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SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL CONCERT REVIEW
J. S. Bach, Mozart, Szymanowski, Chopin:
Rafał Blechacz (piano), Laeiszhalle Hamburg, 6.10.09 (TKT)
J. S. Bach: Italian Concerto, BWV 971
Mozart: Sonata in B flat major, K. 570
Szymanowski: Variations B flat minor, op. 3
Chopin: Ballad No. 3 in A flat major, op. 47. 4 Mazurkas, op. 17
Polonaise-Fantaisie, A flat major, op. 61
He came, he played, he conquered the audience. When Rafał Blechacz won the first prize in the International Chopin Competition four years ago at age 20, he was the first Pole since Krystian Zimerman in 1975 to claim that pianists’ Nobel Prize. The Chopin Competition takes place every five years, and standards could hardly be higher: in 1990 and 1995 the first prize was not awarded at all. In 2005, no second prize was given to express that there were no runners-up to Blechacz. While we are generally well advised to question the wisdom of competition juries, in this case I am perfectly willing to accept the judges’ verdict. However, we are lucky concert organizers apply a different kind of logic – else Hamburg might have to wait a long time for the next piano recital after this staggering performance.
Blechacz’s approach to Bach’s Italian Concerto was thoroughly unromantic. It brought a freshness to the perhaps overplayed piece that was young, light, and spirited, with a beautiful, plaintive but unsentimental and sometimes prayerlike cantilena in the second movement. The Presto was unusually fast, which paradoxically seemed to make the structure of the music even clearer, imbuing it with such playfulness and joy that the concerto was Italian not only in its alteration of forte (tutti) and piano (solo) passages but also in its joie de vivre. No German strictness here, but sheer exuberance and happiness.
Mozart’s late sonata was a fortuitous choice to follow Bach, as it frequently uses intricate contrapuntal techniques. Blechacz’s interpretation was again utterly clean and light, with a wonderful teasing quality in the third movement. While the second movement can sound quite songlike, Blechacz gave it a pensive quality that provided a glimpse of the maturity the young pianist has already achieved.
This became fully apparent in the last two composers of the evening (discounting Beethoven, whose Scherzo from the op. 2/2 sonata was the second encore). Karol Szymanowsi, one of Poland’s eminent composers, completed his Variations in B minor – heard much too rarely – in 1903, when he was barely 20. A late romantic work with a memorable theme that is explored in vastly different ways in twelve variations, it allowed Blechacz to express a whole universe of emotions. Chopin’s third ballad was full of drama, and in the mazurkas we realized how far the composer had moved from their rural origin, with the pianist giving them rhythmic twists that would have made the pieces a struggle to dance to. Instead, he interpreted them in all their artistic subtlety, full of nuances, from forceful without being heavy (no. 1) to pleading (no. 4).
Blechacz finally revealed his astonishing maturity in Chopin’s Polonaise-Fantaisie. Just as the entire recital was completely lacking in showmanship, so he never went for cheap effects in this late composition. Its elegiac quality could not have been more powerful in an interpretation that did not draw the listeners’ attention to the pianist’s dazzling technique but went straight for the work’s essence. Fittingly, the first encore was Chopin’s E minor prelude, which certainly does not require any dexterity. Blechacz made us realize that it is a composition about death – a constant presence in Chopin’s life.
Optimistically speaking: the concert hall was not nearly half empty, it was more than half full (the applause could have been from two audiences). Focusing not on stardom but on his musical development, Blechacz gives only 40 concerts a year. Fine, as long as he includes Hamburg regularly on his circuit. (Note: The recital was recorded for the website of the French-German TV channel Arte, www.arte.tv.)
Thomas K Thornton
J. S. Bach: Italian Concerto, BWV 971
Mozart: Sonata in B flat major, K. 570
Szymanowski: Variations B flat minor, op. 3
Chopin: Ballad No. 3 in A flat major, op. 47. 4 Mazurkas, op. 17
Polonaise-Fantaisie, A flat major, op. 61
He came, he played, he conquered the audience. When Rafał Blechacz won the first prize in the International Chopin Competition four years ago at age 20, he was the first Pole since Krystian Zimerman in 1975 to claim that pianists’ Nobel Prize. The Chopin Competition takes place every five years, and standards could hardly be higher: in 1990 and 1995 the first prize was not awarded at all. In 2005, no second prize was given to express that there were no runners-up to Blechacz. While we are generally well advised to question the wisdom of competition juries, in this case I am perfectly willing to accept the judges’ verdict. However, we are lucky concert organizers apply a different kind of logic – else Hamburg might have to wait a long time for the next piano recital after this staggering performance.
Blechacz’s approach to Bach’s Italian Concerto was thoroughly unromantic. It brought a freshness to the perhaps overplayed piece that was young, light, and spirited, with a beautiful, plaintive but unsentimental and sometimes prayerlike cantilena in the second movement. The Presto was unusually fast, which paradoxically seemed to make the structure of the music even clearer, imbuing it with such playfulness and joy that the concerto was Italian not only in its alteration of forte (tutti) and piano (solo) passages but also in its joie de vivre. No German strictness here, but sheer exuberance and happiness.
Mozart’s late sonata was a fortuitous choice to follow Bach, as it frequently uses intricate contrapuntal techniques. Blechacz’s interpretation was again utterly clean and light, with a wonderful teasing quality in the third movement. While the second movement can sound quite songlike, Blechacz gave it a pensive quality that provided a glimpse of the maturity the young pianist has already achieved.
This became fully apparent in the last two composers of the evening (discounting Beethoven, whose Scherzo from the op. 2/2 sonata was the second encore). Karol Szymanowsi, one of Poland’s eminent composers, completed his Variations in B minor – heard much too rarely – in 1903, when he was barely 20. A late romantic work with a memorable theme that is explored in vastly different ways in twelve variations, it allowed Blechacz to express a whole universe of emotions. Chopin’s third ballad was full of drama, and in the mazurkas we realized how far the composer had moved from their rural origin, with the pianist giving them rhythmic twists that would have made the pieces a struggle to dance to. Instead, he interpreted them in all their artistic subtlety, full of nuances, from forceful without being heavy (no. 1) to pleading (no. 4).
Blechacz finally revealed his astonishing maturity in Chopin’s Polonaise-Fantaisie. Just as the entire recital was completely lacking in showmanship, so he never went for cheap effects in this late composition. Its elegiac quality could not have been more powerful in an interpretation that did not draw the listeners’ attention to the pianist’s dazzling technique but went straight for the work’s essence. Fittingly, the first encore was Chopin’s E minor prelude, which certainly does not require any dexterity. Blechacz made us realize that it is a composition about death – a constant presence in Chopin’s life.
Optimistically speaking: the concert hall was not nearly half empty, it was more than half full (the applause could have been from two audiences). Focusing not on stardom but on his musical development, Blechacz gives only 40 concerts a year. Fine, as long as he includes Hamburg regularly on his circuit. (Note: The recital was recorded for the website of the French-German TV channel Arte, www.arte.tv.)
Thomas K Thornton