Elsewhere
I have praised Tamás Vásáry for playing the
music of Chopin as though it were by Schubert. Are the Ballades
Schubert? Well, yes, in a funny kind of way they are, and I do
prefer Vásáry on these works also. But these are
among Chopin’s finest works, and the work of a genius invites
— no, requires — a multiplicity of approaches. Chang’s is a somewhat
cooler but equally valid approach, one I am glad to have heard,
one I find much merit in. Her piano tone and the nobility of her
drama and the clarity of her phrasing, captured so brilliantly
in high resolution sound, are exquisite throughout.
The
artist began piano studies at five years old and played her first
public concert at the age of eight. She was formerly Assistant
Professor of Piano at Westfield State College in Massachusetts
and currently is on the faculty of California State University
at the Dominguez Hills campus — Dominguez Hills being one of those
new huge residential cities which surround Los Angeles and which
were nothing but sagebrush and jackrabbits 30 years ago. The video
performance reveals an interesting feature: Dr. Chang changes
her hairdo and dress for each of the four works. I confess I am
not and probably never will be able to evaluate critically the
match but at least it shows a systematic mind and a sense of complete
dedication. The short timing of this disk must be balanced against
the fact of its having four audio versions in high resolution
sound plus a complete video track in addition to still session
photographs and information screens, plus a set-up utility for
balancing your speakers.
It
is a pleasure to watch Dr. Chang work and that is what we do throughout,
we simply watch her play, with no sunsets, flowers, or cute doggies
to "interpret" the music for us. The microphones are
visible but have been carefully placed so as not to intrude into
the picture, but there are quite a few of them. Since each audio
version required a full set of microphones, it looks like about
a dozen in all.
To
see how this disk would play in a regular DVD (video) player I
put it, with the blue side facing up, in my new Sony DVD/SACD
player which contains a 96kHz audio chip and DTS capability. There
is also a firm notice in the booklet that it does not
(sniff!) play DVD-Audio disks. The usual piracy warning appears
on the video screen and then the AIX logo (unfortunately a noisy
one!) and then the audio/video set-up menu. It doesn’t matter
what you select here since at any time you can switch back and
forth between the showcard announcement and the live picture with
the ANGLE button, or between the "Stage" and "Auditorium"
mixes with the AUDIO button. The former makes the piano sound
like it is actually right there in your music room, with appropriate
acoustics, and the latter places the piano a little distance away
in the front speakers with only a reverberant sound in the rear
speakers. I preferred the stage mix, as the piano sound filled
the room with exquisite fullness and detail, but some might prefer
the auditorium sound. Or you might change your mind with your
mood.
When
playing the disk with the red side facing up in a DVD-Audio player,
one has the same options with even better quality sound, although
it seemed that the video quality was somewhat lower, but this
could be due to its being viewed here on a different set.
This
disk is not packaged in the medium tall jewelcase that seems to
be the standard for DVD-Audio, but in a taller clear jewelcase
nearer the size of the customary DVD package, presumably because
since it will play as a DVD video and you might want to shelve
it along with your other ones.
Paul
Shoemaker
Recorded at the Zipper
Auditorium, Los Angeles, California, USA, 31 August 2000. 
