguished cycle of the complete piano sonatas in 1993. That bond was renewed when Mr. Goode’s eloquent new recording of Beethoven’s five piano concertos was issued by Nonesuch on Tuesday. You might think that commercial concerns would have mandated Beethoven’s presence on the program that Mr. Goode presented at Carnegie Hall that evening.

But Mr. Goode has never shown signs of being motivated by market forces; over several decades he has built a distinguished career on his own terms. In recent seasons he has regularly combined works by Bach and Chopin in his recitals, and on Tuesday he devoted his entire program to showing why this seemingly disparate pairing can be complementary in the right hands, or in his hands at least.

Mr. Goode does not play Bach’s music as if it were Chopin’s, nor does he do the reverse. His opening accounts of Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in G minor from “The Well-Tempered Clavier,” Book 2, and of the French Suite No. 5 in G had a breathy flexibility that stopped well short of indulgence. The fugue had an almost startling kinetic energy, yet its intricate counterpoint remained lucid.

In the group of five Chopin mazurkas that followed, Mr. Goode’s playing retained the transparency he had brought to Bach. He never stinted on poetic character or charm but took care to illuminate the music’s architectural soundness as well. A limpid Nocturne in F sharp minor, a dashing Scherzo No. 3 in C sharp minor and a sunny Barcarolle in F sharp showed a similar balance of clarity and spark.

After the intermission Mr. Goode played three more preludes and fugues from “The Well-Tempered Clavier,” Book 2, including an A minor pairing endowed with ample majesty and subtle mystery. He coaxed beguiling chiaroscuro shadings from Chopin’s Nocturne in D flat, followed by airy, captivating accounts of three waltzes.

Mr. Goode ended his program with a glowing rendition of Chopin’s great “Polonaise-Fantaisie” in A flat. For encores he offered Chopin’s Nocturne in E flat (Op. 55, No. 2) and the Sarabande from Bach’s Keyboard Partita No. 1.
(A version of this article appeared in print on May 7, 2009, on page C8 of the New York edition.)

新單字!

Derecho



我知道這一陣子一直都有storm alert,
不過是第一次遇到這般陣仗的.

這傢伙長這樣

credit to Chuck Doswell Storm Chase Log

呼, 看來那天只遇到冰雹還算幸運的.....
(沒事沒事, 還活著)
(阿謀細貴在怕點鬧?)
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其實我是要去OMG 看Lady Gaga 又穿的多精采了...
結果先被新聞給吸過去. =]

stay fool, stay hungry

也是因為音樂會有感於發的. 有免費的票, 跟著老師去聽她以前學生的音樂會. (據說是相當不錯的音樂家.) 音樂會一開始沒多久, 我就心生疑問了. 這, 是男生彈琴啊, 為什麼一點都聽不到, 而且樂團還是小編制? 當時極不喜歡那台鋼琴的音色, 只想說搞僻, grand size 怎麼聽起來像upright? 後來轉到cadenza 時突然聽到一些片段音色亮了出來, 加上很明顯的誤差, 就可以知道是觸鍵的問題了. 然後最不爭的是, 其實是他沒練琴, 靠直覺在彈. 會這樣說是因為台下一票pianists 通通覺得聽不到主奏, 但是跟他聊, soloist 自己覺得彈起來很舒服!? 嗯, 這就好玩了. 新場地, 新鋼琴, 要抓出平衡的音響的確是個大學問呢.

當畢業後投入工作, 還有多少時間能不被打擾, 專注的作手上的事? 當工作家庭小孩全部尬在一起, 沒有時間練琴是不爭的事實. 這是讓我一直一直很害怕的. 時間是自己找的, 但我有足夠的毅力鞭策自己每天練習嗎?

那天上作品研討, 我們比較了兩個正統的德派鋼琴家的貝多芬,完全不一樣的詮釋. 老師丟了一個問題. "妳喜歡什麼樣的風格? 什麼才是對的風格? 哪天我請你推薦一個版本, 你要選誰或是通通都不選? " 總有一天我們會離開這個老師, 離開這個學校, 進入業界, 要學著勇敢的表達你想要的, 而且要能言之有物; 但前提是- 你必須要知道你想要什麼.

