The long awaited and warmly anticipated piano recital of Andras Schiff on Friday, March 13, at Sunset Center in Carmel, turned out to be something of a disappointment. The occasion was the Carmel Music Society's fifth concert of its 1997-98 season. A second disappointment was the debut of the Society's new Hamburg Steinway concert grand that arrived one week earlier by airfreight from Paris where it had been selected by French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet. Thibaudet was featured on the Society's concert series the previous season as assisting pianist to violinist Joshua Bell.
We had all hoped that the piano would be a "dream" instrument enhancing every note of a visiting artist. In fact, it is only a good instrument, not a great one. Its Renner action is velvety smooth, as we might expect from that great manufacturer of piano actions. The piano's sound, however, is distinctly neutral, cold and glassy, rather like a Yamaha concert grand. The low bass octaves, normally the crown jewels of a good concert grand, sound more like that a of seven-foot, rather than a nine-foot piano. The tenor and treble of the instrument are clear, but without a distinctive aura. Curiously enough, the Carmel Music Society's fifty-year-old New York Steinway concert grand that the Society recently sold for approximately $30,000 had all the qualities that the new instrument lacks. But, what we
can say about the new instrument is that it is louder.
I am sure there are those in our community who will advise waiting until the instrument is "broken in" and not rush to judgement. However, the basic sound of a piano is determined by how well the instrument's soundboard is crowned, and how efficiently the bridges transmit sound to that soundboard. This is of great importance to the duration and decay rate of individual tones, and probably explains why this instrument doesn't have a deep sonorous bass. The hard hammers that produce the glassy sound can, of course, be tone regulated and voiced, but it is still unlikely that this piano will ever have that distinctive aura of a great instrument.
As for Mr. Schiff, his program was a curious affair. The first half of the recital consisted of thirteen Scarlatti Sonatas, which consumed 58 minutes of playing time. I am sorry, but I have to say that thirteen sonatas is about nine too many. There were individual sonatas which stood out like a beacon as outstanding performances, such as the fast staccato passages in the F Minor Sonata, K.519, the furioso quality of the E Minor, K. 394 and the final Sonata in B-flat Major, K. 545. But in so many of the sonatas Schiff displayed such a limited tonal palette that the sound began to dull the ears and induce a desire for soporific release.
Ten of the thirteen Scarlatti Sonatas were played in the pair arrangements suggested by Ralph Kirkpatrick, and like Kirkpatrick Mr. Schiff favors the use of agogic accents which involve a slight delay in arriving at important beat points. However, he employed this device so often that it became an annoying mannerism.
After intermission we heard the Haydn Sonata in E Minor, Hob. XIV:34. This came across as mannered and fussy, much like his Scarlatti. Again, his tonal palette was limited and we had the impression that no new insights into this work were revealed.
The final work on the program was the Schumann Sonata No. 3 in F Minor, Op. 14, which Schumann referred to as "a concerto without orchestra." Right from the beginning we were treated to a fast and furious scramble of notes. Mr. Schiff was playing the role of "concert pianist" here, and his showing off got him into trouble repeatedly. The
Quasi Variazioni movement missed the expressiveness it deserved, and the final movement gave us lots of heat, but little light. Mr. Schiff played one encore, the Chopin Nocturne in F-sharp Major, Op. 15, No. 2.
The average concert patron is impressed with the aura exuded by the superstars of the concert world. One week previously, seventeen-year-old Aaron Miller, a young student, who has an impressive record of winning competitions and has already appeared as soloist with important orchestras in California, played a solo recital at Santa Catalina School. And the irony is that his recital was a more satisfying pianistic and musical event than Andreas Schiff's. Another irony is that this boy, who will probably be entering the Juilliard School of Music in the fall, was ineligible to enter the Carmel Music Society's 22nd Annual Piano Competition because that competition excludes anyone under the age of 18.
The finals of the Music Society's Competition will take place on Saturday, March 28, and will feature eight finalists selected from a field of 33 contestants. It has historically been an exciting event and is not to be missed.
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