Do you have secret ingredients that set your favorite dish apart from your friends'? Those secret ingredients are much like the unique stories that help explain how musicinas develop into the artists they are. These special recipes for success set performers apart on stage, no matter how similar their diligence, hard work, and excellence may be. This is especially apparent in the two winners of this year's International Bachauer Piano Competition, Yoonjung Han and Naomi Kudo, who both began playing piano early on, but with their own spices tossed in the mix.
For
Yoonjung, it all began in her birthplace of Korea, at age 3, after one fateful
afternoon nap. When she awoke, her mother had stepped out of the apartment, so
she leaned out the sixth-floor window to look for her mother on the street. She
slipped out of the window and was stuck outside holding on to the windowsill
when the fifth-floor resident, a pastor's wife, happened to look up from
reading her Bible and helped Yoonjung back to safety. After the shock and minor
injuries she sustained during the incident, Yoonjung took a year off from
school. Feeling idle and bored, she asked for a piano. Since then, her family
has also become religious, influenced by their neighbor.
Quickly excelling at the instrument, Yoonjung made her
solo debut at 13, performing Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto with the Seoul
Philharmonic Orchestra. At 15, she received the Most Promising Young Artist
award from the Korean Minister of Culture after winning the grand prize in the
Korea National Music Competition, and moved overseas to study with Victoria
Mushkatkol in Juilliard's Pre-College Division. Away from home before she had
had a chance to learn how to cook, Yoonjung depended heavily on her rice
cooker. Her father stayed with her for her first semester, but Yoonjung soon
found herself independent and fending for herself in the big city. Although she
had wanted to come to the States for the performance opportunities, she
reflects on her difficult time: "I won't do that to my daughter. I'll keep her
[at home] until she gets married."
After
earning her bachelor's degree at the Curtis Institute of Music, where she
studied with Eleanor Sokoloff, Yoonjung is now in her second year of the master's
degree program at Juilliard, studying with Robert McDonald. At 23, she has
already performed as a soloist with the Buffalo Philharmonic, Fort Collins
Symphony, Houston Symphony, Mississippi Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic
Orchestra, and Milan's
I Pomeriggi Musicali, among others. She has won the gold medal at the Nena
Wideman Piano Competition and the Kosciuszko Foundation Chopin Piano
Competition, second prize at the Ettore Pozzoli International Piano
Competition, and fifth prize at the Helsinki Maj Lind International
Competition.
Yoonjung
says she feels that she made a musical breakthrough with the competitions and
festivals that she attended this past summer. She performed the Mozart Piano
Concerto No. 22 in E Flat, K.482, at the BanffCenter with the festival orchestra
there, playing her own written eingangs and cadenzas, and won the gold
medal at the World Piano Competition in Cincinnati.
"I used to be obsessed with perfection," she observes, "but learned that it's
more heart than fingers. It's a talent and a joy that you can give to people,
but you really have to love the music, not fame." She says she finally feels
emotionally free to connect with the audience.
Naomi
Kudo also has a unique story. Born in Washington,
D.C., she was introduced to the
piano at age 4 by her Japanese-Korean parents, who were lovers of classical
music though not musicians themselves. She never fought against practicing--but
later, when she made violinist friends, she went through a phase of wishing
that her parents had started her on the violin. For Naomi, the piano became a
gradual attachment in life. Now a fourth-year bachelor's degree student at
Juilliard studying with Yoheved Kaplinsky, she says that being in New York made her
realize how much she loved music and strengthened her resolve to pursue a
musical career.
As
part of her childhood was spent in Chicago,
Naomi grew up listening to the Chicago Symphony, dreaming that perhaps one day
she could be on that stage. After making her orchestral debut at
16--performing Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto with the Fort Worth Symphony
Orchestra--she got her chance with the Chicago Symphony, playing Falla's Nights
in the Gardens of Spain in Orchestra Hall. Her experience playing
with the C.S.O. spanned more than a week and included performing for kids
ranging from grade school to high school. She recalls this as "scary and
exciting," and says it was a challenge to be alert and ready to play for them
every morning at 9.
