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RECITAL REVIEW
Mastercard Performance Series / Friday, January 20, 2017
Emanuel Ax, piano

Emanuel Ax Acknowledges Applause in Weill Hall Jan. 20 (K. Stewart Photo)

COLORFUL SCHUBERT AND CHOPIN WARM WEILL HALL IN AX RECITAL

by Nicki Bell
Friday, January 20, 2017

On a stormy winter evening Jan. 20 a rainbow of colorful Schubert and Chopin music came from the fingers, feet and heart of pianist Emanuel Ax.  Playing at the Weill Hall for the first time, this recital was a tribute to beauty in the arts. It conveyed the value and glory of balance, lyricism and elegance in elegant pianism.

Mr. Ax is a sensitive and brilliant artist that has made a substantial career playing mostly music he loves, the European classical and romantic repertoire. This performance’s first half was concerned with the way Schubert and Chopin explored the Impromptu form. Though the name implies improvisation, each of the eight Impromptus are in a well-organized A-B-A form. Schubert’s four Op. 142 Impromptus were composed in 1827 in Vienna, and taken as a group are almost like the movements of a sonata. 

The opening and lengthy F minor was characterized by great drama and melting delicacy, which gave a flavor of what was to come. Mr. Ax is a master at shaping pianistic tone and shaping time with subtle flexible rhythms. The A-Flat Impromptu, an Austrian dance with disarming simplicity, is a minuet with a flowing trio, and the B Flat is a lovely theme and variations based on incidental music (“Rosamunde”) Schubert wrote for a now forgotten play in 1823. The five variations have great contrast and are eloquent expressions of sorrow and happiness. The lyrical sense of a song is never lost. The concluding F minor Impromptu recalls a gypsy dance, full of virtuosity, flights of scales and joy, and the artist’s Staccato touch was a marvel.

The four exquisite Chopin Impromptus were next.  The Op. 29 (A Flat major) was played with glittering scales and graceful outer sections that contrasted with a middle soulful lyrical section. The F Sharp Major (Op. 36) was for Mr. Ax a gentle nocturne with a dramatic center. The G Flat Major (Op. 51), the least often performed, was given an elegant interpretation that caught the Impromptu’s slightly sad character and had smooth legato thirds and sixths. The Fantasy Impromptu in C Sharp, Op. 66, had a brilliant perpetual motion configuration in the outer sections and a spacious, poignant melody in the middle (similar to Bellini’s bel canto arias). This has become one of Chopin’s most enduringly popular works. 

Schubert’s second Klavierstücke, D. 946 in E Flat, opened the second half. It was a world unto itself, alternating themes of tender sweetness and dark brooding and unsettled mystery. Edited by Brahms, this piece was not published until long after Schubert’s death, and Mr. Ax’s mastery highlighted the syncopations and interesting harmonies.

The program concluded with Chopin B Minor, Sonata Opus 58. Here in the Allegro Maestoso was fire and brimstone transforming into welling lyricism that made one want to hold one’s breath. It was at times poignant and at times ecstatic, ruminating, thoughtful, then explosive. It was a big bold performance, melodically inspired again by bel canto opera signing. The four movements contained powerful contrasts. The Scherzo’s scampering lightness gave way to a dreamy and profound Largo, the heart of the work composed in 1844. The last movement was a sparkling heroic dance building to a magnificent frenzy, a massive amount of sound that had orchestra sonority.

An ecstatic audience of 750 jumped to their feet in applause, and kept bringing Mr. Ax back to the stage for only one encore, the elaborately ornamented Chopin F-Sharp Major Nocturne, Opus 15.

Sonia Tubridy and John Boyajy contributed to this review.