This weekend was part of a two week series of concerts in Glasgow focused on the piano. I saw four concerts with famous pianists using the instrument in various settings. Friday night, Leon Fleisher conducted the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in Beethoven's 2nd Piano Concerto and Mozart's Jupiter Symphony. I saw Fleisher conduct the Vanderbilt orchestra the past two years and was excited to see him work with a professional ensemble. Of course the SCO sounds amazing on pieces of the classical period and seem quite comfortable accompanying a soloist and in all the individual orchestral solos. Fleisher is pretty hands off with them, beautifully showing them individual phrases and not beating the pulse with dramatic gestures. The Mozart had especially eloquent phrasing throughout, every 2 or 4 bars was a gem of lyricism and expression. The Beethoven Concerto was played by Nicholos Angelich, who was a student of Fleisher at some point. His playing was sweet and lyrical but often too fast and light that some clarity was lost. Fleisher's conducting gave perfect balance to the concert and every movement had the right about of playfulness, drama, and enthusiasm. For an encore, Angelich and Fleisher played a piano duo version of a Dvorak Slavonic Dance; it was fun to watch them together and they looked like they were enjoying themselves.
Saturday afternoon was the most unique event of the weekend in a venue called the Old Fruitmarket, located in the same building as the Grand Hall where most concerts take place. The Old Fruitmarket looked like just that, open floor with market stalls around, with a small stage in the front. The concert was the German silent movie "Pandora's Box" accompanied by pianist Neil Brand playing an original score. The plot of the movie was confusing and I didn't try hard to follow it but there was a seductive woman who's outgoing nature causes problems for her and others. The pianist was quite amazing though and he did not stop playing for all two hours and five minutes of the movie! The notes for the concert say that he was playing a score that he wrote but it sounded like there was an element of improvisation in the performance as he played without music and was watching the movie closely at times. The music was not the 1920's jazz I expected in this kind of movie but mixed ideas of that style with more modern jazz and musical-theatre elements. It kept right along with the action of the movie which was really impressive and when I was drawn into a particular scene, it was neat to see the effect the music had if I stopped paying attention to it.
Saturday evening was a solo recital by pianist, Mitsuko Uchida. It is rare these days to hear a solo recital by someone so famous that they mostly perform concerti so I feel lucky that I got to hear one of the true masters in an intimate setting. The concert was at the Grand Hall and the lone piano on the stage was a beautifully personal setting amidst a welcoming audience. The program began with Schumann's Waldszenen and I was immediately drawn in by her singing melodies and emotionally charged phrasing. Every rise and fall in the music was perfectly timed and her sound was constant and smooth through changes in character. Next on the program was a set of Chopin Nocturnes and the Polonaise-Fantasie which she played with equal grace and beauty. The rubato and lyrical timing timing gave way to moments of utter timelessness where each note had its own rich quality and led appropriately to the next. Every phrase was well thought out with the melodic line balanced clearly on top. The second half of the program was Six Short Pieces by Schoenberg which went by quite fast but had great contrasts in character. She went directly from these pieces into Schubert's Sonata in C Minor which worked smoothly but was a little jarring at first. Again, the melodic line was beautifully phrased throughout and the virtuostic passage work was exciting and powerful. Uchida is tall and skinny but has a commanding presence and really takes control of the music and captures the audiences attention from the beginning. Everyone loved her and, though there was no standing, applauded enough to get a nice encore of a Mozart slow movement. It was a thoroughly satisfying concert of great piano repertoire by a renowned pianist.
The final event of the weekend for me was a lecture by Alfred Brendel entitled "The Character in Music." Though Brendel retired from performing just a few years ago he now spends his time giving talks and teaching as well as mentoring young pianists. One of the greatest pianist of the century he is also a poet and quite an eloquent speaker, even in English which is not his first language. Known for his playing of Beethoven Sonatas, among other things, this lecture focused on different characters in the pieces, how they can be highly specific and contrasting, and how they relate to form. He used musical examples throughout and though it was only ever a short section of piece, it was still amazing to see his passion and precision in every note he played. The beginning of the talk focused on form and motivic development, showing how Beethoven can create a whole piece with material from the first couple bars. He went on to show very specific moods, characters, and images associated with parts of each sonata. From the playful to the somber, from pastoral to deeply human, his ability to communicate the feelings both verbally and musically was quite amazing. Although it is often hard to find a real connection between character and structure, he concluded the talk by saying that we should try to find a place where the two meet so that the technical elements and psychological elements bring out the piece's meaning. It is all a very personal matter and Brendel really showed us that each performer and each listener can have differing opinions as long as they decide on something clear that they want to say.
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