Naomi,
who attended public school herself, recalls her high school years as "pretty
rigorous academically, which was great--but it was also a struggle to balance
the work load and music." Now travel is a big part of her life; she has
performed with the Warsaw Philharmonic and Reno Philharmonic, as well as the
Ars Viva, Montgomery, Fort
Collins, Northbrook, Everett, Oak Park, Southwest Michigan, and Fukui orchestras. Without as much time
now for the sports she enjoys (her childhood included ice skating and swimming
lessons), she follows them on TV in her free time--and of course, this past
summer's Olympic games were a treat. She admires Olympic athletes, finding
their training more daunting than her own. "It's fun to watch the
athletes because they are so charismatic," she says. "I think about how much
work they go through, because it is so incredible for just those 10 seconds."
Moving
back and forth between Japan
and Chicago as
she grew up, Naomi was able to draw from the classical music scenes of both
places. Her career has been blossoming as she receives numerous awards and wins
various competitions; she was recently named a 2008 Gilmore Young Artist, has
received the Chopin Prize, and wins the Bachauer competition for the second
consecutive year. This season, she is looking forward to performing in Poland and Japan,
and also hopes to share her love for music through community work, inspired by
performing on one of violinist Midori's outreach concerts at the Isabella Residence
in Upper Manhattan.
Last
April, Naomi had the privilege of meeting and chatting with Mitsuko Uchida, one
of her favorite pianists, at a private dinner. Only a few weeks later, Naomi
performed a movement of the Brahms F-Minor Piano Quintet at Juilliard's 2008
commencement--after only one rehearsal, with four string players she had met
just three days before. An impressed Uchida, one of the honorary doctorate
recipients, was seated nearby onstage and complimented her afterward. It was a
special experience, Naomi said--foreshadowing both the pressures and the rewards
of professional life.
Thy Chamber Music Festival's closing concert - movingly beautiful
Thisted Dagblad August 25th, 2008 Henrik Svane
"But see also: A variety of lakes Which blue Mirror the eternity No one can reach by hand
This is the closing of Knud Sorenson's poem, which was combined with Craig Goodman's composition for the opening of the National Park and repeated at the closing concert at Thisted Music Theatre on Sunday, August 24th.
Olivier Messiaen's "Quartet for the End of Time" for clarinet, violin, cello, and piano from 1941 was the soul-stirring culmination of the closing concert. The piece was written during the second World War, while he was a prisoner of war. The audience consisted of 5000 war prisoners, who listened to the performance in freezing cold. Never, Messiaen said later, has anyone listened to my music with greater attention and understanding.
In this he was most surely right. But this performance also deeply moved the audience. A modelled and organic execution procured the music, which point of origin has a text from "The Apocalypse", Chapter 10, verse 1-7, breathtakingly beautiful in an intepretation, which made time stand still and took the audience in a nearly magical seduction and beyond. Seldom has the undersigned been in doubt about which side of the music one was placed. The musicians were capable of interpretating Messiaen's strong color visions, in a way that one really felt the blue, which mirrors the eternity, which one can catch by hand. One melted away of ecstatsy to another state of mind. The clarinetist Tibi Cziger, the violinist Delyana Lazarova, the cellist Morten Zeuthen, and the pianist Naomi Kudo deserve the highest recognition for this performance.
The concert's other pieces will have to stand in our memory without comments. It should be mentioned, though, that the originator of the Thy Chamber Music Festival, received a well-earned ovation brought about by this year's participants. His vision has reached far out into the world and has once again proven its carrying capacity by dazzling musicians, professional instructors, and a staff of competent organizers and a large group of volunteers.
"....And then I feel the wind on my chin Like here Was the creator And the creator whispers into my ear Whispering: I only demand humbleness." (Knud Sorensen)
Kalamazoo Gazette April 29th, 2008 C.J. Gianakaris
Though first performing here last fall in the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival's Rising Stars Series, Naomi Kudo had the Stetson Chapel stage to herself Monday afternoon as full-fledged 2008 Gilmore Young Artist.
The Gilmore's choice is justified, because Juilliard student Kudo -- just 20 years old -- is an ideal Young Artist, offering an impressive recital.
Four major composers from different eras were represented in her demanding program. In each instance, she probed the work exhaustively to locate its musical center. Then, by virtue of superb technical agility, she conveyed her findings to the audience.
J. S. Bach's eight-part Overture in the French Style in M Minor, BWV 83, opened, immediately displaying Kudo's enviable clarity. The tonal effect of the movement was that of a broadly-strummed instrument, contrasted with brittle embellished trills and ornamentation. The remaining movements, echoing popular dances from Baroque suites, varied widely, permitting her to exhibit a range of textures.Her vigorous playing of "Gigue" indicated firmness that contrasted strikingly with the gentler, caressing quality in "Bourree." Always noticeable was an unbroken circuit of melodic line, regardless of any other musical proceedings.
