On Sunday afternoon, March 8, at the Santa Catalina School Performing Arts Center, seventeen-year-old pianist Aaron Miller played an impressive solo piano recital. On hand for the event was a large audience of local piano teachers, their students, and a smattering of those who support piano recitals on the Monterey Peninsula. Miller's recital was a benefit for the Music Teachers' Association of California' Scholarship Auditions
Aaron Miller has attracted considerable attention in central California during the past several years as he learned major works from the standard piano repertoire under the tutelage of prominent San Jose teacher Hans Boepple, won several important piano competitions, and played some significant solo and concerto engagements along the way.
To open his recital on this occasion, Miller took the risk of performing three Preludes and Fugues from Bach's Well Tempered Clavier. Fifteen minutes of Preludes and Fugues is not easy for the average audience to digest. Although during the fugues (especially the long one in A Minor) the audience grew sufficiently restless that the shuffling of feet and rustling of programs became distinctly distracting, we still had to admire Miller's musical intelligence as he managed to make coherent musical sense out of these pieces. We rarely hear performances of Bach's Preludes and Fugues, as they seem more appropriate for serious music study and rather too esoteric to hold an audience's attention on recital programs.
More engaging was his solid performance of Beethoven's Sonata in E-flat Major, Op. 31, No. 3. Demonstrating secure technical skills and keen musical intelligence, Miller managed to hold our interest throughout this charming work. His sense of style was impeccable, and he demonstrated a consistent mastery of every twist and turn, achieving in the process a considerable variety of mood and color. Most impressive was his performance of the finale,
Presto con fuoco. It would be difficult to imagine a better performance.
After intermission we were treated to two masterpieces of the piano literature: Schumann's G Minor Sonata and Chopin's F Minor Ballade. In the G Minor Sonata by Schumann, Miller exhibited a high degree of technical authority that permitted him to concentrate on musical values. His exciting rendition of the development section of the first movement was stunning, as was the exciting
Scherzo and the
Presto finale. The lovely second movement
Andantino didn't make the powerful impression of which it is capable, probably because the Baldwin concert grand which Miller was using for the concert doesn't seem capable of projecting a beautiful
cantabile melody.
In the Chopin Ballade No. 4 in F Minor, Miller demonstrated a maturity beyond his years. After demonstrating some lovely shaping of the melodies in the exposition section, he then achieved stunning powerful climaxes in the central section. This was passionate playing indeed. The coda sped by with the speed of light as Miller made mincemeat of its thorny difficulties.
Miller rewarded the audience with a single encore, Gershwin's Prelude No. 2. It should be mentioned that Miller's stage presence is most natural, and there is never a false gesture or unnecessary mannerism. He spoke to the audience briefly at the beginning of each half of the concert to discuss the works he was about to play. His verbal program notes were a marvel of clarity, utility and subtle humor.
Aaron Miller has his feet planted firmly on the ground. At seventeen he has some magnificent achievements behind him, and by May 1 he has to decide what his college plans in the fall will be-a commitment to the piano at the Juilliard School of Music or to a liberal arts program at Harvard. It will be interesting to see which it will be.
End
