San Francisco Classical Voice

RECITAL REVIEW Dignity, Restraint,
Then Fire

November 20, 2001

Arnaldo Cohen

By William Wellborn

Make no mistake — pianist Arnaldo Cohen is a dignified artist. His playing last Tuesday evening at Herbst Theater exhibited a polished technique and a refined sense of musicianship that faithfully serve a serious interpreter. His control at the instrument is remarkable; the sound is never less than beautiful, often strikingly so. However, a nagging feeling of restraint lay over much of the evening's proceedings, frequently keeping the listener at an emotional distance until the middle of the second half. There this restraint burst wide open and the evening ended in a blaze of pianistic glory.

The formidable program began unconventionally and most successfully with Schoenberg's Six Little Piano Pieces, Op.19. Cohen immediately pulled the listener into the strange and quiet world where these pieces dwell, creating an effect of intense concentration for both artist and audience. Indeed, throughout the evening I was struck by the rapt attention in the theater. Seldom have I heard a Bay Area audience sit so quietly and listen so hard, which is of course a high tribute to the performer.

Bach's Partita in B-Flat Major, a stalwart opener for countless piano recitals followed — this time in the second position. The feeling of intimacy Cohen conjured in the Schoenberg was carried over into the Bach, but with mixed results. On the plus side was a tonal refinement and personal approach that was compelling; on the other hand, one missed the rhythmic vigor that can make Bach so engaging. Most successful was the sarabande, with its perfectly sculpted lines. Most frustrating was the gigue, where I just wished the pianist would let go and have fun with the rhythm. Although Cohen's polish distilled out much of the excitement, one could often marvel at the ravishing sounds coming out of the instrument. Ultimately, it was a convincing interpretation, if not my first choice of how this music should sound.

Low-Key Prokofiev

Closing the first half of the program was Prokofiev's brilliant Sonata No. 7, a favorite of pianists ever since its premiere in 1943 (given by no less a pianist than Sviatoslav Richter). A driving and exciting work, it will often bring an audience to its feet. That was not the case this evening. Cohen's fastidious approach eschewed and even obscured some of the more obvious effects. There was no vulgar crashing here (which was fine by me!), but one did miss the sense of rhythmic magnetism that this music can generate.

In the first movement Cohen was most convincing with the lyrical second subject. He managed at once to sound utterly free with the music while maintaining an inevitable sense of direction — all of this coupled to a multi-hued sound that was hypnotic. Here I wondered what this artist could do with Debussy! The second movement again provided many beautiful details, with Cohen bringing a hollow and ominous sense to this movement instead of the more traditional feeling of warmth. The driving rhythm of the finale was intact, but Cohen seemed more intent on restraint and the cumulative effect was more impressive than exciting.

Blaze of Glory

Chopin's Four Scherzi occupied the second half of this sizeable and demanding program. Each one is a major work in its own right, and I was initially skeptical about listening to four such works in succession. However, by the end of number four I was convinced. Cohen played the Scherzo No. 1 in B minor with a quicksilver lightness that was often pianistically stunning, but robbed the piece of its drama and elemental force. Again, there was the nagging feeling of the pianist holding back emotionally.

Then, in the second scherzo, things changed. A momentary yet noticeable lapse of memory in the middle section (followed by a brilliant recovery) seemed to cause the artist to lose all sense of restraint. The piece ended in a blaze of glory and the third scherzo was as good as I have heard in concert. Here, Cohen caught just the right combination of fire and foreboding. The central chorale section with its glittering cascades was perfectly voiced with a seemingly limitless range of color, and the ending was dazzling. The fourth scherzo was perhaps even finer. Cohen's delicacy and refined pianism allowed him to toss off the difficult passagework with a sense of grace and nonchalance that was truly outstanding. The whimsical yet never trivial outer sections were perfectly balanced by a poignant and deeply-felt central section. In this work it seemed as if Cohen's piano must have had velvet hammers.

After a generous ovation, Cohen told the audience that “we should have something fun after all of that,” and launched into a paraphrase on Johann Strauss's Die Fledermaus that was astonishing not only for its technical brilliance, but also for its grace and fin-de-siècle elegance. Here there was no sense of unwanted restraint whatsoever, and at moments I was reminded of the kind of charm and spontaneity that one could hear in the playing of the late Shura Cherkassky. A delightful tango entitled Odeon by the Brazilian composer Ernesto Nazareth polished off this most impressive evening of refined, and ultimately most satisfying music making.

(Pianist William Wellborn performs and lectures in the United States and Europe, and from 1995-97 was host of the program "Piano Legacy" on San Francisco station KDFC. Wellborn is on the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory, where he teaches courses in piano, piano history, and opera.)