Chloe Pang Produces Powerful Performances
by
Lyn Bronson
Some pianists emerge
from the womb with serious pianistic chops, as did Evgeny Kissin, who astonished
the music world when he performed and recorded the two Chopin Concertos with the
Moscow Philharmonic when he was 13 years old. Such a gifted pianist would also
seem to be 16-year-old Chloe Pang, who blew us away yesterday afternoon as she
performed in the Concert Hall of the San Francisco Conservatory a massive
program that contained on its second half the Rachmaninoff Third Piano Concerto
in its entirety. Other works on the program were Beethoven’s Sonata in D, Op.
10, No. 3, Samuel Barber’s “Excursions,”
Scriabin’s Etude in C-sharp Minor, Op. 2, No. 1 and Ravel’s
Alborada del gracioso. This
event was a student recital in the Conservatory’s Preparatory Division, where
she studies with Mac McCray.
Chloe Pang’s
background is impressive. She gave her first public performance at age 4, her
first full solo recital at 8, her concerto debut at 10, and to top it all off,
at the age of 12, she performed and recorded Bach’s “Goldberg Variations.”
In September she will be performing Prokofiev’s Third Concerto with the
Redwood Symphony in its gala season opener.
There not being an
orchestra conveniently at hand to accompany Ms. Pang yesterday in the
Rachmaninoff concerto, the orchestra reduction was nicely played by pianist
Miles Graber. By any standard, Ms. Pang’s performance of the Rachmaninoff was
technically masterful and musically compelling. Performing the more difficult of
the two first movement cadenzas, it was very much to her credit that unlike some
performances of this cadenza, which sound labored and clumsy, hers was big and
powerful, but without ever producing an ugly sound. After a lovely second
movement, Ms. Pang took us over the top in the exciting ending of the concerto.
There are lots of ensemble problems inherent in this score (there are 29
indications of subtle changes of tempo in the first movement alone), and
although the ensemble was not always perfect, we heard a formidable performance.
Providing a simulated orchestra, Mr. Graber did himself proud, and even provided
a magical moment of his own with his flute solo at the end of the first movement
cadenza. It was so beautifully shaped and voiced I had to pinch myself, so to
speak, to remind myself that it was a piano, not a flute, playing such a
gorgeous melody.
Another especially
impressive performance was Ravel’s
Alborada del gracioso, and once again, this was the playing of a mature
artist, not a 16-year-old high school student. Was there any evidence of
youthful immaturity, hinting of future growth yet to come? Yes. In the Beethoven
Op. 10, No. 3, there was a certain amount of overplaying and missing the true
essence of Beethoven’s early style, and in the lovely, dramatic slow movement,
she wasn’t quite able to create the hushed magical intensity the movement
demands.
But, otherwise Chloe
Pang was obviously born to make music and born to play the piano.
