ERIK
T. TAWASTSTJERNA Piano Recital
Yong
Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall
Wednesday
(2 March 2016)
This review was published in The Straits Times on 4 March 2016 with the title "Perfect Finnish to a memorable outing".
If the name Erik Tawaststjerna sounded
familiar, that is because he was the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius' most
important biographer. Erik T. Tawaststjerna is his pianist son, who is Head of
Piano Studies in Helsinki's Sibelius Academy. Very appropriately, the first
half of the younger Tawaststjerna's piano recital was devoted wholly to Finnish
music.
Two of Magnus Lindberg's six Jubilees
opened the evening, immersing the ears with plangent chords and sequences of
fluid running notes. Although atonal in conception, there was an unusual warmth to the 6th
Jubilee, which dissolved into the fidgety triplets of the 3rd Jubilee,
almost a study of virtuosic fingerwork.
The survey of miniatures continued into
Sibelius' five Esquisses (Sketches), his last works for the
piano, contemporaneous with the Sixth and Seventh Symphonies. If
the 1st and 5th of these resembled bagatelles, it was
three central pieces – titled Winter Scene, Forest Lake and Forest
Song – that came across like granite-like fragments hewn from his mighty
symphonies and tone poems. The austere harmonies and chilling demeanour of
themes were classic Sibelius, persuasively brought out by a specialist who has
recorded the composer's complete piano output.
Altogether lighter was Sibelius' own
transcription of his popular strings hit, Valse Triste from incidental
music to the play Kuolema. A gentle waltz rhythm, melancholic melody and
spectral swirling figures contributed to its sickly sweet scent. Far from being
the unwitting salon favourite, this was a work about death. Despite
Tawaststjerna's ardent advocacy on the keyboard, one somehow misses those
sobbing strings.
The first half concluded with Einojuhani
Rautavaara's Second Sonata (1970), also known as the Fire Sermon.
Its three movements were tonal. Aggressive ostinatos in the 1st
movement were reminiscent of Bartok even if hints of melody were allowed to
escape from the cauldron, contrasted with the lyricism of the slow movement
which had acerbic stings of its own. A furious fugue completed the 10-minute
piece, distinguished by striking chordal resonances by allowing the strings to
go undampered for a few more seconds.
Familiar music occupied the second half,
beginning with the Six Musical Moments of Franz Schubert. Within these
short intimate pieces, the Austrian composer invested a whole world of moods
and emotions, which Tawaststjerna keenly brought out.
The tensions and inner angst of his Lieder
were never far away from the song-like numbers, contrasted by the polka-rhythm
of No.3 (a popular encore), Bach-like figurations of No.4 and the outright fury
of No.5. It was the longing nostalgia of the final piece, wonderfully captured,
which made this outing memorable.
The Fireworks in Chopin's “Heroic”
Polonaise (Op.53) were the sonorous antidote to too much pensiveness, and
Tawaststjerna's stunning control in the stampeding octave sequence as the music
threatened to boil over was one to be remembered.
His encore of Sibelius' Finlandia,
in a gratifyingly blustery transcription by the composer, full of chords,
octaves and tremolos - provided the perfect Finnish finish.
 |
| Post concert: Tawaststjerna meets with YST piano students and the piano duo of Low Shao Ying & Shao Suan. |
No comments:
Post a Comment