GODOWSKY'S LEFT HAND / HENRI SIGFRIDSSON Piano Recital / Review

 

GODOWSKY’S LEFT HAND 

HENRI SIGFRIDSSON Piano Recital 

Conservatory Orchestral Hall 

Wednesday (5 March 2025),

This review was published in The Straits Times on 7 March 2025 with the title "Henri Sigfridsson offers voice and shade in works for left hand".

Concert pianists specialising in works for the left hand along are a special breed. Many do it out of necessity, such as Americans Leon Fleisher and Gary Graffman who suffered from focal dystonia, or the Austrian Paul Wittgenstein whose right arm had to be amputated following war injuries. 

Finnish pianist Henri Sigfridsson, however, does it simply because he can, with the first half of his recital being for left hand alone. A repertoire staple is Johannes Brahms’ transcription of the Chaconne in D minor from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Violin Partita No.2. Piano-fanciers will know Ferruccio Busoni’s famous version for both hands, however Brahms’ leaner take is more faithful to the original source. 

By trimming off the fat, clarity was the result, with the violin’s sleek melodic lines articulated with transparency by Sigfridsson. His instinctive ability to voice and shade the music was admirable, and even when textures got more complex and cluttered, vision and pulse were never in doubt. 

Also familiar were Alexander Scriabin’s Prelude and Nocturne (Op.9), composed after straining his right hand from over-practicing. While the former was chaste in textural simplicity, the latter was a ravishing love song, its Chopinesque melody sung above over harp-like accompaniment and climaxing in a fiendishly dizzying cadenza. 

The art of making one hand sound like two came to full fruition in Leopold Godowsky’s 53 polyphonic rearrangements of Frederic Chopin’s Etudes. Of these densely-packed finger-twisters, he wrote 22 for left hand alone, earning him the moniker “Disciple of the left hand”. Sigfridsson played five of these, warming up with No.44 in F minor and No.45a in D flat major, both based on Chopin’s lesser-known Trois Nouvelles Etudes (Three New Etudes). 

Even in these “simpler” numbers, Sigfridsson unlocked their secrets with consummate ease. Then came the heavy duty studies. No.22 in C sharp minor is based on the fiery Revolutionary Etude (Op.10 No.12), where he almost came unstuck but soldiered on to an emphatic conclusion. 

The tender melody of No.5 in D flat major (after Op.10 No.3) was retained, but its central section saw a departure in thematic material with its own inherent difficulties ingeniously sorted out. The set concluded with No.43 in C sharp minor (after Op.25 No.12), where Sigfridsson’s thunderous response to the so-called Ocean Etude’s relentless waves of sound was wholly appropriate. 

The second half saw both hands united for three pieces from Franz Liszt’s ten-movement cycle Harmonies poetiques et religieuses (Poetic and Religious Harmonies). Benediction de Dieu dans la solitude (Benediction of God in Solitude) highlighted the left hand’s baritone melody sung over the right hand’s filigreed accompaniment. 

This most sublime of essays then shifted to the tolling bells of Funerailles, where mourning gave way to the left hand’s octave stampede, supposedly simulating the Polish cavalry charge in memory of Chopin. Cantique d’amour (Song of Love), which closed the set, was the triumph of wondrous melody. 

A departure from all that barnstorming, Sigfridsson’s sumptuously-voiced encore of Jean Sibelius’s The Spruce (Op.75 No.5) from The Trees put intimacy ahead of bluster.

Post concert: Henri Sigfridsson
meet with Natalie Ng & Clarisse Teo.

RARITIES OF PIANO MUSIC AT SCHLOSS VOR HUSUM 2024: PATRICK HEMMERLÉ Piano Recital / Review

 

PATRICK HEMMERLÉ Piano Recital 

Rarities of Piano Music 

at Schloss vor Husum 2024 

Monday (19 August 2024)

7 pm (via live-stream) 

An August summer used to mean something special for me. Alas, that was in a past pre-pandemic life when a stretch of eight balmy evenings were spent in the company of piano music and similarly rabid pianophiles. 

I am referring to none other than the Rarities of Piano Music at Schloss vor Husum piano festival in the north German town of Husum (Schleswig-Holstein), the Mecca of arcane and rarely heard piano works. There is no other festival like it in the world. You won’t find the likes of Lang Lang or Yundi anywhere in sniffing distance, and someday Yunchan Lim and Yuja Wang might even have a chance to play here, if they get lucky. 

