Midday Masterpieces (10/3/17)

Yun Wei, piano

Italian Concerto, BWV971 – J.S. Bach
Carnaval, Op. 9 – Robert Schumann

First off, a note about the piano at the Greene Space, WQXR’s street-level broadcast-studio-cum-event-space, where the Midday Masterpieces concerts take place. Fazioli? I know Steinway, Bechstein, Kawai, Baldwin, et al. But Fazioli? It turns out that they are high end, hand-built pianos, and WQXR has one. Who knew? Now, we all do.

Ms. Wei’s playing of the first movement of the Bach was clean and a little on the dry side (very little use of pedal for sustaining the sound), which is fine by me. The second movement was slower, with a little more pedal added, and there was an insistent motif in the left hand—one-two—at the ends of (and sometimes in the middle of) phrases. After a surprising major chord (the bulk of the work was somewhat somber), there was a brief coda, but always with that left hand one-two touch. The final movement was brisk and bright, lots of fun with a nice shifting of, and contrast of, dynamics.

As announced from the stage, Carnaval is a collection of 20 small vignettes designed to pay tribute to Schumann’s family and friends. This did not translate too well for me. I don’t know what the movements were named, and I don’t know who was being framed (for good or for ill), so I’ll just offer impressions of the sounds I heard. Bold prelude—Romantic in style, with not even a hint of schmaltz. Slightly mysterious followed by a music box feel with a darker, contrasting left hand motif. Wistful, yet pleasant—sheer number of notes was very impressive and then a rather abrupt ending. Rippling and song-like; really powerful; jolly, brisk episode but with hints of sadness. A presto with power led to a false finale. Slower, almost maudlin but really more tender. Chords and phrases firmly rooted in the Romantic tradition (full, rich, etc.). An even faster presto that led into a bold, straightforward closing passage.

I know that the last paragraph reads a little bit strangely, but it pretty much describes the quicksilver overall feeling of the work. I wasn’t quite sure of what I was hearing or how it was all supposed to fit together but it did. And made sense. And made music. I just might search out a recording or even another live performance, to see how it stacks up against my memory of this first hearing.

ConcertMeister