Tag Archives: Piano Concerto No. 1

Yuja Wang & Esa-Pekka Salonen: A Wonderful Concert

These two musical artists lit up Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, February 13. The program featured Debussy’s three works of Images pour orchestre, Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand, and the SF premiere of Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Piano Concerto No. 1, Opus 45. Wang performed both concerti with power and her intimate knowledge of playing the piano. This program appears four times; it demands strength and excellence. Maestro Salonen, leading the SF Symphony, provides all the necessities brilliantly. There are two more performances: Tonight, Saturday, Feb. 15, 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Feb. 16, 2:00. These are wonderful concerts with thrilling music and artists.

Esa-Pekka Salonen, Music Director, San Francisco Symphony

Debussy’s Images pour orchestre are three separate pieces that Debussy created from 1905-1912. They are presented in varying order. This program opened with Gigues from Images pour orchestre (1912) followed by Rondes de printemps (1905). Ronde was the first part he created; it suggested the idea of the parts. The third part, Iberia, closed the whole program. Each piece is inspired by Debussy’s idea of three countries: England for Gigues, inspired in part by a folk song, “The Keel Row;” France for Ronde de printemps; Iberia for Spain. Gigues and Ronde were fascinating. Each is eight minutes. The title, Images, fits because Debussy was very taken by the French Impressionist painters. His work also is engaged in aural suggestions of Pierrot, the theater’s sad clown. The Images may recall characteristics of these countries, but these works are imaginative and circulate one’s experiences and memories. I would hear and see them again right now if I could.

Yuja Wang, pianist

The Piano Concerto in D major for the Left Hand, was composed by Maurice Ravel, 1929-30, specifically for Paul Wittgenstein. Ravel entered World War I hoping to be a pilot, but due to his age and health, he was a supply driver. Pianist Paul Wittgenstein had recently made his solo debut before the war. He had been “called up” by the Austro-Hungarian Army and scouted Russian positions. He was shot in his elbow; doctors amputated his right hand. While in the hospital, the Russians raided the hospital and took everyone there as a prisoner of war. He was sent on the long journey to Omsk, Siberia where there was a POW hospital. He began to try to re-train the fingers of his left hand by drawing a keyboard to drill his fingers. He was moved to a hotel that had an upright piano, but luck changed. He was moved to a horrible place in the gulag. It was so terrible that Dostoevsky made it the scene for his novel, The House of the Dead. Wittgestein was in a prisoner exchange that took him back to Vienna.

Maurice Ravel, composer (1875-1937)

Wittgestein commissioned Ravel for a Concerto, but Wittgenstein “had issues” about the finished piece. After lengthy disputes, Wittgen stein finally recognized Ravel had composed a great work. Yuja Wang played brilliantly. One could see the physical challenge of the music. Yuja Wang balanced herself by having her right hand hold on to the right side of the bench and also by grasping the piano’s top. The Concerto is very athletic for the pianist. Ravel said, “even a single hand can create layers of sound and both melody and accompaniment at the same time.” Ravel was a jazz fan, and this Concerto shows his understanding of Jazz sounds and rhythms. He said, “After a first part in {a} traditional style, a sudden change occurs and the jazz music begins. Only later does it become evident that this jazz music is really built on the same theme as the opening part.” Wittgenstein, realizing his good fortune to have this Concerto in his repertory, played it in concerts everywhere, including with the San Francisco Symphony, 1946. Watching Yuja Wang play this makes one realize the physicality needed to make music. She is ready for Olympic gold. Fascinating to watch, and listening to her playing in person is a great reward for the audience.

Einojuhani Rautavaara, composer (1928-2016)

Rautavaara was the most famous Finnish composer when he passed away relatively recently. He studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. He said that he was not a piano prodigy, but “with no personal contact with music as yet, I painted ‘music’ on paper in watercolors.” He received a master’s degree from the Academy and Sibelius chose him to win the study grant honoring Sibelius’ 90th birthday. He used the grant to study with Roger Sessions and Aaron Copland, in 1955 and 1956. He continued studies at Julliard and in Europe. He was interested in all the serious music trends, including 12 tone serialism. He composed eight symphonies and forty other orchestral works. His Piano Concerto No. 1, Opus 45 (1969) opened his eyes to alternatives to the most fashionable styles. He leaned into neo-Romanticism in his own style. “I was disappointed…with the then fashionable ‘ascetic’ –and to my mind anemic –piano style, and i wanted in my concerto to restore the entire rich grandeur of the instrument, to write a concerto ‘in the grand style.'” Yuja Wang was the right person to present the grand style. The Concerto needs a strong technique and deep understanding of the music. There were many physical performance requirements. The pianist had to use her whole lower arm to make the sound of all those notes at the same time. Her hands had to jump over each other. It was a powerful Concerto with a powerful artist bringing it to an excited audience. Yuja Wang was cheered into encores: Etude No. 6, by Philip Glass. The audience went wild again. The second encore was Danzon No. 2, by Arturo Marquez. Ms Wang is a great personality in addition to a fabulous performer.

Music Director Salonen closed this wonderful program with SF Symphony playing Debussy’s third part of the Images pour orchestre, iberia. The impressionistic music wafted around the hall. It has Spain’s light, colors, an atmosphere of people dancing a sevillana in the town’s plaza. The music suggests visual experience in the music. The scent of a place Debussy had never seen surrounded us in his imagination.

