Juilliard Faculty Recital: Matthew Odell

Last Saturday I heard Matthew Odell in a joint recital for four hands with Adelaide Roberts. Yesterday evening I heard him on his own as he performed works by Olivier Messiaen, Ned Rorem, Philip Lasser, Michel Merlet, Toru Takemitsu, Elliott Carter and a world premiere by Edward Niedermaier.  Mr. Odell is not only an excellent pianist but he is also a thoughtful commentator.  I greatly appreciated the short introduction he gave each piece before performing it.

It was the world premiere by Edward Niedermaier, appropriately enough entitled Fanfare Fantasy, that opened the program.  The work had actually been only been commissioned by Mr. Odell from his friend this past summer.

Following that came Michel Merlet's Passacaille et fugue, Op. 36 (1986).  Mr. Odell explained that the work had been written as a tribute to Mr. Merlet's teacher whose name had been Tony Aubin.  In order to construct a theme to be used throughout the work, the composer had assigned a musical note to each letter of Mr. Aubin's name.

Mr. Odell was joined by guest violinist Ariana Kim for the third piece, Vocalise for violin and piano (1999) by Philip Lasser.  It turned out Mr. Lasser had once been a faculty member at Juilliard.

Caténaires (2006) was an experimental piano work that Elliott Carter wrote when he was already 96 years old.  The work is unique in that it contains no chords.  I found the meaning of the term caténaire to be somewhat elusive.  Interestingly, la lignes caténaires translates as "contact wires" or "power cables."

In celebration of Ned Rorem's 90th birthday, Mr. Odell and guest soprano Katherine Whyte selected three of the composer's songs whose lyrics they considered most appropriate.  The three were The Silver Swan, Little Elegy and Alleluia.

For a finale, Mr. Odell performed together Toru Takemitsu's Rain Tree Sketch II - In Memoriam Oliver Messiaen (1992) and Messiaen's Regard de l'Esprit de joie from Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant-Jesus.  The first was a tender remembrance and the latter a powerful statement of pure joy.