Kudo followed preclassical sounds of Bach with a standout performance of a contemporary piece, Piano Sonata No. 1 (1990) by Australian composer Carl Vine. This was a daring choice on Kudo's part, because abrasive dissonance often surged through its two movements. Yet the intelligence of her reading lent welcome reasonableness to surface chaos.Through fine pedaling and note emphases, she underscored the crucial motif of tolling bells in the first section -- even as glissandos whirled past and deep bass notes were pounded. Vine's is a dense score that only a highly proficient pianist such as Kudo could make sense of.
Kudo used a fine keyboard touch to enunciate (musically) the swelling melodies in Ravel's "Sonatine." The ravishing harmonies were transmitted through her undeniable technique to produce very agreeable music.
The largest portion of her program was given over to Schumann's familiar Carnaval, Op. 9. As usual in Schumann, this set of 21 brief musical portraits and dances reflected autobiographical sources. For listeners, however, only the sheer joy and playfulness of the separate pieces mattered.Kudo evidenced superb dexterity in presto sections of "Pierrot" and "Replique." The flirtatious "Coquette" mirrored her playful spirit. Kudo seduced listeners with a lovely delicacy in intimate passages of "Eusebius." And aside from a rare smudging in a fast octave run, Kudo showed outstanding stamina -- particularly in the closing "March."
Call her Naomi: Gilmore Young Artist Kudo makes some changes
Kalamazoo Gazette April 13th, 2008 Elizabeth Clark
Savvy followers of the Irving S. Gilmore International Keyboard Festival may think they spy a mistake when they see the name of pianist Naomi Kudo.
Kudo, one of two 2008 Gilmore Young Artist award recipients (the other is Adam Golka), changed her professional name from Rachel Kudo -- or Rachel Naomi Kudo, which she also has used -- to Naomi Kudo this winter.
"My parents had expressed that they would like me to maybe use my middle name because that's also my Japanese name," Kudo said by phone from her New York City home. "In the past, I've usually used both names, which is confusing because some people assume because of my ethnicity that I'm half-Caucasian or an Asian-Jewish pianist (she's actually of Korean-Japanese descent) because both of my names are Jewish. They thought it would be easier if I chose just one."
She expects to answer to both for quite some time.
"Everybody still calls me Rachel," she said. "I think it's always been my parents who called me Naomi. I'm really happy with anything as long as I can keep doing what I do and keep playing more music."
Recent excitement
Most recently, Kudo, who attends the JuilliardSchool in New York City, performed in Vienna, Austria, as part of an exchange program between Juilliard, the National Conservatory of Paris and the University of Vienna for the Performing Arts.
"There were five musicians each representing the three schools," Kudo said. "They wanted us to get to know each other and to play chamber music together, and we performed a concert in Vienna."
Exploring the city that was such a destination location for baroque bigwigs was "really moving," the young artist said.
"It was such a great experience," she said. "We got to really look around the city, and we also visited a lot of important musical sites: Beethoven's old house, Mozart's old house, the cemetery where Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert and all these people were buried."
Kudo said it was interesting to see the differences between European and American students.
"It was really cool that, even though some of the other students didn't speak English very well when we started rehearsal, we got to communicate through our music," she said. "I think that was a common experience for all of us."
Kudo also describes her Carnegie Hall chamber-music appearance in December 2007 as a career highlight. She appeared with a violinist from Juilliard.
"We worked on Brahms violin sonatas with Emanuel Ax and David Zinman and also a clarinetist, Richard Stoltzman," she said. "That was like one of the most intense and amazing weeks, because every day we were coaching and playing and training and asking Mr. Ax and Mr. Zinman questions. It was also very touching because these busy and important people were really interested in helping us young artists out. I thought that was such an incredible thing."
Astonishing record
Kudo's own career certainly qualifies as incredible. The pianist won the 2007 Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, was the sole American finalist at the 2005 15th International Frederic Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, earned second prize at the seventh National Chopin Competition (2005) in the U.S., is a 2004 Davidson Fellow Laureate and four-time scholarship recipient from the Chopin Foundation of the United States.
She said she's thrilled at the possibility of rubbing shoulders with more stars during her Gilmore visit.
