Saturday, March 24, 2018

Piotr Anderszewski, Piano Recital (2017/3/12) and Concerto (2018/3/23)

Time: 2017/3/12 (recital) and 2018/3/23 (concerto), both approx. 19:30-22:00
VenueNational Concert HallTaipei
Performers: Piotr Anderszewski and Shao-Chia Lü with NSO

Programs: Recital and Concerto
2017/3/12 (recital):

  • Mozart: Fantasia in C minor, K. 475 
  • Mozart: Sonata No. 14 in C minor, K. 457 
  • Janáček: On an Overgrown Path, Book II 
  • Chopin: Three Mazurkas, Op. 56 
  • Chopin: Three Mazurkas, Op. 59 
  • Chopin: Polonaise-Fantasie, Op. 61

2018/3/23 (concerto with NSO)
Thoughts:
Piotr Anderszewski first entered my radar with his outstanding performance and articulate analysis of Beethoven's Diabelli Variations, which the Gramophone called "most intelligent, searching and sheerly delightful account of the Diabelli Variations to have reached us since Alfred Brendel’s."(*1) An individual voice he surely has. One senses that if he says something, it has to be unique and interesting, especially on music which have been beautifully played and recorded many times before. The only thing one can be sure about his concert is that it will be likely different from what he has done before.(*2)

Anderszewski's recital on 2017/3/12 did not disappoint. It was indeed sparkling and significantly different from his recorded performances. My listening partner Ping was very impressed and got 2 more CDs by Anderszewski from the gift shop during the break.

His performance of Beethoven's C major Piano Concerto started off with, should I say, measured and careful playing. In the first movement, Anderszewski and Lü chose the tempo around = 132 (with significant tempo fluctuations towards the end of the movement) while on score Beethoven marked = 144.(*3) The music gripped me only towards the development in the first movement when the key modulated to E-flat major (from C). Not sure about it, but I thought that Beethoven's own cadenzas were used and brilliantly performed. For encore, Anderszewski played Janáček's On an Overgrown Path from Book II.

Originally, Anderszewski was to play Béla Bartók's Piano Concerto No. 3 (in E major, Sz. 119, BB 127). I was really looking forward to it since I have never heard of Anderszewski's Bartók. Unfortunately for me, it was changed to the more familiar Beethoven. 

I have not heard an NSO live performance after it was renamed as National Concert Hall Orchestra in 1994 before finally settling with current National Symphony Orchestra. Prior to that, it had a curious-sounding name United Experimental Orchestra and that's how I knew it back then. More than twenty years later, the orchestra has very significantly improved. Personally, I would call it a second-tier world-class orchestra, much better than some of the regional orchestras in the U.S. and in Europe. However, the weak link as always was in the brass section. The opening chord of Lemminkäinen Suite was a small disaster. Fortunately, it went mostly fine afterwards. Lü and NSO brought the piece to a thrilling end.

This was also my first concert with Lü at the helm. My impression is that he is an effective conductor, and seems to have a good working relationship with his orchestra. However, his style is a bit too conventional for my taste. In Beethoven, for example, I'd love to have more incisiveness, with sharper attacks. However, the orchestra played really well for the Beethoven. In my opinion, it's by far best performed piece of the day.

The world premiere of Chun-wei LEE's Picking Up the Sounds of Crops  [李俊緯:《拾掇穀聲》] went well. I have not heard Lee before, but was impressed by his eclectic compositional style. In the Passacaglia (final) movement for example, Lee blends traditional folk tunes and early Western music with the 21st century musical idioms to create interesting variations.(*4) Even though the formal layout of the piece reminded me immediately of Act I of Alban Berg's Wozzeck in the order of Chorale, Fantasia and Passacaglia, the style are very different. Dr. Leu, our general music expert, professed his appreciation of the freer fantasia movement.

(*1) https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/beethoven-diabelli-variations-11
(*2) https://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/mar/14/classicalmusicandopera
(*3) Most of the recordings are below quarter note = 144, with the exceptions mostly from historically informed performances.
(*4) In my humble opinion, it is far superior to 謝宗仁(1981-):《楓之絮語》木管五重奏(2007) (Tsung-Jen Hsieh: Ahorngeflüster, for wind quintet) which I heard in an EIC's Taipei concert.