On a warm Sunday evening, October 10, The Salinas Concert Association launched its 1999-2000 concert season with a bang by presenting Van Cliburn Competition Gold Medal winner, pianist Jon Nakamatsu in a solo recital on the main stage of the Hartnell College theater. With a highly dramatic backdrop depicting the afterglow of a New Mexico sky and the pianist illuminated by a brilliant spotlight in a darkened hall, there was a touch of Las Vegas showbiz about the event, but when it came to the playing it was all genuine, no nonsense music making. A capacity audience was there to enjoy the event, and, as it turned out, they were not to be disappointed. The program for the evening consisted of solo works by Bach, John Field and Chopin.
Looking supremely elegant in his concert tails (two sets of custom-made, full dress tails from Neiman-Marcus were part of his Gold Medal award at the 1997 Van Cliburn Competition), Nakamatsu projects an air of self-confidence in his demeanor that is echoed in his music making. He is always in control and the music pours forth effortlessly from his fingers.
Nakamatsu opened the evening's program with J.S. Bach's Overture in the French Manner, the so-called Partita No. 7, a work rarely heard on concert programs today. And, it has to be said that this piece is not likely to cause young piano students in the audience to storm local music stores the day following the recital desperately looking for a copy of the score. This particular suite is the only one in which Bach omitted the
Allemande, but its series of well-constructed dances that follow contain moments of genuine charm, especially the
Passepied I, the
Gigue and the "Echo" that closes the suite. Overall, this suite received an aggressive performance where pianistic values prevailed over musical ones.
In the Grand Fantasy on Polish Airs, Op. 13, by Chopin that followed the Bach, we observed a Nakamatsu on more comfortable ground. This Fantasy is considered one of Chopin's least attractive compositions, and, in fact, sounds more like a piece written by one of Chopin's contemporaries (like Friedrich Kalkbrenner) than a work by Chopin as we have come to know him. This series of episodic tunes connected by flashy virtuoso passages doesn't really make a satisfying work, however, Nakamatsu's performance was masterful and generated considerable charm.
It was in the following series of Nocturnes by John Field and Chopin that we heard Nakamatsu turn up the charm a few more notches. In his remarks to audience, barely audible in the cavernous spaces of the Hartnell Theater, Nakamatsu gave credit to Field for popularizing the Nocturne, but his playing made it obvious that Chopin's skills took the genre to much higher levels.
Nakamatsu's blockbuster performance of the Chopin Fantasie in F Minor, Op. 49, which ended the program was warmly received by the audience and rewarded by three encores, a charming salon piece by Dedodat de Severac, Chopin's "Heroic" Polonaise, and Chopin's Fantasie Impromptu. This last encore of the Fantasie-Impromptu was one of the best performances of this work I have ever heard, live or recorded.
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