Cover image: Inon Barnatan, piano (Photo: Marco Borggreve)
It’s always a bit hair-raising for an arts organization when a soloist bails at the last moment, usually due to illness or injury. It happened last week, when an ailing Daniil Trifonov cancelled his performance of Scriabin‘s Piano Concerto in F-sharp minor with Seattle Symphony. It can be a scramble for the organization afflicted to find someone appropriate and free at the last minute, but the SSO was fortunate in that Israeli pianist Inon Barnatan was available and willing to come and pinch hit for Thursday and Saturday this weekend. He didn’t play the Scriabin. Instead he chose Mozart’s 23rd Concerto in A major.
This turned out to be one of those memorable performances for the listener. From the first moments, Barnatan’s light and considered touch on the keyboard promised an experience worth listening to. The reduced orchestra under music director Ludovic Morlot was in complete accord with him. While every note was given its due both in length and dynamic, even when reaching a forte, Barnaton played with relaxed release of each one, so that, in quick runs or legato, each had a shape for itself and within the phrase.
Barnatan seemed absorbed inside the music, his hands sometimes hovering above the note before creating its sound. It is not easy to play a nine-foot grand piano with its heavy action in depressing the keys and make it sound like the light, swift action and decay of a Mozart-era fortepiano. It takes strength and control to achieve that lightness on the modern instrument, and Barnatan did this with no seeming effort. The entire performance was musical and exquisite, a joy to hear.
The rest of the performance comprised music which envisions aurally the moods of various scenes: Ibert’s “Ports of Call,” in which he portrayed the sounds and rhythms of Rome, Tunis, and Valencia; Respighi’s “The Fountains of Rome,” with the aural colors of different fountains at different times of day; and Debussy’s “La mer” (“The Sea”), early in the day, with a light breeze ruffling the waves, and during a wild and windy period.
Mae Lin (Photo: © Larey McDaniel)
In each, Morlot brought out the individual characteristics and in all of them the wind sections were prominent. As is customary in the orchestra when the solo parts are prominent and busy, they were divided between the principals and their assistants. Thus Demarre McGill and Jeffrey Barker shared the flute solos, Ben Lulich and Emil Khudyev the clarinet and Seth Krimsky and guest Edward Burns the bassoon, while Mary Lynch played the oboe in every work. French horn principal Jeff Fair shared his parts with Mark Robbins.
Concertmaster for the evening was first violinist Mae Lin, in what was I believe her first time leading the section, while Michael Miropolsky took on the second violins and Mara Gearman the violas. None of these last three are principals, yet there was no diminution in the usual high quality of the orchestra’s playing. It shows how strong every section is in that, really, almost any player could step up as needed and lead.
The whole concert gave great pleasure, almost a travelogue, plus the Mozart. What more could one want?
