Mannes: Contrasting Piano Sonorities

Yesterday evening the Mannes Piano Department presented the last in its current series of student recitals.  Entitled From Rachmaninoff to Rzewski: Contrasting Piano Sonorities of the 20 - 21 Centuries, it represented a broad range of works for solo piano.  What was most remarkable, despite the program's scholarly title, was how thoroughly enjoyable these pieces were to hear.  Too often listeners, put off by such esoteric terms as "atonal" and "polyrhythmic," approach contemporary music as purely academic exercises that are too dry and abstract to be capable of entertaining an audience.  That simply is not so, especially not in the case of these works.

The program began with Presto in E minor and Adagio sostenuto in D flat from Moments Musicaux, Op. 16, by Sergei Rachmaninoff as performed by Azamat Sydykov.  There followed Aaron Copland's Piano Variations performed by Thomas Weaver; Don Juan's Serenade from Karol Szymanovski's Masques, Op. 34, performed by Hanna Yukho; Barcarolles No. 1, "Graceful," by Ned Rorem performed by Shuang Yu; Sonatina (1915) and Ostinato (1926) by Bela Bartok performed by Lora Ahmad; Vers la flamme by Alexander Scriabin performed by Vladislav Boguinia; and L'isle joyeuse by Claude Debussy performed by Mina Koike.

The second half began with Five Pieces for Piano by Leon Kirchner performed by Kyle Walker.  This was followed by Mirror Etude No. 1 by Henry Martin performed by Annie Wong; Paraphrase from a theme by Paul Dvoyrin, Op. 108 by Nikolai Kapustin performed by Catalin Dima; and finally North American Ballads by Frederic Rzewski (Down by the Riverside was performed by Kyle Walker and Which Side are You On was performed by Daniel Colalillo).

It's amazing to me what a wealth of talent such a relatively small school as Mannes possesses in this one department.  These pianists performed more as seasoned professionals than as students still learning.  Tonight I was especially impressed by Thomas Weaver's performance of the Copland piece on which he demonstrated extraordinary dexterity.