"I was thinking of asking (festival Executive Director Dan Gustin) if I could meet Mitsuko Uchida," Kudo said. "She's one of my idols. That would be one thing that would be amazing. She and I are playing a recital on the same day about two hours apart. I was really hoping to make her recital."
Kudo's schedule at the Gilmore includes a slot at the opening dinner on April 25, an AlbionCollege appearance April 26, a Stetson Chapel recital April 28, a CalvinCollege performance April 29, a Battle Creek performance May 4 and a collaboration with the Southwest Michigan Symphony Orchestra in BentonHarbor on May 11.
Her solo recital performances will feature J.S. Bach's Overture in the French Style in B Minor, BWV 831; Carl Vine's Sonata No. 1; Ravel's "Sonatine"; and Schumann's "Carnaval, Op. 9." The symphonic collaboration in BentonHarbor will feature Mozart's Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K. 467; and Rimsky-Korsakov's "Scheherazade."
For her opening dinner set, she said she plans to play short works and transcriptions that are "popular and easy to enjoy," including "The Flight of the Bumblebee."
Gilmore Rising Star executes classics with brilliance, clarity
Kalamazoo Gazette September 10th, 2007 C.J. Gianakaris
An arm of the Irving S. Gilmore International Keyboard
Festival is its Rising Stars Recital Series, whereby six to eight top-flight
younger pianists offer solo programs each year, spread across the Gilmore's
music season.On
Sunday evening, the first of four performances in the 2007-08 series that will
be held once a month through December, was launched in impressive fashion at
the Wellspring Theater. Spotlighted
was American-born Naomi Kudo in a demanding and warmly received program
displaying her amazing technique and superior interpretative ability. Kudo
also happens to be a 2008 Gilmore Young Artist and will perform again at next
spring's Gilmore Festival.
With
her parents in the audience, Kudo offered a splendid display of piano artistry.
No matter what volume, the evenness of notes in passages was uncanny, with
melody always crystal clear. Joined
with superlative technical prowess was an intelligent caressing of melodic line
in which every note played had significance.An
audience favorite was Kudo's crystalline playing of Mozart's Sonata No. 12 in F
Major, K. 332. Always true with Mozart's piano music is the need for absolute
clarity, and Kudo passed with flying colors. She played its three movements
with considered, subdued restraint, fast and forte passages carefully meted out
as called for. Cleanly articulated lines were the norm.
Kudo
next turned to Chopin's Scherzo No. 3 in C-sharp Minor, Op. 39. Its opening
demanded assertive forte octave runs alternating with gossamer sounds created
through tinkling notes in the upper treble. Virtuosity dominated in highly dramatic
bars, though Kudo could still exhibit sensitivity without eviscerating the
music's substance.
For
many the apex of the recital was Kudo's amazing rendition of Chopin's ``Andante
Spianato'' and``Grand Polonaise Brilliante'' in E-flat Major, Op.22. Kudo has
won numerous Chopin competitions. Now we know why. Every feature of this work
was expressed and projected with incredible clarity and nuance. The profusion
of chromatic runs and passages were pearly smooth, each note sounding, no matter
what tempo.
She
made sense of every passage, regardless of how complex. Hers was, simply, a
brilliant performance.
Carl Vine's 1990 work, Piano Sonata No. 1, offered interesting
rhythmic effects. Almost continuous use of sustaining pedal created much of the
work's overall aura, though dissonance dominated. The pervasive clatter-bang of
the piece shortened audience patience. Kudo prevailed to make some musical
sense from the exciting but loud score.
Closing was Kudo's able playing of Liszt's ``Reminiscences
de Don Juan (Mozart), S. 418.'' Obviously Liszt's prime objective was to
spotlight the pianist (him), and not the music. Kudo followed Liszt's instructions
in a splurge of bombastic runs and trills, picking clean Mozart's bones. Many
might have preferred Mozart's music straight.
The Reno Philharmonic scores with the profound and the beautiful and Naomi Kudo
Music Reviews January 15th, 2007 Jack Neal
Building a program from a
semblance of the raucousness of Tin Pan Alley, to the affectingly profound,
with lush romanticism sandwiched in between, provides nothing less than a
concert recipe for success. It's also a recipe that allows conductor Barry
Jekowsky to score once again with accessible and exciting programming,
triumphantly performed.
