RECITAL
Carnegie Hall
Piotr Anderszewski
Bach - French Overture in B Minor, BWV 831
Schumann - Novelette in F-sharp Minor, Op. 21, No. 8
Schumann - Fantasy in C Major, Op. 17
Bach - English Suite No. 3 in G Minor, BWV 808
“It can be hard not to wax hyperbolic when confronted with the pianist Piotr Anderszewski's sensitive touch and potent imagination,” declared The New York Times. Known for his individuality and fresh interpretations, Anderszewski is renowned for his musical intellect and thoughtful approach. The Guardiansaid, “The tone and touch of Anderszewski's playing are so seductive that it is easy to forget how classically correct a musician he is.”
"Carnegie Hall presents a recital by pianist Piotr Anderszewski tonight, March 19 at 8:00 p.m. in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage. Schumann's Novelette in F-sharp Minor, Op. 21, No. 8 and two works by J.S. Bach -- French Overture in B Minor, BWV 831, and English Suite No. 3 in G Minor, BWV 808 -- replace previously announced works by Beethoven, Bartók, and Schumann. Schumann's Fantasy in C Major, Op. 17 remains on the program."
"Mr. Anderszewski is regarded as one of the outstanding musicians of his generation. In the 2014-2015 season, he can be heard in recital at Vienna's Konzerthaus and Amsterdam's Concertgebouw. His orchestral engagements include appearances with the London Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, and Vienna Symphony Orchestra, as well as three appearances in Bamberg as part of a residency with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra. Additional highlights include a series of recitals with baritone Matthias Goerne in Vienna, Berlin, and London."
In “Unquiet Traveler,” a revealing 2008 documentary that follows the great pianist Piotr Anderszewski on a tour through his native Poland, this powerfully individual artist speaks of the “extreme loneliness” of a recital, of the “heroism” but also of the “cruelty involved.”
Those comments came to mind in the summer of 2009, when I heard Mr. Anderszewski play a late-night recital at the Kaplan Penthouse, a program pairing a partita and an English suite by Bach. In this intimate, informal space, Mr. Anderszewski seemed not to be bravely grappling with loneliness but sharing his music amid friends.
On Thursday night, Mr. Anderszewski appeared on a big, exposed stage: Carnegie Hall. Yet, for this program of works by Bach and Schumann, he tried, it seemed, to make the space feel intimate. During performances, the house lights were kept dim enough that you could not read the titles of the movements in the pieces. Only a narrow overhead light made him visible. The implicit message seemed: What did it matter whether he was playing the Gavotte I or the Passepied II movement during Bach’s French Overture in B minor, a remarkable 35-minute work? We were invited to listen in the moment and let Mr. Anderszewski take us through this music.
His sensitive performances also fostered intimacy. Even the unusual choice and ordering of the program countered the typical notion of a concert pianist come to dazzle us. One of the two Schumann works he played was the towering Fantasy in C (Op. 17). But having begun with Bach, he ended with Bach, the English Suite No. 3 in G minor, not, as most pianists would have, the Schumann Fantasy.
In performing Bach’s French Overture (written for the harpsichord) on the piano, Mr. Anderszewski made full use of the modern instrument’s sustaining richness and capacity for shadings. Still, he often played rolled chords and scurrying passages with a slightly metallic gloss and textural lightness that intriguingly evoked the sound of the harpsichord. He brought infectious, rhythmic vitality to his playing in the dance movements. Does Mr. Anderszewski know how to dance a gavotte? He must.
Schumann lived in awe of Beethoven. But the other composer who hovered over his work was Bach. Mr. Anderszewski surely wanted that connection to come through on this program. You almost never hear Schumann’s Novelette in F sharp minor (Op, 21, No. 8), the last piece of a piano suite from 1838. This 11-minute episodic work is like a suite in itself, full of lyrical bursts and swirling passagework broken up with feisty dance episodes. Mr. Anderszewski conveyed the music’s teeming Romanticism while also revealing internal Bachian complexities.
His account of the Fantasy de-emphasized the monumental qualities of Schumann’s three-movement score to bring out its poetic, yearning explorations. Even the march movement was intricate and intimate.
After his vibrant account of the Bach English Suite (one of three he has recorded for his latest Warner Classics CD), he played encores: three Hungarian folk songs by Bartok, then the first three of Beethoven’s Six Bagatelles (Op. 126). That he did not announce the encores suggested he hoped the audience would just listen. That they did.
No comments:
Post a Comment