San Francisco Classical Voice

Reah Sadowsky gave more than a performance Sunday afternoon--she invited us to an intimate visit with some of her (and our) favorite piano pieces. She speaks from a musical center so lyrical and satisfying, and a fluency born of years of warm devotion, that there was no better place to be than the Berkeley Piano Club, even on a hot afternoon.

Sadowsky coaxed us in with the long gentle lines of the Soler D Flat sonata. Her expressive touch was evident both in beautifully cascaded decrescendos and in fleet-fingered runs in his G Minor Sonata, and in trills that would almost vanish in the F Sharp Major sonata.

Her trills in the first movement of the Beethoven Sonata in A flat Major, Op. 110, were never mechanical, always leading on to the next. Playing from the heart has obvious rewards, but maybe not so obvious is the advantage it gives in technically challenging passages. The middle section of the second movement, often harrowing and nervous, with its fluttering right hand and off-beat left hand, felt secure, and was secure--flawless.

Sadowsky plays with a phrasing that is natural and generous, even when, as in the two iterations of the Arioso in the Beethoven, she used the pedal very sparingly and articulated the left hand accompaniment with exquisite micro-phrases. Both Fuga sections were gently evoked, only to rise to heroic levels.

After intermission, Sadowsky showed her dramatic range with the Brahms Intermezzi and Capricci, Op. 76. The first Capriccio sounded like a smouldering rhapsody, lingering, then surging as the music required. The second was a pixy-ish sprite, then a sweet love song, ending with a beautifully voiced descending chromatic line. I was reminded of a recording I once heard of an Edison cylinder, where Brahms showed what we might consider enormous freedom with the tempo, but with each section sounding just right for the musical character. Sadowsky has the tone and touch to mesmerize and then charm with the third, fourth, sixth and seventh pieces, all Intermezzi. In the two remaining Capricci, she showed a dramatic power that belies her diminutive presence at the piano.

Chopin's Nocturne in C Sharp Minor, Op. 27, requires that the pianist sustain long lines with few notes. Its companion, the Nocturne in D Flat Major, requires the same end despite flurries and showers of filigree notes. I don't think I have ever heard a left hand so serenely independent of the right hand's peregrinations outside of recordings by Leopold Godowsky or Josef Hofmann.

The announced program ended with a stylish "El Puerto" from Iberia by Albeniz, and continued with a Nocturne by Bruce Nalezny, the Song and Dance No. 1 by Mompou, and the Liszt transcription of Chopin's Polish song, "My Darling." The Nalezny piece, no less beautiful or cogent for visiting a mood frequented by Fauré, Chabrier or even Satie, deserves many more hearings.

As does Reah Sadowsky.

(James Carmichael, pianist, lives and teaches in the East Bay.)

©1999 James Carmichael, all rights reserved