A Piano Recital by Ancuza Aproudu

Goethe Institut Auditorium. Bangkok, Thailand. October 13, 2012. Romanian pianist Ancuza Aproudu demonstrated once again that you don't have to be a great performing artist to provide an audience with an evening of nicely played, very enjoyable music. In this regard, the choice of a program is important to keep things moving and interesting, and Ms. Aproudu gave us Debussy, Messiaen, Mendelssohn and Brahms in an uninterrupted 75-minute performance. She was most successful in her playing of eight of Debussy's most familiar preludes. Her interpretive skills, nice touch, and introspective dynamics served the music well. The Messiaen, a short movement (Regard des Anges) from Vingt regards sur l'enfant-Jésus, which I heard in its entirety played by Peter Serkin once, is easier to take in short installments than is the complete work. As for the Mendelssohn and Brahms, especially the fiendishly difficult Variations on a Theme by Handel, quite frankly,is better left to pianists with stronger techniques. Still, the music flowed well, and after several mishaps in the Brahms Variations, Ms. Aproudu seemed relieved when the performance ended. Nonetheless, this might have been a case where the audience enjoyed the performance more than the performer did.