A review of the concert on September 13, 2003 by David Beech.
The Russian pianist Olga Kern (a Van Cliburn 2001 Gold Medalist) made a welcome return on Saturday and Sunday, September 13 and14, to Le Petit Trianon, San Jose, to open the 2003/2004 season of the Steinway Society The Bay Area. The Saturday and Sunday offerings were similar, except that in the Sunday concert reviewed here, a Taneyev Prelude and Fugue and Balakirev’s Islamey were omitted in favor of Liszt’s Reminiscences de Don Juan.
The heart of the program comprised two fine works in variation form by Brahms and Rachmaninov, preceded by a Rachmaninov arrangement of three movements from Bach’s 3rd violin Partita. The logic of this may have been that all the works in the Sunday program then showed what romantic composers and pianists had done with themes from earlier times – Brahms taking a theme from Handel, Rachmaninov thinking (apparently erroneously) that his theme was Corelli’s invention, and Liszt borrowing egregiously from Mozart’s Don Giovanni. However, this recreation of the 1930’s romantic approach to “Bach on the piano”, while polished and sonorous, did not tell us much about Kern’s developing artistic personality, whereas it would have been fascinating to hear her keen intelligence and clear playing of inner parts applied to an original keyboard work of Bach.
Brahms’ Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Handel constitute one of his finest works for solo piano, and a measure of Kern’s performance was that it made one marvel anew at the genius of the composer. Especially effective were the driving rhythm and off-beat sforzandi in variation IV, and the similarly insistent staccato accompaniment leading to a delicate close in variation VIII. The simple soave variation XII seemed to be treated to too much rubato, with some straight sixteenths almost sounding like a dotted rhythm, but otherwise the composer’s intentions were scrupulously respected and the interpretation gathered strength as it moved onwards. There was a delightful freshness in the non legato variation XXI, leading to perhaps the most memorable moments in the music-box musette, where the pianist underlined the mood by turning a mask-like face towards the audience while playing with glassy precision. The wide range of moods in the Beethovenian fugue was presented without any loss of momentum in driving to the heroic climax.
Having played the Bach/Rachmaninov and Brahms dressed in black leather, Ms. Kern delighted the audience by appearing in an elegant rose-colored gown for the more flamboyant fare after the intermission. Rachmaninov’s Variations on a theme of Corelli are not among his most often performed works, but Olga Kern made a persuasive case for more frequent hearings. There was some beautiful pianism in capturing the changing effects of rhythm and color, but here again it was above all the composer’s intentions that were paramount. Rachmaninov succeeds in taking a simple theme and developing it in intriguing and beautiful ways that are as intellectual as they are emotionally charged, without resorting, until the last few pages, to the larger-canvas treatments for which he is best known. In the grotesque eighth variation, Kern’s body language was remarkably attuned to the weird shifts in the music as she crouched over the keys, while in a slow waltz she conjured up the elegance of the ballroom, and at the return of the simple theme she ended motionless as the last note faded into the air.
Finally, on a different musical plane, but completely successful in its own terms, came the Liszt Reminiscences de Don Juan. Taking some of Mozart’s best tunes, Liszt surrounds them with all manner of glittering devices in a way that would be considered vulgar were it not so brilliantly devised, and then brilliantly performed — first, by Liszt, and here, by Olga Kern. Mozart himself might even have enjoyed the irrepressible enthusiasm and cascading notes, and could not have failed to be impressed by the virtuosity. Once again, there was some engagingly discreet acting at the piano stool when the more direct Mozart quotations appeared, especially in pointing the different characters in a duet. The Trianon Steinway was pressed to its limits, although not quite beyond them, producing sonorities on an orchestral scale, and there was ample opportunity to observe the pianist’s long fingers and varied hand positions — arched, flat, crossed — and the stunningly rapid alternating octaves, before arriving at the noisy B-flat conclusion and a standing ovation.
An exciting talent indeed.
