Adam Neiman Triumphs!
by
Lyn Bronson
At Cabrillo College Sunday evening, Young pianist Adam
Neiman blew us away in a program of Bach, Ravel, Rachmaninoff and Mussorgsky.
Neiman has been the recipient of, some impressive awards, among them an Avery
Fisher Career Grant and a Gilmore Young Artist Award. He has also already
appeared as soloist with symphony orchestras in Chicago, San Francisco, St.
Louis, and Indianapolis, and will be appearing in 2008 as soloist with the Santa
Cruz Symphony Orchestra playing Chopin’s E Minor Concerto. With these
credentials we expected to hear a seasoned young artist, but what we heard was a
mature master, who at the age of 29 puts his own individual stamp on anything he
plays.
Throughout the evening Neiman spoke to the audience before
each work he played, and in so doing, provided intimate insights into his
musical perspective. He managed to convince us, not only with his ideas, but
also with his playing, that the works played on the first half of the program,
Bach’s A Minor English Suite and two works by Ravel,
Jeux d’Eaux and
Sonatine, shared a unique kinship.
And, in his hands, so they did. The crystalline clarity of articulation and
expression in his Bach playing was found also in the Ravel, and the lovely
expressive qualities characterizing his Ravel playing were present in his Bach.
When Neiman began the
Praeludium of the English Suite, the
sounds we heard coming from Cabrillo College’s new Steinway D, were so loud, my
first impression was that the piano was being amplified. This was not the
classically restrained Bach we are accustomed to hearing from artists like
Andras Schiff and Angela Hewitt, but rather large-scaled powerful and
extroverted playing that aggressively commands your attention. However, as soon
as we heard other sections of the suite, most notably the
Sarabande with its muted lovely
colors, it was obvious that the piano was not being amplified. Although Neiman’s
style overall is bold, authoritative and commanding, in no way did his playing
lack subtlety, for throughout the evening we were also treated to many moments
of delicate and artistically expressive playing.
The second half of the recital was devoted to three
Etudes-Tableaux from Op. 39 by Rachmaninoff and a powerful, mind blowing
performance of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. Speaking to the audience
again, Neiman directed our attention to Rachmaninoff’s musical language in the
Etudes-Tableaux, which is similar to that of the Symphonic Dances and the
Paganini Rhapsody in that it was about as close to twentieth-century style as
Rachmaninoff ever achieved. Neiman’s performance of the D Minor and C Minor
Etudes-Tableaux made these works sound even more contemporary, and they were
powerful performances. The slower A Minor Etude-Tableaux was subtle and full of
dramatic expression, but even in this piece, Neiman brought the middle section
to an enormous climax that revealed new and unsuspected glories in this lovely
work.
In the Mussorgsky, Neiman achieved at various times tender
expressive playing contrasting with impressive feats of virtuosity, which,
incidentally, always served the music and avoided empty virtuoso display. Neiman
demonstrated a keen intellect in the way his performance revealed new aspects of
so many sections of this great work. It is also interesting that while Neiman
achieved the highest levels of fortissimo in the climatic “Great Gate of Kiev,”
it was always controlled. Never did he project an ugly sound.
After a standing ovation, Neiman performed as an encore one
of his own compositions, “Visions.” Speaking to the audience before he played
the work, he said that he had had a vision that inspired this piece, but he was
not going to tell us what it was. However, he also said that when he signed CDs
in the lobby after the concert, he would be interested to hear from audience
members what they thought the vision was.
Well, I am not sure what the vision was, but the style of
the piece owed something to Rachmaninoff and Medtner in that it hovered around
one tonal center in a minor key and featured a minimalistic preoccupation with
one modulation that kept returning to its original center. What made the piece
so successful was how this limited original idea developed so logically and
dramatically so that at its end, it had made a powerful cumulative effect. What
was my opinion as to the “vision?” My
guess is that his vision is a young man’s glimpse into his future mortality and
death. Neiman is perhaps too young to have these feelings, but, as I have said,
he is an unusually mature artist already at the age of 29.
