CD Review: NIGHT AT THE OPERA (PART 1) by Brian Keng-Lun Hsu

NIGHT AT THE OPERA: PART 1

Brian Keng-Lun Hsu, Piano

Blue Griffin Recording 469

 

Long before the advent of internet, radio or recordings of any kind, transcriptions were a means where music may be shared with a wider audience without access to live concerts. The piano, ubiquitous in nineteenth and early twentieth households, was the ideal medium for learning and appreciation of the classics. Piano virtuosos often wrote transcriptions for publication, making a tidy profit from sheet sales even if their intended targets were nowhere near technically equipped.  

 

Taiwanese-American pianist Brian Hsu’s first volume of operatic piano transcriptions is a mix of the popular and the obscure, but almost every melody contained is a recognisable one. He opens with the familiar Giovanni Sgambati transcription of Gluck’s Melodie from Orfeo ed Euridice, in a poignantly beautiful reading, then continuing into three rarities which deserve to be better known.

Yvar Mikhashoff

 

The American virtuoso pianist-composer Yvar Mikhashoff (1941-1993), pseudonym of Ronald MacKay, was an institution in the University of Buffalo until his untimely death from AIDS. Hsu performs three of his most popular opera transcriptions including Puccini’s Vissi d’arte (from Tosca) and Bellini’s Casta Diva (Norma). The famous melodies are gloriously retained and in the latter, a virtuosic cadenza a la Franz Liszt is spun in the best bel canto tradition.

 

The real find is Portrait of Madama Butterfly, an “operatic sonata-fantasy in four parts” dishing up moments encapsulating its passion and ultimate tragedy. Familiar highlights like Un bel di vedremo and the Love Duet are not included, but there is time for the Flower Duet and Humming Chorus. Hsu’s performance of these are evocative and finely turned, easily comparable to those in Jean-Yves Thibaudet’s 2007 album Aria: Opera Without Words (Decca).

 

On more familiar territory, Liszt’s Rigoletto Paraphrase (Verdi) receives an excellent performance. Hsu’s reading of Reminiscences de Don Juan (Mozart), at over 20 minutes, is one of the more unhurried accounts of this blockbuster fantasy, up there with the likes of Jorge Bolet’s late 1970s recording (Decca). Louis Lortie (Chandos, 15 mins) and Olga Kern (Harmonia Mundi, 16 mins) may be swifter and more thrilling, but Hsu has a gripping hold on the music’s pulse and does not miss a beat or note. There is never a dull moment.

 

A Night at the Opera may be the title of a Marx brothers movie, but Hsu’s album is no joke, and Volume Two is keenly awaited.

You can purchase this CD here:

Night At The Opera - Part I — Brian Keng - Lun Hsu (brian-hsu.com)