The Lively Foundation
Inon Barnaton is an extraordinary pianist, but he goes far beyond great technique. He seems to live within the music, understand it, delight in it, and see the vision of the composer of each work. It was a privilege to be in his audience when Music@Menlo opened its Winter Season with his recital, Darknesse Visible.
The artist shared his insights both in the program and verbally as he introduced the works he performed. He titled the concert with a phrase from Paradise Lost, “Yet from those flames/No light, but rather darkness visible,” and explained that there were “varieties of darkness hiding in plain sight underneath the surface of these pieces” whether they seemed delightful or frightening. From the very beginning, he let his listeners know that there was more going on than an exhibition of brilliant playing.
It was a daunting and varied program: Debussy, Suite bergamasque; Thomas Ades, Darknesse Visible (also a source of the title and the eccentric spelling of darkness);Ravel, Gaspard de la Nuit; Britten, Fantasy on Peter Grimes, arranged by Ronald Stevenson; and Schubert, Sonata in A Major.
The Debussy included Clair de Lune. Although a woman seated behind the Hedgehogs reminisced during the delicate music that she played it when a child, it would be surprising to hear a more moonlit version. Barnaton created something new out of the familiar work. It was translucent and nearly tangible. The pianist was unafraid to present its mysteries.
These were difficult works. The Ravel alone could take decades to master and would reward decades of listening and study. It was full of marvels, expressive, presenting a multitude of musical ideas tumbling over each other like water falls.
For this Hedgehog, though amazed by all that went before it, Schubert’s Sonata in A was the reason to be there. From first hearing it, this enormous work has represented a profound understanding of life which one might spend a life time listening to in order to try to participate in it if never truly understand it. I have heard that it is music often requested for memorial services and yet its almost bottomless sadness is matched by boundless joy, even playfulness. Having listened to recordings of it for about twenty years, I am happy to have Inon Barnaton’s performance of it still playing in my imagination. He seems to dwell in the music like a dolphin in water, and he understood both the darkness visible and light triumphant.
Music@Menlo continues its Winter Series with Winds of France, Feb.12.
Pianist Inon Barnaton amazed his audience at The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton, October 2. His was the lead off program for Music @Menlo’s Winter Series.
Monday, October 17, 2011
Inon Barnatan, pianist; Darknesse Visible