William Grant Still's
"Animato" from his Afro-American Symphony, Edvard Grieg's ultra
romantic Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in A minor, and Dmitri Shostakovich's
massive and profound Symphony No. 10 in E minor presents an enormous
programmatic challenge. It's a challenge impressively managed by the Reno
Philharmonic and its conductor Barry Jekowsky.
Adding to this achievement is 19 year old American
pianist Naomi Kudo, who is making her Reno
debut with these series of concerts. Before a large and appreciative Sunday
afternoon (1/14/07) audience of instant fans at the PioneerCenter
for the Performing Arts, this young pianist proves she is a winner in the
hard-knock existence of the concert world.
The Grieg piano concerto is so popular it's rarely
heard, which makes it all the more welcome. Kudo provides a technically assured
performance with an abundance of lyricism that caresses the concerto's
rhapsodic nature from beginning to end. The bravura of the first and last
movements, give way to the haunting middle movement that is one of the loveliest
slow movements in all of the piano concerto repertory. Kudo is a subtle artist
whose impeccable facility never overshadows her gifts for a perfectly turned
phrase mixed with elements of surprise.
We've heard the critical complaint that Grieg could
not develop a tune, only compose one. In his A minor concerto he has composed
one memorable tune after another. What's not to like and love? Nothing seemed
problematic for Sunday's audience. Kudo and the concerto deserved and received
a thunderous ovation.
Shostakovich's Symphony No.
10 is the composer's symphonic masterpiece. Few other symphonies have such a
shrewd, keen sense of balance from movement to movement. Taken alone, any of
its four movements are admirable, but incomplete. Taken together, each plays
off the others so well that incompleteness gives way to a completeness of
vision that bridges the delicate balance between passion and poise that makes
for great writing and the possibilities of a compelling interpretation.
Jekowsky leads an incisive
performance with cool precision and blistering subjectivity. The orchestra
rises nicely to the occasion for a flawlessly paced presentation full of
operatic lyricism and architectural insight. Jekowsky's is a powerful musical
exploration of a work loaded with explorable utterances. How exciting to hear
such a definitive performance here.
How exciting, too, to hear
William Grant Still's attractive "Animato" from his Afro-American
Symphony. This bluesy, jazzy, thoroughly American work got the treatment from a
bluesy, jazzy, thoroughly American orchestra and conductor who know how to get
under the skin and into the groove of American music. It's the kind of letting
one's hair down, that gives the Still a pulsating reading that turns it into
the music that makes everyone dance.
El Nuevo Herald (Miami, FL) June 14th, 2006 Daniel Fernandez
It's almost hard to believe - in spite of the incessant proliferation of
excellent young pianists - that Naomi Kudo could have achieved, in only 19
years, a miracle of flawless technique and expressive versatility which she
demonstrated in her recital Sunday afternoon in Gusman Concert Hall at the University
of Miami.
Kudo obtained the second prize in last year's National Chopin Competition
- and one wonders how brilliant the first prize winner must have been - in any
case, for her crystalline execution of the Beethoven Sonata Op.2 No.2 in A
major, and her spectacular tour de force in the most difficult passages of the Barber
Sonata, Op.26, played in the first half of the concert, one could appreciate
that Kudo possesses a versatility that many don't accomplish without long years
of experience.
This was a natural talent, and we had no doubt that we were before one of
those natural pianists, who, without discrediting hard work, possess special
qualities that permit them to capture with sensibility and profundity the keys
in the phrasing and the spirit of the distinct composers. Her Beethoven was
well-balanced and clean, an exercise in classicism worthy of opening the night.
On the other hand, the Barber would have filled the composer with pride. Not a
single note was lost in the dazzling and almost impossible to play passages, the
reason for which this extraordinary work of the piano literature of the
twentieth century is almost outlawed in concert halls.
The second part of the concert was dedicated to two works from the vast
wealth of Chopin's output. The Andante Spinato and Grande Polonaise
Brillante Op. 22, and the Third Sonata in B minor Op.58. The first, like its
name indicates, opens calmly but introduces melodic phrases that the second
part of the work develops in a more rhythmic context. This work shows the tendencies
of Chopin, the nostalgic, the intense, an invitation to dance...
The second work is one of grand architectural
breadth: four movements with their corresponding changes of tempi and states of
animation. In the masterful hands of miss Kudo, this exquisite structure came
through. In the pompous and elegant "Allegro maestoso" and the vibrant "Scherzo",
and in the "Largo" with all its perfumes of impossible memories, and the
brilliant festive "Finale" with cascades of chords and passages that take your
breath away. It was an extraordinary ending by an extraordinary pianist who
promises to become a legend in this new century.