Note: Quotations of Ravel are from Benjamin Pesetsky article SF Symphony program. Quotation from Rautavaara are from James M. Keller article in SF Symphony program.

Helene Grimaud & San Francisco Symphony

The astonishing Helene Grimaud performed Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op 15 (1858), with the SFSymphony, Feb. 6, 2014, at Davies Symphony Hall. Ms Grimaud’s performance was powerful, expressive of the deep emotions in the great work. She is a pianist whose affinity for Brahms has offered both wonderful performances and recordings. Listening to the concerto is an intense experience. Brahms never dodges the emotions and does not mind calling on the audience to pay heed to the interworkings of piano and orchestra, changes of rhythm, a lyricism which is not soothing. In fact, Brahms does not seem to mind if one is not comfortable.This is edge of your seat music.. The music can swirl like a rip tide in deep water. It has a force which could sweep one away. It brings to mind images for which one might have yearned but never reached. Writers often find autobiographical detail in this concerto. Brahms’ friend and champion, Robert Schumann, had tried to drown himself in the Rhine in 1854. Schumann was sent to an asylum where he died, in 1856. Schumann and his wife, Clara, had 7 children. Brahms spent time visiting Schuman, helping Clara, helping with the children. Brahms and Clara: who knows? Seeing them through 21st century eyes is not so helpful. Yet their devotion to each other and to Schumann was total. So, is it a game to identify which movement is Robert Schumann and which is Clara Schumann and which is Brahms’ sense of loss? Oh, please, let’s not go there! Johannes Brahms was a great, earth-shakingly great composer. He worked with music and invented music. If he wanted to write a play, he could have done that instead. The concerto is about the music. If memories, images, emotions are called into being by it, that is its life. The concerto embraces the intertwining of music, love, and life. Sadness is there because it is real, and Brahms is always real. Ms Grimaud played with feeling completely in tune with Brahms. She spent herself entirely in service of the music. It was an extraordinary performance by Symphony and soloist.

LBringuier

The SF Symphony offered Metaboles, by Henri Dutilleux, and La Valse, by Maurice Ravel, after intermission. The SFS was an exuberant, well-tuned instrument as conducted by Lionel Bringuier. Metaboles, though a little intimidating to read about, was a poetic and interesting piece. The composer was concerned with finding the correct form for each of the five movements. For example, Obsessionnel: Scherzando and Torpide: Andantino. It was fascinating music played with precision that did not take away from the rhythmic and melodic pleasure of the piece. La Valse is dramatic and threatening. Ravel’s affection for Johann Strauss had moved him to write a waltz tribute; World War I intervened. La Valse is imbued with the harsh sounds of irony. Couples may be dancing together, but they are out of step and off center, like a chandelier about to crash on a party. The music gets faster and –perhaps Maestro Bringuier was excited–extremely loud (as occasionally happened in the concerto). It is not the charming waltz of days gone by but the future’s dance of terror. Pictures: top, Helene Grimaud; L to Rt: Brahms, H.Grimaud, Lionel Bringuier, Maurice Ravel

Yefim Bronfman, Tchaikovsky, the San Francisco Symphony

Bronfman-1-(c)-Dario-Acosta-120x67 Yefim Bronfman performed Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the San Francisco Symphony, September 14, 2013. My eyes open wide and I shake my head; I am startled by my good luck to have been there. Please do not listen to anyone who belittles Tchaikovsky. There are those who will do it because too many others like his music. Do not listen to that noise, listen to Tchaikovsky. Mr. Bronfman played with power, grace, and understanding. He played delicately. He played so fast that I could not believe anyone’s fingers could move that way. He created a musical world. The SF Symphony met his need for a great partner in building this world. I want to say it was monumental; it was, but that word does not express the movement and life in the music. Mr. Bronfman played it into life. It is music that does not suggest a story but brought me to tears. The magnificence of his performance filled the hall with love, desperation, exaltation, with Tchaikovsky. The SF Symphony’s Music Director, Michael Tilson Thomas’s programming brilliance put Prokofiev’s Third Symphony on the same concert, after intermission and a chance to catch one’s breath. The SF Symphony played it as an overwhelming musical experience. The symphony, premiered in 1929, is full of struggle. All of the instruments are engaged in the battle. Knowing that the Symphony has sources in Prokofiev’s opera, The Fiery Angel, it could be the absolute struggle between good and evil, but it is a symphony, not an opera. The music has jagged, stabbing sounds and a quieter theme for the horns. There is no relief; the instruments assert their desires. It is a devilish battle. Search Prokofiev on the internet. Under his picture the caption is “Ballet Composer.” It is another harsh irony pursuing Prokofiev through the new century. Yes, ballets and Peter and the Wolf, but also the depths of this fantastic, cruel, reality in his Third Symphony. Thinking about Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev, a line from W.H.Auden’s poem, In Memory of W.B. Yeats, comes to mind. “Mad Ireland hurt you into poetry.” Both Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev were set upon by Russian struggles. Was Tchaikovsky too Western to be accepted as a great Russian composer? Were Prokofiev’s operas elements of pre-Revolutionary decadence? The bureaucrats with guns as well as other composers shouted, “Yes!” Auden asked the poet “with your unconstraining voice/Still persuade us to rejoice;” that is what Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev both could do and did for music and for us. Auden won’t claim “rejoice” because all is well, but because they could write this music.