San Francisco Classical Voice

The forceful march of the second movement never became overly portentous. At the very end, Boepple let the last chord ring on the pedal for a very, very long time, until the remaining E-flat major resonance melted into the quiet C-major opening of the finale. The resulting effect was quite startling and profoundly beautiful. The exquisitely crafted third movement concluded this highly satisfying performance.

To say that Beethoven's Op. 126 Bagatelles are a strange lot would be an understatement. Beethoven's late style — and Op. 126 was completed right after the Ninth Symphony — comprised a strange blend of extremes: the more complex and, at the same time, the more simple, naïve, even primitive. The more intellectual, polyphonic writing is juxtaposed with simpler melodies resembling folk songs or nursery tunes and the most rudimentary accompanimental figures. Boepple made a valiant effort at bringing all these motley bits and pieces together, just as he did so successfully later in the evening with Schumann's Phantasie.

I am not certain, though, that this is the right way to go. True, unlike Beethoven's earlier sets of Bagatelles ("trifles"), Op. 33 and Op. 119, the six of Op.126 were not assembled from previous sketches and separate pieces but rather composed together as a whole. And yet, where else in Beethoven can you find, for instance, a stormy contrapuntal outset that quickly deteriorates into a silly limping dance followed by a state of trance when one B-major chord is held for sixteen straight measures? This is Bagatelle No. 4, and the other five are just as bizarre. Boepple strove to unify the set by smoothing over some of the wildest contrasts and trying to impart some dignity and sophistication to the silly and simplistic. In my view, any attempts to neatly comb this outrageous offspring are futile. Its most fascinating attraction is in being just so shockingly disheveled.

Béla Bartók's Suite Out of Doors (1926) is one of his most original and difficult piano compositions. It emerged from the Lisztian brand of virtuosic pianism and was inspired by both impressionistic sound effects and the Baroque dance suite (Bartók was editing Baroque keyboard music at the time). In the first movement, "With Drums and Pipes," Boepple elicited an entirely new, sharp-edged sound from the Steinway. The contagious rhythmic energy of this movement was followed by the darkly hued "Barcarolla." In the third movement, "Musettes," the shimmering tone colors were deftly intertwined with ironic neo-classical episodes. In the fourth movement, "Musiques Nocturnes" (The Night's Music), Boepple's mastery of multilayered, multi-sonic effects was absolutely superb. The terrifying "The Chase" swept the rapt audience with its ferocious intensity.

The program ended with a brilliant rendition of Liszt's Venezia e Napoli. Billed by the composer as a supplement to his "Years of Pilgrimage," the three parts of the set, "Gondoliera," "Canzona," and "Tarantella," are all based on music by other composers. Boepple delivered Venezia e Napoli with a plethora of tone colors, pliant phrasing, and intelligence and sensitivity rarely heard in virtuoso showpieces like these.

In the end there were tons of flowers from grateful fans and students, and one encore: Chopin's Nocturne Op. 27 No. 2, performed with elegant eloquence.