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RECITAL REVIEW
Unusual Beauty, Unpredictable Events
October 14, 2001
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By Thomas Schultz
Two challenging works from the late 18th century formed the core of Igor Kipnis' Sunday afternoon piano recital at Old First Church. Both Mozart's C minor Fantasy (K.475) and Sonata (K.457) and Haydn's Andante con Variazioni in F minor (Hob.XVII:6) reward the active listener with music of unusual beauty and drama, which unfolds as a string of unpredictable events.
This recital was Kipnis' debut as a solo performer on the modern piano (as opposed to the harpsichord and clavichord with which he was associated since 1959).
Dynamics in the Mozart Fantasy and Sonata consist almost exclusively of stark and often harsh alternations of forte and piano. Written in a spare and, with the exception of certain passages in the Sonata's Adagio second movement, unadorned style, the music has always an underlying feel of anxiety. Kipnis' decision to proceed directly, without a pause, into the opening of the Sonata upon sounding the last notes of the Fantasy reinforced the sense of urgency that so dominates the music.
The Haydn Andante con Variazioni juxtaposes variations in F minor and F major, with detours into the key of G flat. In contrast to Mozart, one feels that Haydn's purpose in surprising the listener is to amuse, not to shock. However, the music is brought to its conclusion by an extended coda that, without warning, breaks the regularity and flow of the preceding variations. Highly chromatic passages create a strange effect that seems to subvert, at this late moment, the balance and vitality of the music, leading to an ending that could best be described as tentative.
Kipnis gave both works a straight-forward reading. His greatest excitement was inspired not by the inherent drama of the harmonic progressions, but rather by the rhetorical elements in the music. Kipnis, like an increasing number of pianists today, injected numerous passages with his own ornamentation and melodic variants. This practice so rarely makes for an improvement over the composer's original version and, when undertaken in this particular Mozart Sonata, has the effect of weakening the sparse quality of Mozart's writing. In music of an especially serious character, ornaments added by the performer, no matter how musicologically appropriate, can have a trivializing, or even humorous, effect. Schubert's short C minor Fantasy (D.2E), written at the age of 14, opened the program with echoes of Mozart. The initial interval of a minor third and a later grazioso theme were taken by Schubert directly from the Mozart Fantasy. This borrowing of musical materials reappears in Schubert's later works. The similarity of sections of the late C minor Sonata (D.958) to passages in Beethoven's piano sonatas is striking, and the quotation/transformation of the "Ode to Joy" melody from Beethoven's 9th Symphony in his "Great" C major Symphony is a moving musical homage. Kipnis also played a set of Ecossaises (D.299) that Schubert wrote for the enjoyment of his close friends. His light, quick traversal of these brief, simple pieces provided pleasant relief from the complexities of Haydn and Mozart .
Jan Ladislav Dussek's The Sufferings of the Queen of France, Op.23 concluded the recital. This rarely heard piece is a succession of ten short sections, each painting a musical picture of a moment during the days preceding the Queen's beheading. Although the music has occasional attractive passages (a depiction of the subtleties of silent contemplation in the fifth and sixth sections --"Her Resignation to her Fate" and "Reflections the Night before her Execution"), it provides the listener with exactly what is expected: forte maestoso chords in a major key for "She Reflects on her Former Greatness" and sighing motives in a minor key for "The Farewell of her Children". Kipnis responded to the piece with his most refined and brilliant playing of the afternoon. (Kipnis' ongoing announcement of the titles preceding each section reminded me of Frederic Rzewski's De Profundis, an interesting recent work requiring the pianist to simultaneously recite a text, play the piano and make percussive noises.) (Thomas Schultz is a pianist and a member of the faculty at Stanford University.) ©2001 Thomas Schultz, all rights reserved |
