Pianist Jon Nakamatsu
by
David Beech
The internationally celebrated Bay Area pianist Jon
Nakamatsu made a welcome return visit to Le Petit Trianon, San Jose for the
Steinway Society The Bay Area, filling the 360-seat hall on both Saturday,
January 3 and Sunday, January 4, 2004. Although his first appearance in the hall
years ago had seen him placed second in the Society’s Young Artists’
Competition, he went on, of course, to win the Gold Medal at the 1997 Van
Cliburn competition with exceptional performances of classical, romantic and
modern works. The concert under review here found him in excellent form, with
only a slight regret that there was no modern music in the program, which was
limited to the period between about 1800 and 1860.
Nakamatsu has recently been advocating the sonatas of
Joseph Wölfl (1773-1812), having recorded four of them, and he began his recital
with the E major sonata, Op. 33 No.3. The opening Allegro sounded much
like Clementi, with occasional flashes reminiscent of Haydn, and the
interpretation, while very clean, sounded on the dry side. It was immediately
noticeable that the familiar model B Steinway had been replaced by a full-sized
9 foot model D, and the openness of the sound came into its own in the short but
charming Andante cantabile. Nakamatsu then took the final Rondo:
allegretto at a brisk allegro, with strong rhythmic accents, a
delightful pp interlude, and a nimble conclusion.
Moving on to early romanticism, we next heard Schumann’s
always enchanting Papillons, Op. 2. The variety of mood and invention in
such a precocious work continues to amaze me. Nakamatsu found more warmth of
tone in the instrument for Schumann’s cantabile melodies, and missed
none of the wit in the lively movements. After the return of the initial waltz
tune with its rising scale as a counterpoint in the finale, and the sound of the
clock striking six, the quiet ending was especially effective, with the last,
long-awaited chord exquisitely balanced.
Mendelssohn was an even more precocious a composer, so
gifted that some of his pieces sound as though they came too easily to him. Yet
at his best, he is breathtaking, and the F-sharp minor Fantasy Op. 28 certainly
falls into this category. Nakamatsu shaped the melodies with tonal subtlety, and
began to weave delicate filigree decorations which grew into incandescent
virtuosity. This was a fine performance and a fitting tribute to the stature of
the work.
After the intermission, we learned more of the new piano,
which turns out to be a permanent acquisition for Le Petit Trianon. The owner of
the hall, Keith Watt, came to the platform and treated us to an engaging
description of his purchase, twenty years earlier, of what was then a church
whose congregation had dwindled to seven. He had been introduced to the minister
as “someone who would buy almost anything”, but his initial reaction was that he
did not need a church … until he spotted an old piano, which turned out to be a
Starr, for which make he had a special affection. So he purchased the property,
“at the highest price ever paid for a Starr”. Music-lovers in the Bay Area and
further afield are much in the debt of Mr. Watt for this beautifully restored
recital hall, now enhanced with an impressive new Steinway concert grand.
Brahms’ F minor Sonata Op.5 was an excellent choice for the
closing work of the program, since it foreshadows the composer’s massive piano
concertos and really benefits from a large piano that can produce fortissimi
without undue sense of strain. It is yet another example of a composer’s
precocity, and I remember being unaware of its existence until being completely
bowled over by hearing it played by Myra Hess some fifty years ago. Jon
Nakamatsu would have had the same effect on anyone in his audience hearing the
work for the first time, for he had the measure of the fire and the grandeur and
the gentleness of this highly original masterpiece. The opening flourishes were
done with a nice lightening of the upper phrases, and the pp contrast
ended with a delicious 9 foot bottom C. The tenor register of the piano came
into its own later, and in the ensuing Andante there were lovely singing
sounds in the alto and soprano registers. The Scherzo went well, with the
smooth arpeggio at the start especially felicitous, and the fourth movement
Intermezzo had beautifully articulated soft triplets. The wide range of
moods in the magnificent finale was presented without any loss of structural
grasp, and the climax with its brilliant running presto and huge final
chords led to a deserved ovation.
In his encores, Mr. Nakamatsu continued to show his
excellent musicianship, dexterity and delicacy, first in Liszt’s transcription
of Schumann’s song “Widmung”, and then in Schubert’s E-flat Impromptu.
Finally, we heard rousing performances of Chopin’s A-flat Polonaise and
Fantaisie-Impromptu.
