Noriko Ogawa Piano Master Class
by
Lyn Bronson
After a triumphant recital the
night before in Miller Hall at Portland’s World Forestry Center under the
auspices of Piano Festival Northwest, Noriko Ogawa appeared bright eyed and
alert on stage the next morning for a master class. In some master classes, too
many students are scheduled resulting in each student only receiving a minimal
amount of time so that details are worked out only superficially. This has not
been the case with master classes at the Piano Festival Northwest since the
sessions are 90 minutes long and only two or three students participate in each
session.
The first student up at bat was
Hunter Noack, who has just completed the ninth grade at Interlochen Arts
Academy, where he studies piano with Steve Perry. Hunter has performed in the
Sunriver Music Festival Young Artist Scholarship concerts in 2001, 2002, 2003,
and 2004. In the printed program he was scheduled to perform Liszt’s
Transcendental Etude No. 4, Mazeppa. Walking out on stage cold and playing
Mazeppa is a daunting task, so Hunter decided to perform for the class Chopin’s
Fantasie-Impromptu instead. His fleet fingers delivered a smoothly flowing, yet
nicely agitated performance. Especially charming was the D-flat major middle
section, which was tender and lovingly shaped.
Ms. Ogawa complimented him on a
very sensitive performance that was very clean and very musical. She pointed out
that the initial octave G# in the left hand that introduces the piece wasn’t
powerful enough and didn’t fill the two measures it was supposed to fill, and
thus sounded more like a quarter note rather than two whole notes tied. She also
suggested that after the arpeggiated bass pattern began in the left hand, that
he had to let it diminish so that the audience could hear the right hand when it
entered.
Ms. Ogawa worked with Hunter to
aim for the focal points of important phrases and also to adopt a faster, more
flowing tempo in the Moderato cantabile D-flat major middle section and this
helped to produce longer lines in the melody. Hunter was receptive to her
suggestions and proved to be not only a sensitive young musician, but also very
adaptable and cooperative.
The second performer at this
session was Russian born Tatyana Doroshkin, who has just completed her
undergraduate studies at Portland State University, studying with Harold Gray.
She won the PSU Concerto Competition both in 2002 and in 2003.
After she performed Ravel’s
Toccata from Le Tombeau de Couperin, Ms. Ogawa complimented her on her
courage in coming out cold and playing this work which is difficult to perform
even when it is played as the final work of the suite. Ms Ogawa noted that
Ravel’s score is precisely marked with performance indications. However this
does not include pedal markings, and thus one of the first things they worked on
together was removing some pedaling that was obscuring the clarity of the
repeated note passages.
Ms. Ogawa suggested that the
tempo in this work should be pretty consistent in order to maintain the forward
motion, however in those passages where there are eruptions of fortissimo, the
performer needs to take more time to ensure clarity. She also commented on the
“nightmarish” passages where the hands are seemingly right on top of each other.
Ms Doroshkin was advised to use
the soft pedal only as a last resort for it can have a tendency to dull the
sound and obscure clarity. With remarkable candor, Ms. Ogawa confessed that
there are a few passages in this work which are terrifyingly difficult and
“cause her heart to beat faster” because they can go terribly wrong.
By the end of this session, we
were observing Ms. Doroshkin’s performance improve dramatically so that we were
hearing a most remarkable performance.
