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RECITAL REVIEW
September 22, 2006
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Unconquerable Musicianship By Heuwell Tircuit
Old First Concerts has demonstrated a bit of courage in presenting four piano recitals entirely devoted to 12 of Schubert’s 21 sonatas. The series began this past weekend, featuring three sonatas per recital on Friday and Sunday. Of course, Old First hedged its bet by enlisting superpianist Meng-Chieh Liu to play the entire cycle. His Friday program consisted of the Sonata No. 7 in E-flat Major, D. 568; No. 15 in C Major, Relique (“Relic”), D. 840; and the No. 16 in A Minor, D. 845.
Showcasing Schubert in such a way is unusual. While universally recognized as one of the great masters, he’s not generally good for the box office (except for the major lieder cycles). All-Schubert piano recitals or orchestral concerts are as rare as frog hairs — although, I’m not sure why. The beauty and originality of the music warrants this treatment, just as much as the frequent all-Mozart and all-Beethoven evenings.
Perhaps the drawback is that Schubert’s music is dangerous for the performer. Every element has to be right on target because his compositions are completely unforgiving of exaggeration, technical or emotional. Liu, a faculty member at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, played these demanding works as well as I’ve ever heard them, and a good deal better than the majority of more famous pianists. Liu’s playing was so flawless that it is a tad embarrassing to report on it.
The four-movement Sonata No. 7 dates from 1817, when Schubert was only 19 years old. He had already published a number of his most famous songs, but he was still feeling his way around large instrumental forms. The E-flat sonata shows traces of influence from sonatas by Haydn and Mozart, as well as hints of Beethoven’s piano sonatas. It also represents a rare instance of Schubert reworking a large piece. He transposed the original D-flat key up to E-flat and added a minuet to the original three movements. Usually, he just ignored something already “finished” and went on to write something different — something better.
That was the case with the unfinished “Relic” Sonata of 1825, the first of three big sonatas he wrote that year. We only have the first two movements of the C-Major Sonata — a Moderato and Andante — plus tidbits of what would have been the third and fourth movements. The movements weren’t published until 1862, when Whistling, the Leipzig publishing firm, added the nickname Relique. (Why they chose French is anybody’s guess.)
Although it’s unexpected for a work in C Major, this sonata is largely an expression of profound malcontent. It bristles with the kind of modal melancholy common to certain Mahler scores. Quite possibly, Liu’s classical poise and expressive depth reflects that of one of his teachers, Claude Frank, who recorded that excellent box set, “Beethoven: Complete Piano Sonatas” (RCA), years ago. Liu undoubtedly picked up additional bravura from his time spent working with Jorge Bolet and Eleanor Sokoloff.
As with the more famous “Unfinished” Symphony in B Minor — four other incomplete Schubert symphonies exist — there have been attempts to finish this sonata. Such attempts either expand on the surviving sketches or borrow from unrelated piano pieces. But this presents a performance problem. Do you simply play the two authentic movements that run a half-hour, or do you have a crack at one of the completion attempts? As with the famous “Unfinished” Symphony, I feel two movements suffice, as it is impossible to come up with adequate expansion. The profundity of Schubert’s two-movement sonatas is completely fulfilling. (Beethoven composed a group of such two-movement sonatas that no one complains about.) I’m delighted to report that Liu was content to offer two movements. He reached levels of insight and the highest artistry, and I found it to be an uncommonly moving experience. The next sonata, the large four-movement in A Minor, also has its dark side, but that’s balanced with playful episodes and occasional outbreaks of high drama. In place of the usual slow movement, Schubert used a set of variations on a lyrical minuet. That is followed by a kind of fanfare scherzo and a terse, fluttering rondo with some march episodes thrown in. Catering to audience demands, Liu announced that as an encore he wanted to play that A-Minor finale again. He said he had “choked up” the first time, although it sounded fine to me. The second performance was also excellent, but the idea tickled me: I had never before heard an artist admit to his audience that he wasn’t pleased by the way he’d just played. Now that’s perfectionism. On the other hand, nothing about Liu’s history or playing is ordinary. Born in Taiwan, he studied there as a small child. At the age of 13, his extraordinary talent earned him acceptance to Curtis; he graduated in 1993, immediately joined the faculty, and prizes and major appearances followed. Soon after, he was immobilized by a hand-crippling illness that doctors told him would end his career. Yet, through determination and physical rehabilitation, he overcame it, and now he is active all over the U.S., Asia, and Europe. Liu will play two more all-Schubert sonata programs: Oct. 27 at 8 p.m. he performs Nos. 9, 14, and 20; and the following Friday (November 3), he’ll perform Nos. 13, 17 and 21. If you are a Schubert fan — or, even if you’re not, but happen to enjoy a superb pianist — these recitals are must-attend events.
(Heuwell Tircuit is a composer, performer, and writer who was chief writer for Gramophone Japan and for 21 years a music reviewer for the San Francisco Chronicle. He wrote previously for Chicago's American and the Asahi Evening News.)
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Meng-Chieh
