Two New York Recitals

[ramseytheii]

This weekend in New York I caught two interesting and different piano recitals.
Jerome Lowenthal played Years 2 and 3 of Liszt's Annees de pelerinage on 114th and Broadway.  It was a moving performance, he is one of the most individual artists out there today.  His LH octaves were somehow much better than his RH octaves, which seemed weak, but rumours of general technical disintegration didn't hold up, and I was sitting in the third row.  It was also an interesting presentation, as between each piece, he let the sound ring, and announced the next with some poetic statement, such as "Liszt looked out the window of the Villa d'Este and saw the cypress trees, which inspired doleful thoughts..." and then, "And then the cypress trees inspired more doleful thoughts..."

For an encore, he announced that due to the unfamiliar nature of several of the pieces he would play the b minor Sonata.  He sat down, played 4 or 5 bars then decided it was too long.   So instead he played a transcription of a movement from Poulenc's Aubade, which ends with two B's, just as in the beginning of the Liszt sonata.  A merry moment!

Talking afterwards the main current piano issue obviously came up, Joyce Hatto.  It seems that her "recording" of Messiaen's Vingt Regards was cribbed from Paul Kim, who was a student of Lowenthal's.  It was quite a shock for him to be so closely involved in this scandal.

The next night Leslie Howard played the Greenwich Music House, a small and charming neighborhood school that boasts a decades-old portrait of Gabrilowitsch, who apparently had something to do with its founding.  It's amazing that this little out-of-the-way place survived New York economy, but it seems to be going strong.  It is like a remnant from an old-fashioned world; at the intermission, some of us were outside smoking, and a fellow leaned outside the second floor window and rang a little bell to let us know to come in.

Howard played Beethoven op.101, Liszt Grosses Konzertsolo (I think is the title), and Rachmaninoff Sonata 1.  Somehow the Beethoven was very weak, and it sounded like he was really struggling with the double note passages in the third movement fugue.  He even had memory lapses in the first movement, which, for Leslie Howard is practically unthinkable.  Must have been a brand-new piece.

The Liszt was tossed off magnificently, but the music is nto my cup of tea.  It is his first venture into a single-movement sonata experimentation, and it preceded the b minor Sonata by 1 year apparently.  I actually heard strains of the Dante sonata, but maybe because I had just heard that the night previous.

The Rachmaninoff is one of Howard's most reliable warhorses and he pulled it off magnificently.  This sonata rarely gets such a clear performance; if not always inspiring, at least educational.

Talking with howard afterwards, he told me that he heard in 1972 Joyce Hatto perform in London.  She was giving a series of the "complete works of Liszt" in 6 concerts.  Howard is very serious about these things and was irritated to see that she only played "representative" works, for instance one Beethoven symphony transcription.  He said it was one of the worst recitals he had ever seen, and she couldn't "play piano to save her life."  This was all very humorous of course, but it was interesting to hear a first-hand experience.  He apparently walked out during the 4th bar of the Beethoven transcription (Eroica symphony).

And for an encore, Howard played another rare virtuoso showpiece, Valse-Caprice of Rubinstein.

Walter Ramsey

[bench warmer]

Nice narratives of the experience. Thanks

The only time I've heard of (read about actually) someone playing the b-minor Sonata as an encore was Liszt himself.

Leslie Howard was right, she didn't save her life or reputation by playing piano or Not playing piano.

[pianistimo]

ramseytheii, you could be a very good music critic - unless you are a professional one already?!  i really know very little about joyce hatto excepting what people say about her.  i tend to think that pianists kind of specialize after a while - and from what i hear - her specialties were 20th century pieces more than romantic.  ? correct me on this if i'm way off.  anyways - too bad that her name was distorted more by misperception rather than 'can she or can't she play the piano?'

in fairness to all who learn and succeed at performing - my hat is off to them.  it is no small task - and especially to those whom you had the privilege of hearing in NY play such difficult repertoire with apparent ease (excepting a few double note problems and memory lapses- as you mention).  do you think some pianos are 'trick pianos' and don't play double notes very well?