CSM Students in Concert
by
Lyn Bronson
California Summer Music (CSM) presented some students in a
concert last night, but not in Keck Auditorium at the Stevenson School, but
rather at All Saints Church in Carmel. This change of venue added an improved
acoustical dimension to the already fine concerts we have been hearing since CSM
opened its 2007 season with a faculty concert a week ago. Acoustically in the
form of a box, the interior of All Saints Church has wooden surfaces on the
walls and ceilings and slate tiles on the floor, which creates conditions so
favorable to enhancing music that you can play pianissimo at one end of the
church and be heard with absolute clarity at the other. Also available in this
venue is a Steinway concert grand, which although not entirely comfortable to
play, has a glorious sound, as we were to hear during this evening’s concert.
Irene Sharp greeted the audience and reminded us that on Saturday, July 21,
there would be one more CSM concert at All Saints Church, and this one dedicated
to the memory of the late cellist Mstislav Rostropovich.
Opening the concert was violinist
Jing Qiao, 21, who was born in Si
Chuan, China. A recent graduate of Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, she is
now studying violin with Milan Vitek under full scholarship at the Oberlin
Conservatory of Music. Performing Eugčne Ysa˙e’s Sonata for Solo Violin Number
6, she treated us to a big luscious sound (sometimes so big and warm that her
instrument sounded like a viola) with fine intonation (even in the highest
positions, harmonics and double stops). We heard lovely phrasing and exquisite
control of dynamics.
Next we heard cellist
Isabel Lau, 12, who is in the
seventh grade at West Portal Lutheran School in San Francisco and has been
studying cello with Irene Sharp since the age of six. With a long list of
accomplishments to her credit at such a tender age, Isabel impressed us with her
mature mastery of her instrument and her well developed feeling for the romantic
style. Performing the last movement
of the Elgar Cello Concerto, she played with enormous authority and exhibited a
lot of flair and drama. Pianist Julie Nishimura played the orchestra reduction
with magnificent gusto and added a lot to the performance.
Cellist John Heroy,
17, a senior at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, studies cello with
Mark Churchill at the New England Conservatory in Boston.
Performing Tchaikovsky’s “Variations on a Rococo Theme,” he impressed us
with his easy mastery of his instrument and his lovely tonal palette.
He gets a big robust sound and impressed
us in the cadenza – his playing just got better and better as it went along.
Once again we heard the artistry of Julie Nishimura in a fantastic performance
of the orchestra reduction.
Ending the first half of the program was cellist
Kai Chou, 19, a junior at UC
Berkeley this fall where he is pursuing a double major in music and pure
mathematics, plus a minor in Japanese. A pupil of Irene Sharp, he is an honor
student and has performed numerous times in the Noon Concert Program in Hertz
Hall at UC Berkeley. He performed for us Capriccio by Lukas Foss and
demonstrated fine technical mastery, refined musicianship and a flair for
contemporary music. Julie Nishimura
was back at the keyboard and spun out some of her own wizardry to compliment
Chou’s playing.
After intermission, we heard the first solo pianist of the
evening, Stephanie Ou, 19, a pupil
of Hans Boepple, who will be continuing her music studies this fall at UCLA.
Stephanie performed the four pieces of Brahms Op. 119, Vier
Klavierstűcke. These four pieces give a performer challenges in four
entirely different styles. Her Adagio and Andantino were lovely romantic
renditions of restless and soulful pieces that made an excellent impression. Her
final Rhapsodie was impetuous and fiery.
What really made the strongest impression was the lovely
Grazioso in C Major Number 3. This was, simply put, artistic playing of the highest order. I don’t
believe I have ever heard it played better.
Cellist Jessica
Lizardo, 17, another pupil of Irene Sharp who has covered herself in honors,
played for us (another performance with pianist Julie Nishimura) Ginastera’s
Pampeana # 2. Jessica has a bold, self-confident approach to this work and
demonstrated that she has a big rich sound that has a nice edge to it that gives
it a wonderful rhythmic vitality.
She also displayed an impressive range of expressive dynamics.
Violinist Matt
Mouradian, 20, a junior at Yale this fall, is a pupil of Wendy Sharp. He
performed for us (with pianist Lori Lack) the second and third movements of the
Brahms Violin Sonata in D Minor, Op. 108.
In his slow movement, Matt spun out the lush melodies like liquid gold.
There was always a real substance to his tone and the phrases were shaped with
real finesse. In the
Presto agitato last movement, Matt
pulled out all the stops and played with a forceful abandon that just about blew
us away. His solid technique and
impeccable musicianly approach to music was impressive indeed.
Ending the program was a performance of the Paganini-Liszt
La Campanella by pianist
Petra Victoria Priesterová, 20, a
student at the Conservatory in České Budějovice in the Czech Republic. This
piece is not only one of the more difficult Liszt Etudes, but it is even more
difficult to play on the lovely sounding Steinway concert grand in All Saints
Church, because the action on this piano is awkward and unforgiving. Despite
this Petra dug in and held her own with the instrument, and she displayed a lot
of flash and dash in its triumphant conclusion.
