San Francisco Classical Voice

Consider, beyond the opening Bach, the boldness, appropriateness and generosity of the program he put together (he selects the music himself and writes all the program notes): Beethoven's Sonata No. 10 in G Major, Op. 14, No. 2; Bartók's Rumanian Folk Dances; Mozart's Sonata in B-flat Major, K. 333; and four of his own compositions.

How well does Kit play? For starters, it was a two-hour-long concert without the use of score, without a single memory lapse. The performance ranged from the adequate to the startlingly brilliant. The only possible comparison I have for this strange and wondrous event is Sarah Chang's performance of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto at age 9. She had better mastery of the whole work than Kit showed in the sonatas, but his virtuosity at times exceeded hers. Considering the size of his hands, it's a miracle that he can play this well, physically.

Much more important, however, is Kit's sense of the music beyond the notes and his ability to express it. In that, all-important regard that shifts this weird precocity into the "very vague" domain of a true prodigy, Kit and Sarah share that early gift that started careers such as Menuhin's, Yo-Yo Ma's, Galway's, a few other prodigy-to-musicians. There were many high points between that singing Sarabande and the program-closing Five Elements, the best of Kit's works presented at this concert.

In the Beethoven, Kit showed remarkable focus and concentration: a very loud cell phone went off just before the music enters into a tough, turbulent passage, and the youngster got it exactly right, as if the auditorium was not still buzzing in the aftermath of the wireless interruption. The arpeggios at the beginning, the authoritative final notes of the second movement, the playful trills of the last movement were all splendid. Kit's syncopation in the Bartók, his instant adjustment to a pedal extension come loose in the Mozart were striking, "mature" accomplishments.

Of his own music, there was the minute-long Homage to Bach, and then A Thunderstorm — described by Kit as "my first atonal piece . . . in two-part binary form with a coda, the first part being tense and mysterious, and the second being more welcoming" — his most original work presented here.

Stanford's Beet Quartet had a rather rough time premiering two movements from Kit's String Quartet No. 1. (The Beet Quartet, named on a whimsey, is a local volunteer string quartet formed by four friends four years ago.) It is a pleasant piece, a Brahms homage in fact, if not in name. The candid artist revealed in his program notes that he had originally meant to depict the four seasons, but as the sequence of movements failed to reflect the passage of time, "I eventually decided to change the title to something as plain as String Quartet No. 1 in B-flat Major." A story not as dramatic as the one about the Eroica, but at least coming directly from the author.

Kit wrote "Five Elements in 1998-99, meaning that he was a Mozartean six-year-old when he started work on it. It was also a six-year-old who came up with the idea of writing a work in the first five church modes, at their original pitch levels: Dorian (on D), Phrygian (on E), Lydian (on F) — Kit emphasizing its neoclassical nature and "allusion to 18th century-like ornamentation and melodic patterns" — Mixolydian (on G) and Aeolian (on A). Sounds too academic? The music didn't.

It may be a small thing measured against the scale of the young man's other accomplishments, but I was very much taken by Kit's mature, masterful communication with the audience. Using rather subtle, but effective, body language, he prevented applause between movements, clearly signaled when a piece was finished. Not enough grownup artists have this poise and know-how to "conduct" a concert.

Among Kit's announced plans (and who knows what else may be going on in that amazing mind): learning both books of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, and performing all Mozart piano concerti by 2006, the 250th birthday of the composer. It will be Kit's 14th.

There is also good news on the chicken-music front. One of Kit's earliest composition was the Chicken Sonata, almost five years ago, and he followed that with Chickens in Spring Time: Theme and 46 Variations. He continues to raise chickens, so in the future, once he gets through mastering orchestration, a Chicken Symphony may well be in the cards.