Well, that's quite a mouthful! Pianist Daniel Beliavsky began the evening by tossing that title right out the window, as he said that after having created it months earlier, he realized that it would probably take at least five lecture recitals to fully cover the subject. Instead, he focused on how the listener reacts to tonality, especially the much simpler relationships between tension and resolution of harmony and tonality. I’ve heard Mr. Beliavsky in the past, and I’ve always liked how his recitals have a touch of the lecture recital about them. As an expanded version of that, this was good, but almost a little too formal for me. I guess I just prefer lecture recital lite. [Full disclosure—I have heard Dr. (Ph.D) Beliavsky play some of these pieces (and parts thereof) previously. I actually did a search of my own blog.]
Ballad in Yellow – David Del Tredici (b. 1937)
Impromptu, Op. 90, No. 3 – Franz Schubert (1797–1828)
Prelude, Op. 3, No. 2; Prelude, Op. 23, No. 5 – Sergei Rachmaninoff
(1873–1943)
Etude, Op. 2, No. 1; Etude, Op.8, No. 12 – Alexander Scriabin (1872–1915)
Ballade, Op. 23, No. 1 – Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849)
Ballad in Yellow was sort of a wash of sounds, with phrases that were recognizable as tunes. While mostly gentle, there were a few more dramatic moments, with a fairly extensive louder, powerful section, finishing with a totally tonal solid chord. In true lecture-recital style, Mr. Beliavsky then discussed the work. It turns out that it is a transcription of a song written by Mr. Del Tredici. Ha! I knew that those phrases were recognizable as tunes—they were tunes. He then played the piece a second time, with a suggestion beforehand that knowing more about the piece might enhance or change our understanding of it. I stuck with my original impressions. Before continuing with the program as printed, Mr. Beliavsky provided examples of the previously discussed tension/resolution/tonality situation by playing a part of J.S. Bach’s Prelude in C Major, which made his case in rather clear-cut fashion.
Schubert’s impromptu was also song-like with a gentle, running, almost perpetual motion accompaniment. An increase in the energy level was brought about via increasing volume and darker harmonies. Subtitled The Bells of Moscow, the first of the Rachmaninoff preludes on the program had a definite sound of tolling bells with chimes-style filigree above. The increase in both tempo and number of notes in the right hand created a very powerful feeling throughout. In remarks from the stage, Mr. Beliavsky stated that he had added octaves to the tolling bells feature. Then in mock shock, he pretended to be us and asked, “How dare you change Rachmaninoff’s composition?” Answering as himself, he told us that since that was something that Rachmaninoff was known to do with some regularity, he felt perfectly justified. Departing once again from the printed program, he played snippets of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, to further cement home the power of bells as a theme in Russian Romantic music. The second prelude that he played was very nice and a bit more fully developed as a composition.
Both of the Scriabin etudes were solidly in the Romantic harmonies vein, but with a bit of stretching of those harmonies to give a hint of Scriabin’s mysticism-tinged qualities. And bells were a recurring theme here, as well. The Chopin is a work that I’ve heard several times (even played by Mr. Beliavsky), and it’s such a joy to listen to that I mostly did so and took very few notes. As I have before, I’d suggest that you do a Youtube search—you’ll probably get lots of hits. Even if you only listen to a bit of it, I think you’ll like, and possibly recognize, it. It began with only octaves at the opening, and then introduced a purely Romantic theme with some chromaticism. It moved easily between bombast and lyricism, displaying a vast difference that somehow all made sense. The very appreciative audience responded with a hearty ovation. This is one performer I keep my eye out for each year.
ConcertMeister
Bonus post (11/15/15)
On the penultimate day of the design competition and exhibition, I visited Canstruction, which challenges teams to build sculptures out of cans of food. There were 20+ exhibits—some of my favorites included a Top Hat, an eight-foot-tall Butterfly, one sculpture titled What’s Up, Doc?, a replica of the well-known Grand Central Terminal clock (the four clock faces themselves, not the entire structure), and a piece titled Good Etiquette Is CANtagious. The last was a sculpture of a bus or subway car. On one side, a figure was seated with obvious “man spread” while on the other side, the seated figure had knees closer together, with personal items on the lap. Not really among my favorites was a Republican Presidential contender piece that displayed Donald Trump on one side and Kanye West on the other. I guess it appealed more to my wordplay fun side, with Republican and Kanye.
Okay, now, here’s one of the really good parts. On Monday the 16th, all of the sculptures were dismantled, with the cans of food being donated to City Harvest to help fight hunger! We’re talking lots and lots of food. Some individual sculptures had upward of 7,000+ cans each. I would say that tuna and sardines constituted about 50%, but tomatoes, pumpkin, green beans, black/kidney/cannellini beans and chickpeas were also represented.
It was quite a trek for me to get to the southern end of Manhattan, way over on the West Side (230 Vesey Street, on the Hudson waterfront) on a windy Sunday, but it was totally worth it. It’s one more thing to keep my eye out for next year.
CM
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