Yesterday afternoon's one-hour piano recital, part of the school's Wednesdays at One series, featured four Juilliard students performing works by Bach, Schubert and Chopin.
The program opened with Colton Peltier playing Bach's Tocatta in C minor, BMV 911. As no autograph of any of Bach's seven tocattas exists - they survive only in copies made by his students - determining the date of composition of this work is problematical. The most likely guess is between 1709 and 1711 but in no event later than 1714 (the work was first published in 1839). Even if one accepts the latest date, this would mean Bach composed the piece while still only in his twenties, an incredible achievement considering the complexity of the music. Bach had by then returned from his lengthy 1805 visit with Dieterich Buxtehude in Lübeck where he had attended the older composer's abendmusik performances at St. Mary's Church. Buxtehude was himself a composer of preludes and tocattas and a master of the fugue. His influence can clearly be heard throughout the tocattas and other works from Bach's early period; the BMV 911, in fact, contains one of the longest fugues the composer ever wrote. Bach was highly regarded in his own day for his prowess as a keyboardist and this daunting work was most likely intended to display his skills to their best advantage.
The next pianist was Shengliang Zhang who played Schubert's Impromptus Nos. 2 and 3, D. 899, Op. 90 (1827). All eight of Schubert's Impromptus were written in the year before his death, though only the first four were published during his lifetime. Of the two pieces performed here, it is really the No. 3 in G flat major that most immediately captures the listener's attention. It is a highly lyrical work that seems to flow effortlessly forward. As with almost all Schubert's late works, it is infused with an awareness of his own mortality. Here, though, there is only a sense of gentle resignation to fate and a touch of wistfulness.
Yuchong Wu came onstage to perform the first set of works by Chopin, the Scherzo No. 3, Op. 39 (1839) and the Mazurkas, Op. 17 (1832-1833). Chopin actually composed four scherzos, but the third is by far the best known, perhaps because it is also the most dramatic. The fact that it was composed at the abandoned monastery of Valldemossa while visiting Majorca with George Sand may or may not have had something to do with this. The music itself is often compared to that of Beethoven for its grandeur. The main theme is particularly difficult to play and requires excellent technique on the part of the pianist.
Mazurkas are historically, of course, a traditional form of Polish folk dance. It's significant then that Chopin wrote the Op. 17 after having been deeply politicized by the November Uprising in which Poland revolted against Russian domination. He left Warsaw only a month before the rebellion began and thereafter was forced to live as an expatriate. For all that, Chopin's mazurkas are considerably more sophisticated than their folk sources as they include the use of fugue and counterpoint among other advanced techniques. To me, they are among the most appealing of the genres in which Chopin chose to work.
The final work was also by Chopin, his Fourth Ballade, Op. 52 (1842, revised 1843) as performed by Qi Kong. The ballade genre itself was Chopin's own invention and was reputed, at least by Robert Schumann, to have been inspired by the poetry of Adam Mickiewicz. All four are extremely complex works but the fourth most especially so in its extensive use of counterpoint and its simultaneous development of both the first and second themes. It's a truly amazing work and arguably one of Chopin's greatest achievements as a composer.
After having attended several Juilliard piano recitals in this Wednesday series, it's become apparent to me that the programs are deliberately chosen to include the most difficult pieces in the repertoire. Each of the works performed yesterday afternoon share one common factor and that is that they all require the highest level of skill on the part of the pianist. There are no "easy" pieces here but rather those best intended to display the virtuosity of the performer. Even the most experienced pianist would find these works challenging. Though the setting at Alice Tully is decidedly low key and informal, the performances given here are every bit as dazzling as one could hope to hear at any famous international competition.
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