HAOCHEN ZHANG plays
SCHUMANN. LISZT. JANACEK. BRAHMS
BIS 2238 / *****
Of
the many young Chinese pianists professing their art in today's concert halls,
Zhang Haochen, now 27, is the most thoughtful of keyboard virtuosos. As ironic
as that sounds, he eschews the outlandish showiness of Lang Lang, and the
glamour and glitz of Yundi or Yuja Wang.
His new recital album showcases that
most valued of qualities: genuine musicality allied with the innate ability of
saying what one means. Forget the fact that he can rip through Stravinsky's Three
Movements from Petrushka with seemingly the greatest of ease, it is his
view of Schumann's Kinderszenen (Scenes From Childhood) that
moves. Its 13 movements of utmost simplicity are taken at face value and the
music is allowed to speak for itself.
His
concession to virtuosity takes place in Liszt's Ballade No.2, which
builds to a shattering climax in a less commonly-heard version which replaces
left hand scales with chords. In Janacek's Sonata I.X.1905, a young
worker's death is remembered in anti-virtuoso terms, in which poetry and
poignancy comes to the fore in two concentrated movements.
The youngest-ever
winner of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition concludes his recital
with Brahms' Three Intermezzi Op.117, where song-like qualities and
smouldering disquiet come through with an uncommon immediacy. Like holding
infinity in the palm of his hand, and eternity in an hour, that is true virtuosity
for you.
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