TWO PIANO RECITAL / Christopher Guzman & Nellie Seng / Review

TWO PIANO RECITAL

CHRISTOPHER GUZMAN

& NELLIE SENG, 2 Pianos

Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts

Thursday (17 February 2022)

 

One gets the feeling that the Covid pandemic has reached a steady state when vaccinated travel lanes opened (and stayed opened), and more foreign artists have arrived to perform. From the beginning of the year, Singaporeans have welcomed international concert pianists like Eric Lu, Luca Buratto, Herbert Schuch and Zee Zee. The latest to come is American pianist Christopher Guzman, professor at Penn State University, presently on a three-week residency with the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. His concerts include a solo recital (last week), a two-piano recital and a concerto performance with the NAFA Orchestra (next week).

 

Its been ages since the last two-piano recital, so it was a pleasure to have Guzman teaming up with Nellie Seng, NAFA’s Head of Piano Studies, in an enjoyable programme for four hands. Both pianists were students of Jerome Lowenthal at the Juilliard School where they first got together.

 

Opening the recital was Mozart’s Fantasy in F minor (K.608), originally conceived for mechanical organ (orgelwalze). Taking the form of a French overture, with an arresting opening in dotted rhythm followed by fugal sections, it is perhaps Mozart’s best tribute to J.S.Bach. The duo went fearlessly for the jugular, then carrying on with a skillful play of counterpoint in the ensuing fugues. The voices were clearly enunciated and as the fugues got increasingly more florid, so was the attention paid to detail by both pianists, who eyed each other most alertly.

 

Guzman played the primo part for the first work, but roles were switched in Mozart’s popular Sonata in D major (K.448), which received a breathlessly exciting performance. Caution was thrown to the winds at the speed taken for the first movement’s Allegro con spirito. The spirito part was taken most literally, and the work was all the better for it. Ensemble work was precise and clean for most part. In short, verve was never sacrificed for safety first. The slow movement provided flowing lyrical respite and it was a return to high jinks for the ebullient finale. There was no room for error here, and the duo again delivered with plentiful dividends.  

 

Following a short break, Robert Schumann’s Six Canonic Studies Op.56 were a far less frenetic affair. Originally conceived for pedal piano (a piano with attached foot pedals for playing bass notes, like an organ), it is now more often heard in Debussy’s arrangement for two pianos. This essentially divides the labour between two pianists, with their left hands sharing the pedalling work on bass notes. These miniatures were varied in character and not over-complicated in counterpoint.  Delightful and sensitively played by the duo, one wonders why these are not more often heard.  

 

Rachmaninov’s Six Morceaux Op.11, early salon-like pieces, are always played on a single keyboard but on this occasion, the duo stuck to separate pianos. The elegant little Waltz (Op.11 No.4) opened simply but got increasingly more animated, so it was probably wise they did not get in each other’s way. The 70-minute recital closed with Lutoslawski’s Paganini Variations, based on the ubiquitous Caprice No.24 for solo violin. Unlike those by Brahms or Rachmaninov, these variations are short-winded but make up with anarchic wit and surprising harmonic twists. The duo played up its shock value and campness, which was a total hit with the audience.

 

After loud and prolonged applause, the duo finally converged on one keyboard for an encore which Seng described as a lullaby. The audience was sent home happy with Brahms’ Waltz in A flat major (Op.39 No.15), while relishing in its simple lilt and charm.

Christopher Guzman
cannot believe his good fortune!