International Keyboard Institute and Festival

International Keyboard Institute and Festival

Mannes College of Music, New York City

July 25-30, 2011

I timed my trip to New York City so that I could attend the last week of this small, but very excellent institute and festival, consisting of recitals, lectures, master classes and a competition among the students attending the summer institute---everything a piano maven could desire. I attended six events in as many days.

The highlight for me was Russian pianist Dmitri Alexeev’s (picture left) July 27^th recital of works by Schumann, Scriabin and Chopin, a Russian pianist’s program if ever there was one./

Alexeev does not play often in the US, but his worldwide reputation as one of the best is secure, beginning with his 1974 Tchaikovsky Competition win in Moscow. From the first notes of Schumann’s Blumenstuck in D Flat Major, I was overwhelmed with the beauty of his touch and the tone he produced. He reminded me of Gilles, and more recently, Evengy Sudbin and Nikolai Lugansky, all Russians. I’ve read that at the Moscow Conservatory, from which he graduated, a great deal of emphasis is placed on tone, and if that assessment is correct, Alexeev is a prime example of just how beautiful piano playing can be. After Schumann’s Kreisleriana, Alexeev turned to Scriabin and then Chopin, demonstrating a connection between the two composers, which was as surprising as it was unmistakable. As for the large sound and big technique which is de rigueur for the Russians, Alexeev had them in abundance, as demonstrated by the closing Chopin Polonaise in A Flat Major.

Two days before, on July 25, a much younger Russian award winner (Van Cliburn Intl. Piano Competition), Alexander Kobrin (picture right), demonstrated the Russian approach of big, loud and full-bodied, in a program of Beethoven, Brahms and Chopin. His performance of Beethoven’s 32 Variations was at the other end of the spectrum from that of Alfred Brendel, whose recording I own, but I loved Kobrin’s brawn nonetheless. With the Brahms and Chopin, Kobrin is not quite up to the sensitivity and beauty of Alexeev, but he’s on his way. It is easy to predict a big career for Kobrin.

American Jon Nakamatsu (picture right), who won the Van Cliburn in 1997, is an unassuming artist who has all the strengths we expect of a top recitalist, but who does not interject a distinct personality into his playing, preferring, instead, to let the music speak for itself. Nakamatsu’s Rameau, Brahms, Liszt and Chopin, were fluent, exciting, and totally satisfying. He does not tire the listener, the result being that I could have listened to him all night.

Young Japanese pianist, Masataka Goto (picture right), came to his July 27^th recital fresh from his First Prize at the 9^th Intl. Franz Liszt Piano Competition, and, as expected from any of today’s top competition winners, he was dazzling playing Beethoven and Liszt. Goto has a pleasing keyboard presence and was very much a crowd pleaser. Whether he’ll be able to set himself apart from the enormous number of young competition winners, remains to be seen, but he’s off to a very good start.

I attended two master classes, one taught by Jerome Rose, a well-known pianist based in NYC and the keyboard institute’s founder and director, and the other by Dmitri Alexeev. I was reminded just how difficult it is to play the piano well, which is very easy to lose sight of when attending contemporary piano recitals where the performance standards are so high, and where it all looks so easy. I was also reminded just how important a very good teacher is.

Jerome Rose’s approach is to talk about the music, in general, and the student’s playing, in particular. One student’s performance of the Schuman Arabesque, although technically proficient, sounded just awful to me, but I didn’t know why. Rose very quickly told her that she was making a retard after every phrase and that it made the piece sound disjointed. He then worked with her to bring out some base lines with emphasis and pedaling, and after these 20 minutes of concert coaching, her final run through sounded like a different piece. Of course, she was good enough to understand and to be able to execute Rose’s directions. After another student played Prokovief’s Piano Sonata No. 6 very, very well, Rose talked to him about a different approach the student could take to the piece and left it at that, after noting that there was nothing wrong with the student’s performance, which, indeed, was very good.

Rose the talker, gave way to Alexeev the demonstrator. Alexeev was quiet and very deferential of the student (Rose was the opposite), and after some commentary, demonstrated at the keyboard how he thought the student should play the passage. All the students were already excellent pianists and thoroughly knew the pieces they choose to play and, as a consequence, the classes were taken up mostly with points of refinement.

The four recitalists had three pianos to choose from, two Steinway concert grands and the new Yamaha CFX concert grand. All four that I heard selected the Yamaha and provided me with my first opportunity to hear what Yamaha hopes will be a real competitor to the Steinway. The Yamaha nine-foot piano sounded very good to me, but because no one played a Steinway, I couldn’t make a direct comparison. With its much lower price and good sound, I think we are all going to be hearing a lot of Yamaha’s in the future.

Anyone interested in the complete recital programs performed by Goto, Alexeev, Nakamatsu and Kobrin, can go to the 13^th International Keyboard Institute and Festival Web site at http://ikif.org/.

Buzz Singer

Bangkok, Thailand

Scottsdale, Arizona, USA