Anyone who has ever been in a play knows that being on stage can be a very noisy experience. Actors have to project their voices to reach the back of the hall. Therefore on stage it may sound as though everybody is shouting, yet it will sound quite natural in the middle of the audience. We had a similar situation on Sunday evening, March 22, when distinguished pianist and teacher Han Boepple played a recital in the Carriage House at Villa Montalvo in Saratoga. This event was presented by the Steinway Society of the Bay Area and underwritten by British Motors in San Jose.
For the first half of the recital I was sitting in the third row, approximately ten feet from the Steinway concert grand on stage, and the sound was overwhelming. After intermission, sitting in the back row of this 300-seat hall, the sound mellowed and clarified, giving a perspective totally denied in the third row. Because of the experience of hearing the two halves of the recital in two startlingly different locations, I felt as though I had heard two different pianists.
The opening work, Mozart's Sonata in A Minor, K.310, was a far cry from the precious "Dresden Doll" school of Mozart style prevalent in previous generations. Mr. Boepple gave us a full-blooded, aggressive account of this work, more in the style of Beethoven, or so it seemed at such a close perspective. Up close it seemed overplayed and percussive in its first and third movements, but with some beautiful sounds and loving attention to detail in the wonderful slow movement.
Although the Schumann Fantasy in C Major that followed again seemed quite overwhelming, it was always obvious that a master was at work for we heard phrasing that was beautifully shaped and harmonic movement that was always carefully delineated and controlled. Mr. Boepple's technical mastery was admirable, and he made the awesome coda of the second movement with its perilous leaps sound and look like child's play. The crown jewel of the Fantasy is the final movement,
Langsam getragen, and this was superb. Lovingly played with an admirable restraint that hinted of the tension and emotion just under the surface, it made a powerful effect.
After intermission, Mr. Boepple played Mussorgsky's
Pictures at an Exhibition.This was a big, solid performance and in it Mr. Boepple managed to bring some new perspectives to this familiar giant of a piece. Although
The Great Gate of Kiev just missed achieving the great powerful climax we have come to expect, there were so many other felicities along the way that amply compensated.
At the recital's conclusion, Mr. Boepple rewarded a warmly appreciative audience with an encore, Tchaikowsky's
June, Barcarolle from
The Seasons.
End
