The Chopin Society of Hong Kong The Joy of Music Festival 2010

The Chopin Society of Hong Kong

The Joy of Music Festival

October 12-15, 2010

Buzz (right) chats with renowned pianists Peter Frankl (left) and Gary Grafman (middle)

Day 1. SOFYA GULYAK. Hong Kong. Tuesday, October 12, 2010. Many years ago, I was touring model homes with my interior decorator, whom I trusted. We were trying to get some decorating ideas for my new house in Scottsdale. In one of the homes, I became excited about a living room which was decorated in an extreme way, which appealed to me at the moment. “Let's do something like that,” I said. “I know it's exciting,” she said, “but you won't like it after a while; it's too extreme for it to last. Stay with the basics,” she continued, “those designs and colors which have proved comfortable over long periods of time, such as paisleys, plaids, and jacquards. We'll add excitement and dashes of color by our accessories. In that way, you can live with what you've got forever.” After my frisson with the model home subsided, I knew she was right.

The same can be said about music performance. Avoid the extremes, add excitement by an innovative approach or phrase here and there, and, above all, concentrate on the music and not on the performer or the performance. Russian pianist Soya Gulyak personifies those truisms. Playing Chopin and Schumann, her dedication was to making beautiful music and to removing herself as a barrier between the composer and the audience. As the first prize winner in the prestigious 2009 Leeds International Piano Competition, she had established her credentials as an expert musician. During her Hong Kong performance, she showed just how much depth she has.


The first half of the evening was a performance of Chopin's piano concerto no. 2,

scored for string quintet by Chopin himself. With the orchestra and conductor eliminated, Gulyak had to carry the day pretty much on her own. Her playing was fluid, dominant, and each line was clarity itself. While not necessarily a remarkable performance of this well-known work, Gulyak captured the essence of Chopin. Her contribution to the music was incremental, and with the third movement’s concluding allegro, she ended this performance with the quiet excitement that comes with an excellent performance of this work.

But, it was the second-half all-Schumann program that distinguished Gulyak's playing and made this evening memorable. Starting with the ABEGG variations, then on to the Kinderszenen, and finally, Carnival, Gulyak presented Schumann in many differing moods, structures and textures, that gained momentum as the program progressed. In come respects, I find Schumann difficult to listen to as I'm never quite sure how I think the music should sound. Fortunately, Gulyak has figured it out for this listener; everything sounded perfect.

I liked the quiet, less technically complex Kinderszenen the best. It was simply beautiful in an unmannered and unforced way. And by the time Carnival ended in its rousing finale, the audience was totally in Gulyak's grips, and showed it's appreciation with copious applause and some cheering, prompting three encores. The last encore was J. S. Bach's transcription of a short piece by Marcello (I've never heard it before). It was so beautifully and touchingly played, that the audience was overwhelmed with Gulyak's magical playing. This was an evening dedicated to beautiful music by a serious interpreter, whose playing was both comfortable and exciting.

29-Year old Korean pianist and prize winner Jinsang Lee

Day 2. JINSANG LEE. Hong Kong. Wednesday, October 13, 2010. After last night's super performance by Sofya Gulyak, I was expecting a letdown from this evening's all-Chopin recital by the 29-year old Korean pianist Jinsang Lee. But, I should have known better because Jinsang was the first prize winner in the 2008 Hong Kong Piano Competition, as well as in several other significant competitions, and I had heard him last year in Bangkok, where his expressive playing impressed me as extraordinarily satisfying and idiomatic.

Tonight, we were treated once again to the rare opportunity of hearing a Chopin piano concerto, this time concerto no. 1, in an arrangement for string quintet by composer Carlos Levin. In fact, Chopin himself wrote a piano quintet reduction of the orchestral score. Perhaps I was now more used to the orchestral reduction, which seemed, on second hearing, more natural. The piano, unencumbered by a full orchestra, was heard in unadorned clarity, which gave the pianist both the opportunity of unchallenged prominence, but also removed the ability to hide performance imperfections behind orchestral volume and busyness. Jinsang was in splendid form, not only in the technically demanding parts, but also in the lovely melodic passages which we identify as Chopin romanticism. Jinsang struck just the right balance between heartfelt warmth and forward momentum.

The first half of the program presented a welcomed opportunity to hear three rarely performed works Chopin wrote for piano and orchestra, this time, the orchestral parts being scored for string quintet by the Uruguayan composer, Carlos Levin, who attended the Hong Kong festival. While not among Chopin’s greatest works, Grand Fantasy on Polish Airs, Rondo “Krakowiak,” and variations on “La ci darem la mano,” were, nonetheless, Chopin, and were beautifully played by Jinsang.

Both Gulyak and Jinsang are young performers who bear watching. The promise of following the careers of such talented musicians is to hear them change and mature over the years. It’s not that they necessarily play better as time advances, but that they will play differently, and it is this ability to keep interpreting and reinterpreting great music in order to find meaning in it, that keeps people like me coming back year after year, listening to the same core repertory, and buying multiple recordings of the same works. This is the real joy of music.

