A conversation with Seattle
The evening was an awesome physical feat for any performer, but at the very end, Parker’s fingers were as nimble, as accurate, his touch as relaxed, his playing as clean and rhymic as it all had been at the start. And after it, he played an encore, a quiet, rippling Rachmaninoff prelude.
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French-born pianist Hélène Grimaud returned to Seattle last Thursday for a solo performance at the University of Washington. Her thrilling recital featured works by Mozart, Berg, Bartók, and Liszt.
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In each generation there seems to rise one person who is a towering figure at performing and interpreting Bach on the piano. In the 1980s, it was Andras Schiff. Today it is Angela Hewitt, who brought her artistry and insight to the UW President’s Piano Series Tuesday night at Meany Hall.
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Liszt’s transcription of Bach’s “great” Fantasy and Fugue in G Minor is unmistakeably still Bach, particularly the Fugue which is barely touched and which Ohlsson played with exquisite articulation and phrasing. Liszt embellishes the Fantasy so that the piano most nearly approximates the organ sound with all its stops, and the whole has the majesty of the original with Ohlsson using plenty of pedal to enhance it further.
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The lucky audience which attended the UW President’s Piano recital at Meany Hall Wednesday was privileged to hear the Northwest
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Fellner, who has also studied with Brendel, has that great pianist’s thoughtful and less-is-more approach to understanding a composer, but his performance Tuesday could have used more warmth. That said, his performance of Haydn’s Sonata in C major, Hob XVI:50, composed quite late in the composer’s life, was a marvel of elegance, clarity and exquisite touch.
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