[唔, 我們家公寓的情侶檔- 鴨子和鵝- 在咭呱叫, 加上喵咪的聲音, 去看看好了. 回頭想到再說吧]

題外話: 其實我很佩服 非古典音樂主修 可是有相當深厚涵養的人.(這是強者啊!) 常常會被問到的是:"我很喜歡Wagner 的指環系列, 哪一部第幾幕哪一句對話, 在誰誰誰指揮的版本裡他加了比較多的rubato, 妳覺得如何?" 一般反應是: "(點頭微笑) 這樣啊, 我回去比較一下, 我們下次可以一起看唷" 但正確回答是: ".......(其實我根本不知道咧)....." 如果真回答: "阿他就19hrs找戒指的過程" 一定會被打...

作曲家一大票, 活的死的總數還在增加中, 敝人才疏淺薄, 連基本的鋼琴獨奏曲目都不是很清楚, 就不要再問我其他的啊啊啊啊啊. (這是典型隔行如隔山的例子.)(找藉口!)

音樂會完的生活

音樂會當天一向是兵荒馬亂的.

睡醒 - 一早滾去學校摸摸琴 - 飄蕩回家吃了飯睡覺 - 極想賴床又得起床 - 翻滾翻滾 - 出了門又忘記帶節目單 - 再回家再出門

(然後是時間以三倍速度向前衝, 可是又要維持心理如真空般的安靜)

進了音樂廳 - 把前一場歡樂的觀眾趕出門 - 剛開始要搬出雙鋼琴的陣帳 - Diva 小提琴老師出現說她們要彩排 (即使沒有照規定申請時段) - 嘆口氣懶的吵 - 轉向老師的studio - run 完 concerto 也七點多了.

龜速走向後台 - 東張西望的找工作人員搬/換兩台鋼琴, 走位 - 試了音響, 然後照例拖一下, 晚了點開始.

後來才知道, 時間一到時, 老師在台下緊張的走來走去, 一直以為我怎麼了; 是大家把她拖住才沒有過來"關心我" XD. well, 阿就開完, (而且很久了) 照樣會忘譜, 然後就自己編了. (OS: 這次好一點, Berg Sonata 只有編幾行, 上次是即興了一整頁.....)老師大笑:" 這傢伙又在台上即興,不過妳永遠知道下一步要從哪裡回來!" 開完就大家都很開心, 然後回家進入音樂會完亢奮期, 累的完全睡不著. 不過隔天paper due, 剛好狂寫作業, 一點都沒有想慶祝的念頭. 然後是報告交出去, 因為太累又繼續睡不著, 前後加起來快四,五天; 完全陣亡.
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開完音樂會照例是要放空一下.
小逛了街 - 久不見的朋友們約吃飯 - 然後是音樂會音樂會.
同學們音樂會 - Jake Heggie - Brahms Requiem - Beethoven Piano Concerto no.3 - Schumann Concerto - Elijah.

今年最後一場Cliburn Concert 是他壓軸, 而且作曲家本人在場演奏介紹,真的是最有力的詮釋. 要大推 Jake Heggie : Let it go, from Facing Forward/Looking back. 辭是他自己寫的, 取自於他青少年時的日記. 那是在他父親過世後, 他就開始在日記裡和自己對話. 這是首Duet, 設定在媽媽和女兒之間. 在他講述當下的心情時, 我已經聽到眼框含淚了; 等她們開始唱, 啪搭一聲眼淚就掉出來了. [OS: 全場都一樣動容!] 我要去找這份譜, 然後逼迫我的singers 練起來!

"I write just from my gut"
音樂會後小小跟他聊了一下,本人很和善呢! 去年幫一個朋友演出lecture recital, 講的就是他的作曲. 當時就有留意一下他的風格, 的確是很容易讓人接受. lyrical & dramatic, 學院派可以深入研究音樂本身, 一般聽眾可以切進好聽的旋律和富滿張力的劇本, 難怪是現在炙手可熱的作曲家.

等過一陣子再去聽他的 opera: Dead Men Walking;現在是持高度的好奇心(而且是好的那一面); 可以確定的是, 等明,後年他新的歌劇出來, 會記得留時間去聽的. =]
Note: 馬友友下一季要來, 要記得.
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現在是跳進一個新計畫, 兩個禮拜之內要學會四部歌劇, 基本四國語言通通都有, 然後要教notes & rhythm. 因為本人不會講法文, 只會唸德文發音, 正準備剉著等, 到時候會被指揮電到死.