LIVE AT TOWN HALL (1/30/2011)

When I was growing up, the dream of making one's New York concert or recital debut had to take place either at Carnegie Hall or at Town Hall.  The entrance area into the auditorium from the lobby is filled with programs of legendary performances that have taken place at this venerable hall.  Today, on a sunny and beautiful Sunday afternoon (January 30, 2011) the pianist Helene Grimaud would be performing not a debut recital but a rare U.S. recital. 

 Grimaud's outstanding career has been beset by a number of serious health problems, most recently stomach cancer, but she has always bounced back courageously.  This afternoon's program was definitely one requiring enormous stamina.  The opening Mozart Sonata in A minor was played with a mixture of passion and subtlety.  What was immediately noticeable was Grimaud's attention to textural events that are often overlooked in performances of this powerful work.  In an article in the New York Times she noted that she was because of the context of this program she was playing the sonata with more passion, brusqueness and sonority than she might if programming in a more classical vein.  She views the work as being a precursor to Beethoven's "Tempest" Sonata. 

The Mozart was followed by the late Romantic/Expressionist Piano Sonata by Alban Berg. The complex harmonic, textural, rhythmic and structural aspects of this one-movement work were conveyed with total mastery and eloquence.  She allowed important tonal cadence points to register fully with the listener and clarified thematic material. She underscored the lyricism of the work even when, or one might say especially when multiple lyrical strands competed for attention.

The second half of the recital was dominated by the Liszt Sonata in B minor, one of the towering landmarks of piano literature.  Throughout her program Grimaud demonstrated the strength of her left-hand playing and attention to musical events "below the C."

After her powerful and eloquent rendering of the Liszt, a performance of the animated Bulgarian Dances by Bela Bartok was a perfect way to end the program. Her mastery of the east European language of Bartok with its subtle rhythmic inflections and folk sonorities proved to be a great foil to the intensity and larger-than-life qualities of the Liszt sonata.