The Concerto in E Minor op. 11, chosen more often by the finalists, is a
very mature piece and this probably explains why it was chosen by 10 of the
candidates. We will hear the Concerto in F Minor only twice.It is said that the Chopin Competition is won by those who end their
performances with the more mature work: the bravura double scales in E Major;
who, playing the Romanza-the slow movement, can say everything "from their
hearts." But, this is not quite true, to recall 1980 and the Concerto in F Minor
played by Dang Tai-Son.Depending on the tempo played, the Allegro maestoso, the
first movement of the Concerto in E Minor, can be... a polonaise. That's how
Jacek KORTUS played it, to express the nature of this Polish dance. Though this was his first performance with an orchestra, he managed to
carry the huge burden of such a debut. He was calm and controlled practically
everything. I thought to myself, why aren't such fantastically talented young
artists in Poland
given the chance to get used to playing with an orchestra? Where are the philharmonics and other orchestras for which a joint
concert with young talent would be an embellishment of the season? As for the performance of the 17-year-old pianist from Poznań, the main thing is that he managed to
maintain the majesty of the main part of the work, that the final krakowiak
pulsated with a good rhythm, not too quick, though it lacked the effect of a
finish with shine that is desirable here.
Naomi KUDO, representing the
United States and a year older than our candidate, played the same concerto in
a typically "pianistic" way; the first movement at a slightly faster
pace, which gave it more energy and pianistic flourish. KUDO plays with talent, and
also... cheerfully. Listening to her is a great pleasure. In each successive
stage she convinced us more and more that working with a marvelous teacher that
we appreciate greatly here in Poland,
Lee Kum-Sing from Vancouver,
she will achieve a great deal as a Chopinist.
The Concerto in E Minor played by the next finalist, Ka Lim Colleen LEE
from China-Hong Kong, added little more to what we'd already heard. If we were to treat the interpretation of this piece in a more classical
convention, then the artist from Hong Kong is
fine with her reserved emotionality and more chamber-like virtuoso capacity.
The second day of the final also began with the Concerto op. 11. Yuma
OSAKI from Japan
is a pianist who does well at competitions, winning major awards. She feels
confident in performances with an orchestra and is able to carry out her plans
with consistency. These, however, are not very sublime, when you think of the
nuances of style in the Concerto in E Minor. Instead of a presentation of
confident and effective competition playing, I would have preferred more
in-depth listening to all that the 20-year-old Chopin, carried on a noble
feeling of love, wrote in his scores.
The performance of Korean Dong Hyek LIM was, to my mind, his best
production at the competition, compared to previous stages. In the Concerto in
F Minor op. 21, he played the mazurka finale spectacularly: with shine,
"defining" the brillante style of the piece well. But that was only
part of all that Chopin says here. Do these young artists, who play the piano
so fantastically, know who Konstancja Gładkowska was?
The final's second day closed with a performance by Shohei SEKIMOTO of Japan. His
interpretation of the Concerto in E Minor went in the direction of pianistic
effect and firm placement on the keyboard. The flushes of vigorous virtuosity
obviously generate great emotions, but are they what we should expect of this
composition by Chopin?
Mazurkas, a polonaise and a sonata. These include
almost everything needed to provide a full picture of the skills of candidates
for the Chopin Grand Prix 2005. How should one play a stylish mazurka? This is one of
the challenges for everyone who wants to face the Chopin repertoire.
When trying to discover the secrets of this mazurka
style, the famous Aleksander Michałowski in the 19th century requested the
elderly Duchess Marcelina Czartoryska, one of the most talented students of
Chopin, to play a few mazurkas.After some balking and excusing her no longer complete
piano skills, the duchess played Mazurka in D major op. 33 no. 3. Michałowski was greatly surprised to hear that the
main theme was from the very beginning played heartily, without any shading. Only at the very end the last fragment sounded
delicately and exquisitely, with a "caring" touch of the keyboard. When asked why she played the main theme this way,
Duchess Czartoryska replied, "This is how Chopin taught me. He told me that in this mazurka, he wanted to render
the contrast between 'an inn and a salon'."
The times when the young Chopin listened to the sound
of a village band at an inn are long gone. The salons are also a thing of the
past, since mazurkas, and in turn Chopin's music, have entered big concert
halls. How should one play Chopin's mazurkas?
