THALBERG-LISZT-CHOPIN Concert / Francesco Nicolosi / Review

THALBERG-LISZT-

CHOPIN CONCERT
FRANCESCO 

NICOLOSI, Piano
NAFA Lee 

Foundation Theatre
Sunday 

(5 December 2010)

This review was published by The Straits Times on 7 December 2010.

In 1837, an unusual concert took place in Paris, pitting the pianistic skills of the two leading virtuosos of the time, Franz Liszt and Sigismond Thalberg (above). The contest was adjudged a draw, with Thalberg declared the “first pianist of the world” and Liszt the “only one”. Posterity has however heavily favoured Liszt, with Thalberg a mere footnote in Romantic piano literature.

Thalberg’s legacy lives on, championed by Italian pianist Francesco Nicolosi, who devoted half of his hour-long recital to the Swiss-born phenomenon. His music was mostly transcriptions and fantasies on operatic subjects, including The Art of Songs Applied for the Piano, which involves his transformation of bel canto singing into keyboard textures.

Thus Vincenzo Bellini’s quartet A te o cara from I Puritani and the famous Casta Diva from Norma take on a seamless gloss on the piano. That the flowing melody, lightly ornamented, never leaves the spotlight is a tribute to Thalberg’s writing and Nicolosi’s sensitivity. While cherished memories of Maria Callas are not effaced, a new dimension to these classics is gratefully accepted.

For Thalberg’s Grand Caprice on Bellini’s La Sonnambula, all pretence to modesty is shed as this fantasy equals the most florid of Liszt’s conflations. Heavy chords open and a flourish of sound effects, before the familiar A! Non credea mirarti takes centrestage. The melodic line is passed from right hand to the left, and later shared by both thumbs, a favourite technical device of Thalberg’s to simulate three hands playing simultaneously.

Like Italian opera and life itself, the sublime and the vulgar are happy bedfellows. Its finale is choc-a-block full of interlocking octaves and noisy bravura guaranteed to send audiences into rapture. Nicolosi achieved that quite effortlessly.

Liszt’s transcription and variations of Chopin’s song The Maiden’s Wish was probably the weakest piece on the programme, but nonetheless flashy enough for present company. It was Chopin’s own early Variations Oo Mozart’s La ci darem (Don Giovanni), a sly combination of innovation and virtuosity, that closed the evening on a high.

Nicolosi combined both piano and orchestral parts for a grandstanding finale that included that most Polish of dances, the Polonaise as the apotheosis. His three Mediterranean encores of a Verdi waltz, Granados’s Andaluza and Thalberg’s Tarantella were an added treat. Schumann once exclaimed, “Hats off! A genius!” The modern equivalent would be “IPhones off! That’s wicked!”

This recital was the closing event of the First International Chopin Piano Competition Singapore 2010.

Michael Sheppard Piano Recital / Review

MICHAEL SHEPPARD Piano Recital
Victoria Concert Hall
Saturday (18 July 2009)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 20 July 2009.

When one refers to American classical musicians these days, chances he or she has a Chinese, Korean, Japanese or Eastern European name. Thus it is refreshing to see an Anglo-Saxon American pianist in recital, and an unusual programme that steers away from the over-trodden Beethoven-Liszt-Rachmaninov axis.

Baltimore-based Michael Sheppard follows in the illustrious tradition of Earl Wild, Leon Fleisher and Van Cliburn, combining solid musical values with a hearty show of keyboard virtuosity. “Familiar” classics opened the recital, with Haydn’s Sonata No.32 in B minor, one where the modern concert grand is given full rein of its dynamics. Sheppard’s crystal clear and penetrating sound brought out its curious mix of disquiet and vertiginous display.

Gradually, Sheppard led his flock to places off the beaten path. The juxtaposition of Chopin’s lilting Barcarolle and South African Peter Klatzow’s Barcarole (note the subtle difference in spelling) was a brilliant one, astutely contrasting light and shadow. The latter took off from Liszt’s somber La Lugubre Gondola, and departed on a funereal journey through myriad harmonic landscapes. Sheppard’s own Invitation to Travel carried on the geography lesson, subjecting the simple opening phrases to a grand tour of variation and fantasy.

Transcription and improvisation plays a substantial part in the modern pianist’s arsenal. His transcriptions of three Samuel Barber songs – sensitively and sympathetically played – showed that Barber-Sheppard is worthy to be named alongside Schubert-Liszt, Rachmaninov-Wild and Rodgers-Hough.

Each half of the recital concluded with an operatic piano fantasy. Sigismond Thalberg (left) used to be a huge rival of Liszt, but his works are now largely forgotten. The championship of Thalberg’s Don Pasquale Fantasy, based on themes from Donizetti’s opera, is a worthy one, if only to highlight a favourite device of his – the simulation of three hands on the piano. This piece of pianistic hi-jinks was repeated in Summertime, with the melody flowing from both thumbs, in Earl Wild’s Grand Fantasy On Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess.

Sheppard’s stupendous reading comes closest to the composer’s own brand of dare-devilry, reveling in forearm clusters in I Got Plenty O’ Nuttin, for example, and finishing off with a punishing upward octave glissando. His encores were a pleasant surprise; a high-class cocktail improvisation of Over The Rainbow, and something totally different – Schubert’s Musical Moment No.3. As they say, variety is the spice of life.

This recital was presented by DynamicWorkz.