Day 3. PASCAL ROGE. Hong Kong. Thursday, October 14, 2010. The great exponent of French piano music, Pascal Roge, is recognized as a leading interpreter, perhaps today’s leading interpreter, of the French keyboard school. Every note he plays is carefully thought out; I doubt he does anything spontaneous during his recitals. This is the third time I’ve heard Roge (in Prague and Singapore, before Hong Kong), and his touch and coloring are matchless. But, he’s not my cup of tea.

Why? I think it is because everything he plays sounds the same, as good as that may be. Ultimately, it becomes boring. As he did in Singapore, in Hong Kong he played short pieces, one following the other without applause and with minimum pauses between the works of Faure, Chopin, Poulenc, Ravel and Debussy. His idea, I assume, is to create a mood, and he appears to go into a trance and to invite the audience to join him. My problem is that I don’t do trances very well.

But, how does Roge fit Chopin into his constellation of French impressionists. He does it by taking the Polish out of Chopin, by Francophiling Chopin (I know there’s no such word, but you get the point, right?), perhaps not so strange when one considers that Chopin spent most of his adult life in France. Thus, Roge slows Chopin down, reduces the dynamic range, sits on the una corda pedal, and generally provides Roge’s “impression” of Chopin. It took Peter Frankl , who played the next evening, to put Poland back into Chopin, which I, for one, found a great relief.

(Above) French pianist Pascal Roge

Day 4. PETER FRANKL. Hong Kong. Friday, October 15, 2010. I guess that at age 75, Hungarian pianist Peter Frankl can be considered as belonging to the old school. Well, I’m right there with him. I loved his playing.

First, let’s get the visuals, which I consider important, out of the way. Frankl, a tall and stately looking gentleman, walks briskly onto the stage, and, without rushing to the keyboard, stands in front of the piano and takes the time to acknowledge the presence of the audience. He rejects the modern trend in concert dress, which is to make a fashion statement with all sorts of colorful couture oddities. His black suit is designed to deflect attention from the performer so that the listener can focus solely on the music. Also, he finds it unnecessary to talk to the audience to explain a little about the music he is about to play, or why he selected it, or about the other things some performers seem intent on adding to their performances. His demeanor invites us to listen because it’s all about the music.

Frankl’s intense program was divided evenly between the works of Chopin and Schumann. Frankl, who has recorded the complete piano works of Schumann, played both the Fantasiestucke and the Faschingsschwank aus Wien, demonstrating both thoughtfulness and understanding of this master composer of the keyboard literature. Frankl’s interpretations are deep; there’s nothing showy or artificial about them. In each movement, he captured the spirit and intent of Schumann’s creations, both with both impeccable technique and spiritual depth. Somehow, Frankl is too good an artist to be just exciting. He invites contemplation about what he’s doing because, even as much as he’s played these works, it’s clear that he’s still searching for their true meaning, for just the right way to play some phrase or melody line, or to produce just the right effect. This is the essence of great music from great artists: the endless capacity to interpret, to play something both the same and differently from the time before. For this reason, Frankl sounded both fresh and mature, an unbeatable combination.

During the Chopin works (Polonaise in C sharp minor; 4 Impromptus; 2 Nocturnes op. 55, Scherzo No.1) Frankl exhibited what is an indispensable characteristic shared by all great artists: assurance---the assurance of technical mastery and interpretive security. Frankl knows exactly how he wants Chopin to be played and how he wants the listener to receive his performance. He understands that he must produce beautiful music, but he also understands that Chopin’s creative genius permits this to be accomplished in many ways. It’s too simple to say that Frankl has Chopin in his blood, but I think that that’s true anyway. To me, Frankl’s Chopin is what I would call “classic,” harking back to such masters as Rubinstein and Pollini, not copies of them by any means, but a straight forwardness that excludes internal and emotional inner swooning, and which puts technical accomplishment in it’s proper secondary place; after all, who wants to hear a faster, cleaner, more digital performance of Chopin’s “Heroic” polonaise, one that can only be measured with a stopwatch. Frankl’s Chopin was so beautiful that it was as exciting as anything I’ve recently heard.

This was the final night for me at The Joy of Music Festival, before returning to Bangkok in the morning, and I want to mention two things which immeasurably added to my enjoyment of the festival. First, the program notes and materials of Singapore musicologist and reviewer, Dr. Chang Tou Liang, whose historical commentary and contemporary interviews went way beyond the usual descriptive program notes, and were a joy to read and think about. Also, the introductory, well-researched, remarks each evening by the festival’s director, Dr. Andrew Freris, who in real life when not serving as the Chairman of The Chopin Society of Hong Kong, is the senior investment strategist at BNP Paribas, provided fascinating details about Chopin and the world he inhabited, which were both interesting and highly educational, as well as being relevant to each night’s program. In fact, everything about this festival was first-rate.