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Dan Coren
Pianist at an exhibition:
The mystical virtuosity of Natalie Zhu
DAN COREN
In the past two weeks, I’ve attended several musically nourishing and thought-provoking concerts— concerts that reminded me why we’re willing to dress up nicely and pay substantial amounts of money to sit reverently in the presence of great musicians.
I heard pianist Mitsuko Uchida play a version of the Mozart G minor Piano Quartet with the Brentano Quartet that showed what miracles can happen when Mozart’s musical intentions— his fastidious notation of every slur, accent, and staccato— are honored. And I heard the classically-rooted jazz violinist Regina Carter and her quintet (substituting at the last moment for jazz harmonica player Toots Thielman) open for, and steal the show from, the legendary McCoy Tyner and his septet at the Kimmel Center. But the concert that affected me most deeply was Natalie Zhu’s piano recital at the Fleisher Art Memorial on Wednesday November 15th.
Another conception of ‘Pictures’
My wife and I were there to hear “Pictures At An Exhibition.” The Ravel orchestration— the way the work is usually heard— is one of my wife’s favorite pieces, and I was eager to see what her reaction would be to the version I prefer, Mussorgsky’s infrequently-performed original conception for solo piano. (In this bounteous concert season, you have an opportunity to hear this version on another PMCS concert on November 29th.)
What’s more, the combination of Debussy and Mussorgsky particularly intrigued me. Debussy had visited Russia as a young man and had probably heard music by, among others, Mussorgsky and Borodin. I can hear a logical progression from, say, Borodin’s “Steppes of Central Asia,” through Debussy’s “Images,” to the music of Stravinsky. As I listened to Debussy’s consonant, enigmatically directionless musical language, I found myself wondering what he might have thought when, a few years later, he sat at the piano with Stravinsky, playing another spectacular but little-heard piano work, Stravinsky’s own four-hand arrangement of “The Rite of Spring.”
An inauspicious start, quickly forgotten
The world premiere of “Among Gardens,” hot off the presses from Chia-Yu Hsu, born in 1975 and present in the audience, was an added bonus, not on the originally announced program. Hsu has taken Debussy’s textures and colors into a lyrical, iridescent atonal world that sounds completely modern. On the other hand, Natalie Zhu’s choice to open this program with an early Mozart piano sonata seemed very strange to me, and I must regretfully report that she got off to an inauspicious start with an over-pedaled and generally unsettled rendition of it. It was one of the very few musical disappointments of these concerts, but it was quickly forgotten.
Like many concert-goers, I’ve always thought that at a piano recital the place to sit is with a view of the pianist’s hands. In an effort to achieve this goal (seating was unassigned in the very small chapel that serves as the Fleisher’s concert hall), my wife and I had somehow chosen seats from which we could see absolutely nothing of either piano or pianist. After the intermission, though, we spotted some empty chairs along the far right-hand wall; from there we had a direct line of sight to Ms. Zhu’s face. Until this moment, I hadn’t really understood the difference between hearing a great performance and seeing it.
Young woman becomes high priestess
Even in the thoroughbred world of concert pianists, very few have what it takes to play the piano version of "Pictures" in concert (Sviatislav Richter's performances of it contributed greatly to his legendary mystique). But Natalie Zhu took the piece beyond virtuosity to something approaching the mystical. It was amazing to see her transformed from a young woman with an endearing smile to an ageless high priestess, her eyes closed and her face in meditative repose, as she channeled the music through her body, into the keys and out to us, an audience completely under the spell of Mussorgsky’s unique sonic vision.
As we walked the few blocks back to our house, I asked my wife what she thought of the Ravel version of “Pictures” now. “It’s beautiful,” she said, “but Ravel didn’t have a piece like that in him.”
To read a response, click here.
The mystical virtuosity of Natalie Zhu
DAN COREN
In the past two weeks, I’ve attended several musically nourishing and thought-provoking concerts— concerts that reminded me why we’re willing to dress up nicely and pay substantial amounts of money to sit reverently in the presence of great musicians.
I heard pianist Mitsuko Uchida play a version of the Mozart G minor Piano Quartet with the Brentano Quartet that showed what miracles can happen when Mozart’s musical intentions— his fastidious notation of every slur, accent, and staccato— are honored. And I heard the classically-rooted jazz violinist Regina Carter and her quintet (substituting at the last moment for jazz harmonica player Toots Thielman) open for, and steal the show from, the legendary McCoy Tyner and his septet at the Kimmel Center. But the concert that affected me most deeply was Natalie Zhu’s piano recital at the Fleisher Art Memorial on Wednesday November 15th.
Another conception of ‘Pictures’
My wife and I were there to hear “Pictures At An Exhibition.” The Ravel orchestration— the way the work is usually heard— is one of my wife’s favorite pieces, and I was eager to see what her reaction would be to the version I prefer, Mussorgsky’s infrequently-performed original conception for solo piano. (In this bounteous concert season, you have an opportunity to hear this version on another PMCS concert on November 29th.)
What’s more, the combination of Debussy and Mussorgsky particularly intrigued me. Debussy had visited Russia as a young man and had probably heard music by, among others, Mussorgsky and Borodin. I can hear a logical progression from, say, Borodin’s “Steppes of Central Asia,” through Debussy’s “Images,” to the music of Stravinsky. As I listened to Debussy’s consonant, enigmatically directionless musical language, I found myself wondering what he might have thought when, a few years later, he sat at the piano with Stravinsky, playing another spectacular but little-heard piano work, Stravinsky’s own four-hand arrangement of “The Rite of Spring.”
An inauspicious start, quickly forgotten
The world premiere of “Among Gardens,” hot off the presses from Chia-Yu Hsu, born in 1975 and present in the audience, was an added bonus, not on the originally announced program. Hsu has taken Debussy’s textures and colors into a lyrical, iridescent atonal world that sounds completely modern. On the other hand, Natalie Zhu’s choice to open this program with an early Mozart piano sonata seemed very strange to me, and I must regretfully report that she got off to an inauspicious start with an over-pedaled and generally unsettled rendition of it. It was one of the very few musical disappointments of these concerts, but it was quickly forgotten.
Like many concert-goers, I’ve always thought that at a piano recital the place to sit is with a view of the pianist’s hands. In an effort to achieve this goal (seating was unassigned in the very small chapel that serves as the Fleisher’s concert hall), my wife and I had somehow chosen seats from which we could see absolutely nothing of either piano or pianist. After the intermission, though, we spotted some empty chairs along the far right-hand wall; from there we had a direct line of sight to Ms. Zhu’s face. Until this moment, I hadn’t really understood the difference between hearing a great performance and seeing it.
Young woman becomes high priestess
Even in the thoroughbred world of concert pianists, very few have what it takes to play the piano version of "Pictures" in concert (Sviatislav Richter's performances of it contributed greatly to his legendary mystique). But Natalie Zhu took the piece beyond virtuosity to something approaching the mystical. It was amazing to see her transformed from a young woman with an endearing smile to an ageless high priestess, her eyes closed and her face in meditative repose, as she channeled the music through her body, into the keys and out to us, an audience completely under the spell of Mussorgsky’s unique sonic vision.
As we walked the few blocks back to our house, I asked my wife what she thought of the Ravel version of “Pictures” now. “It’s beautiful,” she said, “but Ravel didn’t have a piece like that in him.”
To read a response, click here.
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