Another Great Pianist Visits HK

Last night was a another great night. One of my favourite pianists came to Hong Kong. He is Murray Perahia. I bought the tickets the moment they were on sale     and waited and waited and waited. Last night, he was playing. There, in front of me, just slightly more than 10 feet away! I could hear the tiniest movement of his fingers. It was a wonderful feeling to hear the musical notes as they beamed at me from the underside of the raised reflecting sound board of his Steinway.

First he played for us Bach's French Suites No. 5 in G, BWV 816 consisting of Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Gavotte, Bourrée, Loure and Gique, one of the six French suites that Bach wrote, many of them based on the rhythms of various dance forms.The programme notes says that the first is sunny, the second joyful, the third a beautiful rumination, the fourth lively and entertaining, the fifth vigorous, the sixth quirky and the last cheerful. However one chooses to describe them, I found that Perahia didn't play it in the baroque manner as if on a harpiscord of Bach's days but in his own peculiar way, emphasizing the contrasts in the music: playing certain notes much stronger and certain other notes much softer, thus forming his very personal phrases and sentences. It is as if he turned the two dimensionality of Bach's music into three dimensional pieces.  He has made Bach into his own kind of Bach. And I like it. His play is very different indeed from that of Glen Gould's.

Next we had Beethoven's Sonata No.27 in E minor, Op 90, which Beethoven dedicated to Count Lichnowky as a surprise gift to the latter. It was supposed to be played very lyrically. But Beethoven being Beethoven, there is no lack of drama in this piece. I like the way Perahia planted one or two very strong notes amidst a string of very fast, flowing soft notes to give his very personal structure to the music. The unexpected strong notes and pauses seem to bring out the potential of drama buried amongst the breves, minims, crochets, quavers, semi-quavers etc. of the score. I like in particular the almost imperceptible pauses before he hits  certain notes. There is also a song-like character to certain of its passages which appeals enormously to me.

The last piece before the break was Brahm's Klavierstücke Op. 119:  three Intermezzos in Adagio, Andantino un poco agitato, Grazioso e giocoso and a Rhapsody in Allegro risoluto, written for his friend and lover Clara Schumann. I like the almost contemplative sadness of the first, the emotional turmoil of the second, the dance-like gaiety of the third and the dramatic alternation of joy and sadness in the last.

Robert Schumann, one of my favourite piano composers, started the second half of the programme with his all time favourite, the Kinderszenen (Scenes of childhood) Op. 15, 13 contemplative pieces all written for his future wife Clara Schumann, whom he described as "often childlike". They recall to him various moods during childhood which are reflected in part by the titles he append to the end of each pieces: von fremden Ländern un Menschen (Of Foreign Lands and People), Kuriose Geschlichte (Strange Story), Hasche-Mann(Catch-me-if-you-can), Bittendes Kind (Pleading Child), Glückes genug (Contented), Wichtige Begebenheit(Important Event), Träumerei (Dreaming), Am Kamin (By the Fireside), Ritter vom Streckenferd (Knight of the Hobbyhorse), Fast zu Ernst (Almost too serious), Fürchtenmachen (Frightening), Kind im Einschlummern (Child in a Slumber) and Der Dichter spricht(The Poet Speaks). As the title of the cute little songs indicate, they portray a whole gamut of different moods, some sad, some less so, some agitated, some more serene but behind all, there is that quiet contemplative underlying feeling which seems to run through all of them.

The official concert concluded with three pieces by that poet of the piano, Chopin. We had a varied fare: his Prelude in F# Minor, O. 28, No. 8, his Mazurka in C# minor, Op. 30, No. 4 and his Scherzo No.3 in C# minor, Op. 39.. The first was inspired by Bach as part of Chopin's dream of doing one prelude in each of the major and minor keys and the second was inspired by the folk music of Moravia and the last forms part of a series of four Scherzos that Chopin wrote and portrays a rich variety of moods within the piece. Needless to say, Perahia is not one likely to disappoint. He must be a very shy person. He came on to the stage, walking calmly but sheepishly, his shoulders almost hunched together, his right hand hugging closely to the middle of his formal swallow tail just beneath the long right lapel. He bowed and then sat down, adjusted the seat a little, took a deep breath to relax, his head all bowed down and then focused and then off he went. His eyes were always on the keyboard except occasionally, when he lifted his head a little thinking or immersing himself into the mood of the music and occasionally, he would nod his head, ever so slightly in sync with the rhythm of the music and in the strong fortissimo passages when he had to hammer upon the keyboard with all the might of his arms and shoulders, you can see the muscles on his cheek flapping rapidly up and down as a result of the residual force of his motion and you can see how his lips got all tightened up. Perahia is a dedicated musician. It appears to me that for him, nothing matters except the magic he wishes to conjure out from that huge black and glistening monster of an instrument. 

In recognition of the long and thunderous applause he got, he gave us two encores: first Schubert's Impromptu in E Flat  Op. 90 No. 2 D899 and then one of Chopin's Etudes, Op. 10 No. 4.in C# minor.   I waited long. I did not wait in vain. It was a memorable experience. The harmonics of the notes he coaxed from the Steinway are resonating in my mind still even as I am writing.