The concept behind Wednesday's late afternoon piano recital at Paul Hall was simple enough - a performance of a work by Chopin followed by that of a composer whom he had inspired or who had simply chosen to work in the same genre. The full program, which differed slightly from that originally announced on Julliard's website (Chopin's Ballade No. 1 in G minor was eliminated from the performance), was as follows:
CHOPIN Impromptu No. 3 in G-flat Major, Op. 51 | Joey Chang, piano
FAURÉ Impromptu No. 1 in E-flat Major, Op. 25 | Chi Wei Lo, piano
CHOPIN Nocturne in E-flat Major, Op. 55, No. 2 | Rachel Breen, piano
SCRIABIN Nocturne for the Left Hand, Op. 9, No. 2 | Christine Wu, piano
LIEBERMANN Nocturne No. 4, Op. 38 | Michael Lenahan, piano
BRAHMS Ballade in G Minor, Op. 118, No. 4 | Suejin Jung, piano
CHOPIN Étude in A-flat Major, Op. 10, No. 10 | Juliann Ma, piano
DEBUSSY Etude Pour les notes répétées | Juliann Ma, piano
SAINT-SAËNS Étude en forme de Valse, Op. 52, No. 6 | Tristan Teo, piano
CHOPIN Mazurkas in A Minor and F-sharp Minor, Op. 59, Nos. 1 and 3 | Ryan Reilly, piano
ADÈS Two Mazurkas, Op. 27, Nos. 1 and 2 | Han Chen, piano
CHOPIN Fantaisie in F Minor, Op. 49 | Maxwell Foster, piano
SCRIABIN Fantaisie in B Minor, Op. 28 | Gabrielle Chou, piano
It was an interesting concept, but in the end I found it much easier to appreciate each work on its own merits rather than to seek correspondences among the composers. It was simply too problematical to determine the extent to which a given composer may or may not have been influenced by Chopin in the writing of his own work.
Not surprisingly, the pieces I found truly compelling were in those genres I already most admired when listening to Chopin's music. Foremost among these were the nocturnes. Though I've never been able to distinguish within them any echoes of the Bellini arias Liszt claimed were present, I've always been moved by their introspective character and the delicacy with which they evoke a contemplative mood in the mind of the listener. Their form had already been fully developed by the Irish composer/pianist John Field by the time Chopin began to write his own, and it would have been interesting to have heard one of Field's pieces played alongside Chopin's at the recital. As it was, though, the nocturnes selected to accompany Chopin's 16th provided an excellent choice. Scriabin's nocturne for the left hand has long been a favorite. It was completed by the composer in 1894 after he had injured the right side of his collar bone while practicing Balakirev's Islamey in an attempt to outdo fellow Moscow Conservatory student Joseph Lhévinne (who later went on to teach at Juilliard). Though many pianists take the easy way out and perform the piece with both hands, at this recital Christine Wu stayed true to the spirit of the work and gave a tour de force rendition using only her left hand. The work which followed, a nocturne by Juilliard alumnus Lowell Liebermann, was one that I had never before heard, and I was extremely impressed by both the composition and the expert playing of Michael Lenahan who turned in one of the best performances of the afternoon.
The other Chopin work I'd looked forward to hearing was the Fantaisie in F minor. It could be argued that in its rejection of formal rules and set format (it consists of only one movement), the fantasy was the ultimate musical expression of the Romantic temperament. And that's no doubt the reason the genre holds such appeal for audiences. Written in 1841, Chopin's piece followed closely in the tradition of Schubert's Wanderer Fantasy and Schumann's Fantasie in C major composed only five years earlier in 1836. Pianist Maxwell Foster here gave an outstanding interpretation that I thought was worthy of comparison to the Claudio Arrau recording to which I most often listen. The work with which it was paired, Scriabin's 1900 Fantaisie in B minor, shared its lush romanticism and was fully in keeping with the character of the earlier piece. It was given a virtuoso rendition by Gabrielle Chou whom I had observed during intermission jumping up and down by the side of the stage to pump herself up for the performance.
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