Juilliard: Bachauer Piano Recital

On Thursday evening, I went to Juilliard's Paul Hall to hear the annual Bachauer Piano Recital honoring the two winners of this year's competition, each of whom received a $10,000 grant.  It was a thoroughly enjoyable event that provided an opportunity for listeners to hear two talented young musicians at the very beginning of their careers.

Following introductory remarks by Joseph W. Polisi, President of Juilliard, the first pianist appeared on stage.  This was Anna Han, a student of Robert McDonald.  For her part of the recital, she selected four works, beginning with the first movement Allegro moderato of Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No. 6 in A Major, Op. 82.  Ms. Han then played without pause the final three short pieces - Scriabin's Prelude Op. 11, No. 12 followed by two Chopin Op. 33 Mazurkas, the No. 2 in C Major and the No. 3 in D Major.

I had heard the great pianist Yefim Bronfman perform all three of Prokofiev's "War Sonatas" beginning with the No. 6 at a recital at Carnegie Hall in May.  I had been struck then by the dissonance that marked the opening movement as one hand played in A major and the other in A minor.  This created in the listener's mind a sense of instability that Prokofiev might very well have intended to reflect the paranoia Soviets were then experiencing under the weight of Stalin's purges.

The twenty-four preludes that constitute Scriabin's Op. 11 were written early in his career when he was still deeply under the influence of Chopin.  They were, in fact, deliberately modeled after those comprising Chopin's Op. 28 and followed the same key sequence.  By performing the Chopin Mazurkas immediately after the Scriabin Prelude, Ms. Han emphasized both composers' Romantic tendencies.  Surprisingly, the Chopin pieces turned out to be the only non-Russian works on the program.

The second performer to take the stage was Mackenzie Melemed, yet another student of Robert McDonald.  His performance consisted of two Russian pieces - the Sonata Tragica Op.39, No.5, and the Canzona Matinata, Op.39, No.4. by Nikolai Medtner.  These works, which were by far the most interesting performed at the recital, were written by Medtner in 1919-1920 shortly before he emigrated from Russia where he had been a student of Sergei Taneyev at the Moscow Conservatory.  They are described in the composer's Wikipedia biography as follows:

"The Eleventh [Sonata], 'Sonata Tragica' in C minor, Op. 39, No. 5, concludes 'Forgotten Melodies (Second Cycle)'. There is some repetition of themes in this set as well—the piece which precedes the Sonata, 'Canzona Matinata', contains a theme which recurs in the Sonata, and according to Medtner's wishes both pieces are to be played attacca—without pause. This is also a single movement sonata-allegro form, but Allegro, dramatic and ferocious, with three themes of which one (the reminiscence from 'Canzona Matinata') does not return. A violent coda concludes."

Following Mr. Melemed's performance and a brief chat with radio host Bob Sherman, both musicians performed together the second movement Valse (Presto in G major) from Rachmaninoff's Suite No. 2, Op. 17, the piano duo premiered by the composer and his close friend Vladimir Horowitz at a Beverly Hills party in 1942.

It was interesting to compare the Medtner pieces to those by Rachmaninoff .  Not only were both composers fellow countrymen who had fled the Revolution, but both were confirmed Romantics.  Rachmaninoff's second suite for two pianos was written in 1901 immediately before his famous Piano Concerto No. 2.  Although it is the concerto, famously dedicated to the psychotherapist Nikolai Dahl, that is generally considered to mark Rachmaninoff's return to creativity following the disastrous premiere of his First Symphony, the suite can also be viewed as a turning point for Rachmaninoff.

There was a pause between the two musicians' performances during which McGraw-Hill Chairman Harold McGraw III presented violinist Karen Cueva with an award for music education and community outreach.  The program notes indicated that Ms. Cueva, who has both an undergraduate degree from Juilliard and a Masters in Education from Harvard, is currently Manager of Learning & Education Programs at Carnegie Hall's Weill Music Institute.

The recital will be broadcast on WQXR at 9:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 5th, as part of the Young Artists Showcase series.