The opportunity to attend a Husum recital, even remotely and six time zones away, represents a privilege for me and there is no way I was going to miss a performance of the complete Java Suite by Leopold Godowsky. French pianist Patrick Hemmerlé, presently based in Cambridge, is a new name for me and I was astonished at his grasp of the idiom to be found in its twelve movements or phonoramas (musical journeys in Godowsky’s words). Conceived as four suites of three pieces each, this is the Indonesian answer to Isaac Albeniz’s Iberia. 

Hemmerlé did not play all 12 pieces in a single gulp, but wisely separated each suite with choice words in English (apparently his German was not strong enough) which helped break the ice between him and the audience. Each third piece was a loud and festive one, rewarded with the rightful applause that was proof he was getting his message across. 

Each suite and each piece had a distinct feel of its own, and it was a pleasure to hear these in succession. Although Godowsky did not compose with authentic Javanese / Indonesian idioms in mind, his were impressions of an exotic land with requisite pentatonicisms sprinkled here and there. Much like Abram Chasins’ Three Chinese Pieces or Richard Rodgers’ March of the Siamese Children (The King and I), which sound naive for today’s ears but were quaint during their time. 

Suite 1: Gamelan possessed the dizzying counterpoint that had so impressed Debussy. Wayang Purwa is a droll and retiring impression of a dalang (puppet master), while Hari Besaar, the only piece to quote a genuine Javanese melody, had the hustle-bustle of a major market day. 

Suite 2: Chattering Monkeys at the Sacred Lake of Wendit is a gamboling Mendelssohnian scherzo, while Borobudur By Moonlight resembled some Ravelian nocturne. The eructations of Bromo Volcano and Sand Sea at Daybreak were of a joyful kind, with no reference to natural disaster. Thus far, Hemmerlé was fully in control of the technical intricacies, while playing completely from memory. 

Even Sviatoslav Richter (bottom left)
was compelled to attend this recital.

Suite 3: Perhaps the least authentic were the Three Dances, short inconsequential diversions but did one notice that the third dance closes with the very phrase that opens the next number, Gardens of Buitenzorg? This was Godowsky’s most famous piano piece besides Alt Wien and his Chopin Etude conflations. Time stood still for three minutes of utter sensuousness, with Hemmerlé’s melting legato lines being something to savour, before another rousing romp in the Streets of Old Batavia. 

Suite 4: I am in total agreement with Hemmerlé that In the Kraton is the best piece of the dozen. A sense of mysticism and ancient ceremony is totally palpable and its melody one to die for. I was less enamoured of Ruined Water Castle at Djokja which caused my mind to drift a little before the awakening caused by Court Pageant in Solo, which brought the suite to a loud clangourous conclusion. 

This Husum premiere of the full set was truly a pleasure to behold. Until Hemmerlé makes a recording of this (he ought to!), one can still luxuriate in Esther Budiardjo’s miraculous recording on ProPiano. 

The recital’s second half opened with Nikolai Medtner’s Sonata in G minor (Op.22), not so much a rarity these days because of numerous recordings. However, how often does one encounter this in recitals? Said to have been “born with the sonata form”, Medtner crafted a single movement of 18 minutes with thematic ideas that reach their logical conclusions such that one is floored by its sheer cogency. Hemmerlé’s performance was one of overflowing passion, such a satisfying one that one need not miss the famous 1954 recording by Emil Gilels in antiquated sound. 

Hemmerlé concluded his recital with Czech composer Vitezslav Novak’s Variations on a Theme by Schumann (Op.4) from 1893, a true rarity by Husum’s lofty standards. Even its theme is little-known, taken from the Album for the Young (Op.68 No.34), a movement so forgettable that it makes a perfect subject for variations. By its end, you cannot get it out of the system, the literal ohrwurm or ear worm. 

It is a charming work with eight variations (each with titles like Feuillet de Album, Serenata, Scherzo, Elegia and Alla Schumann, of course) and an extended finale, clearly a tribute to Robert Schumann himself. Its inventiveness comes through very well in Hemmerlé’s hands, who appears to have made the only commercial recording available. When people come to Husum, it is for performances like this! 

Hemmerlé’s sole encore was a substantial one, his own arrangement of the opening aria from J.S.Bach’s cantata Ich Habe Genug (BWV.82) which was utterly beautiful and great way to end this varied and fascinating recital.

Many thanks to Nathalie Gerstle for linking me to the livestreamed performance, which may be viewed here:

(17) Raritäten der Klaviermusik - YouTube

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, March 2016)

GODOWSKY Walzermasken

KONSTANTIN SCHERBAKOV, Piano

Marco Polo 8.225276 / *****

The Polish-American virtuoso pianist Leopold Godowsky (1870-1938) is best remembered for his outlandishly contrapuntal rearrangements of Chopin's Etudes and various outrageous piano transcriptions, but his original music has been much neglected. Walzermasker (Waltz Masks) is a cycle of 24 pieces in three-quarter rhythm composed in 1912, essentially waltzes in elaborate costumes and disguises.