The recital of Hisako KAWAMURA turned out promising in
terms of mazurkas. She played Mazurka in G Minor op. 24 no. 1 in a broad and
singing phrase.
Yusuke KIKUCHI played his program in a clearly less
personal style. His mazurkas, with the one in D Major (op. 33) did not go
beyond academic framework in their correctness.
We saw more emotion and spontaneity in Mazurkas op. 59
as interpreted by Ben KIM. He was able not only to create a mood, but also
maintain it--and its different shades--both in Andante Spianato and Funebre
March.
Szczepan KOŃCZAL, the first from the group of seven
Polish pianists, presented his program very well, confirming his piano skills.
His chamber style allows for a longer focus on the details of Chopin's notes
that are most often blurred when bravado pianists play it.
The nobility of the young talent of Jacek KORTUS is
like a refreshing spring breeze. In Mazurkas op. 17, particularly in A Flat
Major and A Minor, he captured the mood of the moment. This "something" that
can be achieved only once and never again--at least in an identical way--and you
can never come back to it. With his performance of Polonaise in A Flat Major
op. 53 he demonstrated that his talent and obvious skills allow him to
successfully play works of such scale as op. 53.
The
18-year-old Naomi KUDO attracted attention with her performance of Sonata in B
Minor op. 58. Her excellent piano preparation and talent were appreciated by
the audience and awarded with an ovation. Kudo played the Mazurkas op. 33 with
temperament directed at stressing the rhythm of the Mazovian dance.
The style of Olga KOZLOVA, as much intriguing as
controversial, will certainly add color to the list of personalities of the
15th Competition. To evaluate her as a Chopinesque performer is both very easy
and very difficult.
Of the first day of performances in the second round,
it is worth noting the recital of Ka Ling Collen LEE, whose Polonaise-Fantasia
demonstrated her ability to execute a form featuring such a variable scale of
moods.
With
eyes closed, no one would have imagined that the music coming from the piano on
the Davis Theatre stage was played by a teenager. The maturity displayed by
16-year-old Naomi Kudo belied her age in both musical understanding and
technical proficiency.
As
this year's winner of the Blount Young Artists Competition, Kudo was soloist
for Tchaikovsky's first piano concerto in the Montgomery Symphony's final subscription
concert of the season.On
Monday she played the entire Tchaikovsky concerto, not just a single movement,
and did so masterfully. In the
biggest moments she drew sonority from the piano that carried easily over the
full orchestra and played with dazzling technique. Her
playing equaled that of much more established performers. More
important, the musicianship she brought to this mammoth work was evident in
carefully arched phrases, sensitive to the melodic content without
sentimentality. With
such powerhouse playing, the Monday night audience could not resist applauding
when the first movement ended. Kudo
then continued into the second movement, finding the right balance between the
delicate, melodic main theme contrasting with the playful, capricious middle
theme. The
movement ended quietly, followed by the fiery, brilliant final movement. With
virtually no pause after the final chord, the audience burst into an
enthusiastic and extended standing ovation, richly deserved for this impressive
young pianist.
Under music director Thomas Hinds' conducting, the
remainder of the program gave the orchestra a showcase of its own with music
featuring contrasting and colorful pieces.Andre Caplet's arrangement of Debussy's "Clair de
lune" was familiar and gentle, yet purists might have been indifferent to
this transcription of a work written for piano. Not rhythm-less, but sounding nearly so, it created a
different color and effect in sustained strings and wind instruments that are
not the properties of the piano. The result was pleasant but anemic and weak.
A relatively new piece by Toru Takemitsu called
"Star-Isle," which followed, gave the orchestra a chance to explore
massed sounds beginning with augmented brass balanced against other sections. If "Clair de lune" suggested absence of
strict rhythm, "Star-Isle" literally avoided it. Devoid of a recognizable beat and melody, its musical
language communicated a different message with close harmony and free flowing
phases - and clearly the Montgomery Symphony felt and conveyed that message
convincingly. Stretching the ear and mind, it was a welcome addition
to the program and played well.
Five sections of Tchaikovsky's music for
"Sleeping Beauty" completed the program.This stirring, alternately lilting and dramatic music
showed the orchestra's varied colors to great advantage, especially woodwinds,
harp, and percussion. Nicely played, this was music to linger in mind long
after the concert and to conclude the subscription season very effectively.