No clever title for this final post of my 2014 time at my favourite music festival.
The concert on Monday afternoon starred Jan Lisiecki, and for once the term "starred" is entirely appropriate!
Lisiecki first appeared at the Festival in 2007 at the ripe old age of 12 years! Already at that time it was plain that he had the makings of a pianist who would also be a fine musician (see post # 3 for a discussion of the distinction! Performers or Musicians? ).
Now, 7 years later, this young Canadian pianist has become a true rising star of the musical world. Certainly a recording contract from the prestigious German label Deutsche Grammophon is a testament to his stature!
On this occasion he began with a set of five Chopin pieces for solo piano -- two of which fall into the category of "genuine warhorses". When performing a piece as well known as the Grande Valse Brilliante, the pianist had better be spot-on with technique and have something quite definite to say about the music. This Lisiecki certainly did accomplish. I've heard one of the so-called "greats" blur this entire piece into oblivion with the sustain pedal pressed firmly into the floor. Lisiecki took the opposite approach: with the pedal mostly left alone, he treated a number of the melodies in this chain of waltzes to a light, precise, clearly articulated staccato. This uncommon approach brushed away the cobwebs of tradition and lifted the music off the earth and into the realm of the fairy scherzos of Mendelssohn or Berlioz.
While his rendition of the famous Minute Waltz was played at a breathtaking clip, it too was clearly and precisely articulately and cleanly pedalled.
In between we got two more waltzes and a most musical and shapely account of one of Chopin's truly poetic utterances, a Nocturne. It seemed to me a pity that the solo recital portion of the programme ended so soon; I was definitely willing to hear more!
After the intermission the stage filled up with an ensemble of 17 string players: a double octet plus one bass. This large group played Mendelssohn's famous Octet, a perennial Festival favourite. Opinions were sharply divided between yours truly and my seat neighbour, an experienced violinist. He thought it was marvellous, and took an early opportunity to lead the standing ovation.
However, I did not enjoy it as much. The playing was definitely of the highest standard, but the concept left me cold. Mendelssohn's writing in this piece is perfectly judged and balanced for the eight players, and it is rightly acclaimed as a great masterpiece. Doubling the string body caused the sound to become thicker, rounder, less clear, while the addition of the bass tilted the sound picture into a darker, warmer area than the original. The greatest victim was the lightning-quick scherzo, which lost its gossamer-light fairy quietness and became instead a muscular, emphatic, athletic (but not graceful) romp. The one real benefit was the the larger body opened up a bigger difference between scherzo and finale, so that the last movement for once came across as something more than just a continuation of the third one.
The concert ended with Lisiecki returning to join a slightly-smaller body of string players in Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto No. 2. This is not perhaps one of the great masterworks of the concerto repertoire, but it certainly is a marvellous virtuoso showpiece. Lisiecki rode the whirlwind writing with great aplomb and energy, the unending scales and arpeggios rocketing off the stage and throughout the hall. As a most necessary contrast, his playing in the slow movement was gentle and poetic -- although the movement was taken at a far faster tempo than usual.
Once again, though, I was disappointed by the nature of the orchestral sound. As in many of Mendelssohn's orchestral works, there are lengthy passages where the strings fill in the sound picture with their own endless scales and arpeggios while the main melodic substance is carried by the winds and (occasionally) the brass. With these instruments missing, key parts of the musical argument were not heard at certain passages, and the whole sound seemed too thin overall (curiously, the opposite effect to the Octet).
The capacity audience were loud in their appreciation at the end of the concert, and rightly so, but the two Mendelssohn works were a pair of experiments that I would rather not see repeated. Some works are best not transcribed to different formats.
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