The tradition of waltz-cycles is not new, and Godowsky does let one in on his secrets. Each piece is teasingly titled (such as Momento Capriccioso, Valse Macabre and Orientale) and there are tributes to Schumann (the ecstatic opening is reminiscent of his Carnaval), Schubert (lilting and rustic), Brahms (jaunty and vigorous), Chopin (lyrical and coy), Liszt (naturally virtuosic) before closing with Johann Strauss II (with Viennese voluptuosness).  

As if one were not done with waltzes, the album closes with Godowsky's Symphonic Metamorphosis on Johann Strauss' Artists Life, another of those seemingly unplayable paraphrases. Siberia-born super-virtuoso Konstantin Scherbakov makes light work of its digital excesses, and that is how it is supposed to sound: complex yet seemingly effortless.

FAURÉ Violin Sonata No.1

R.STRAUSS Violin Sonata

ITZHAK PERLMAN, Violin

EMANUEL AX, Piano

Deutsche Grammophon 481 17741 / *****

It is hard to believe that the celebrated Israeli-American violinist Itzhak Perlman is now 70. A long-awaited return to the recording studio yields this lovely coupling of lyrical violin sonatas from the late Romantic period. His much-beloved sweet and singing violin tone is gloriously intact, undiminished by the intervening years. This is immediately apparent in the soaring opening melody of Frenchman Gabriel Fauré's First Violin Sonata in A major (1875), which is reciprocated by partner Emanuel Ax in the intricate and immensely taxing piano part.

A wide-eyed sense of fantasy occupies its four movements, which will touch even the most jaded of listeners. This same exalted state continues into Richard Strauss' early Violin Sonata in E flat major (1887), with its succession of flowing melodies finds the most sympathetic of interpretations. Has the slow movement, entitled Improvisation, sounded this beguiling or beautiful? Perlman and Ax  are peerless in this repertoire, and this album is a welcome addition into an already crowded field of excellent recordings.

JAVA SUITE: Following the Footsteps of Leopold Godowsky in Yogyakarta and Solo

Temple guardian at the Kraton
(Sultanate Palace) of Yogyakarta.

If one follows the lovely Java Suite for piano by the great Polish pianist-composer Leopold Godowsky closely, the last three movements vividly depict scenes from Yogyakarta and Solo (now Surakarta) which have been immortalised in his music. Silly me for leaving my MP3 player at home when I should have brought it to accompany my sightseeing at these historical sites! Nevertheless, I played the music in my mind while walking on the same path that Godowsky did way back in the 1920s when he visited Asia on a grand tour.

A European-styled bandstand
and the ubiquitous gamelan.

Movement No.10 of the Java Suite is titled In The Kraton, which is the sultanate palace of Sultan Hamengkubuwono. The present Sultan is Hamengkubuwono XI who is now in his 60s, which means his grandfather was the sultan when Godowsky visited the isles. This is perhaps the most oriental sounding of the 12 pieces, but the melody is his very own and not borrowed from Javanese folk or traditional music.

The ornate gilded ceiling
for the Sultan's meeting room.
A portrait of the present sultan as a young man
(It's the headgear which makes him look like
someone from the cast of True Blood)

Fantastical mythological creatures
and monsters guard the Kraton
(presumably from truly evil spirits).

Movement No.11 is The Ruined Water Castle of Djokja, which is now called Taman Sari, located a short distance west of the Kraton. There are three royal swimming pools in this complex, and a viewing tower where the sultan of old would choose his bathing beauty, who would then make her way to a more private and intimate pool located nearby. This is the Javanese equivalent of the legendary grotto at Sultan Hefner's Playboy Mansion.

More views of the Water Castle.

The sabre-toothed denizens
that guard the Water Castle.

A truly fanciful doorway
to the Water Castle.

The mysterious Underground Mosque,
located just north of the Water Castle.
This M.C.Escher-like labyrinth is
connected to the Water Castle by a
maze of underground passage-ways. 

Movement No.12 of the Java Suite concludes the musical travelogue in the city of Solo (now Surakarta), with The Court Pageant in Solo. This piece was probably inspired by scenes of pomp and ceremony in Kraton Surakarta, which we did not visit. We instead visited the smaller and more intimate Kraton Mangkunegara, home of a prince rather than the actual sultan. His family still stays there, but we were allowed to view its royal collections and treasures. So this concludes a music journey in the footsteps of Godowsky in Java.

The sultans loved chandeliers from Europe.

Gilded statues from the West and East.