A review of the concert on April 1, 2001 by Dr. Thomas Wendel.
Yes, last week on April 1, pianist/scholar Robert Taub treated the smallish audience at Villa Montalvo’s Carriage House to a brilliant program consisting of Scarlatti, Beethoven, and Chopin. Even the program itself was scholarly with both the Longo and Kirkpatrick numbers given for the three Scarlatti sonatas with which the program opened. K. 380 in E major is the wonderfully pompous courtly piece that must describe a ceremonial procession at the court of Madrid, where the Italian composer spent his most productive years. K.9 (please, not canine) is the well-known so-called Pastoral Sonata in D minor whose slow tempo can sometimes prove a bore, but which Taub, with pedal shadings and coloration, made into a lyrically profound statement. And finally K. 159 in C major gave us the full measure of Scarlattian virtuosity.
I suppose purists might criticize as un-Baroque Taub’s playing the repeat of each half of the A-B form without variation. But as I recall, the greatest Scarlatti interpreter of them all, Fernando Valenti, deigned not to vary the repeats. I might add that he also usually deigned not to repeat the second half or B section of the sonatas.
The pre-intermission part of the program (“first half” in the above context might be redundant) consisted of Beethoven’s incomparable Waldstein Sonata, Op. 53 in C major. Here Taub gave the audience a thrilling virtuosic account of this fabulous music, yet not failing to project its profound content. The slow movement, if this interlude can be called a movement, was a case in point.
Taub took seriously the designated Adagio molto marking for this movement, a designation he understands as much a matter of meaning as of tempo.
Finally, from the exquisite song of the last movement in which Taub followed Beethoven’s remarkable pedal directions, to the brilliant coda including its one-hand octave glissandos, the last movement was a thrilling accomplishment.
Following the intermission came what could arguably be cited as Chopin’s most accomplished work: the Twenty-Four Preludes, Op. 28. Taub’s performance provided a definitive argument for the playing of this work as a whole, even though Chopin himself now and then played separate preludes as individual works. The Twenty- Fourth Prelude with its three terrifying hammer blows on low D at the end is surely meant to be a summing up of the whole. In all, Taub’s was a grand performance from the dizzying presto of the 16th Prelude to the organ-like tones of the great Largo that is the 20th Prelude.
And speaking of organ-like, the Steinway instrument sounded to these ears quite simply magnificent. Particularly the bass tones were rich and resounding, while the upper register as in the 16th Prelude just mentioned, was clear and sparkling. Taub and perhaps the piano, too, received a well-deserved standing ovation to which they both responded with two fine encores: his own arrangement of Liszt’s La Campanella and of the Adagio from Bach’s great Toccata, Adagio and Fugue for Organ.
