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The reputation of composers is usually based on their large-scale
works - symphonies, concerti, and sonatas. Performing artists
make their reputation by playing those major scores.
Many great composers have also written numerous short pieces
- wonderful vignettes meant to charm, entertain, and even
move an audience. Too often these small-scale works are heard
only at student recitals where young performers are still
learning their craft and cannot bring any special insight
to the music. When well known artists play this music, the
performances tend to be either matter of fact or superficially
brilliant, emphasizing volume and surface glitter.
The Miami International Piano Festival of Discovery presented
a concert on March 8 at the University of Miami's Gusman Concert
Hall that could well have been subtitled "The Art of the Miniature".
Two superb young pianists devoted an entire evening to a series
of small-scale masterpieces and the result was a musical revelation.
Edward Grieg's "Lyric Pieces" are music of great charm, variety,
and often striking pianistic effects. Pianist Ilya Itin gave
a masterful performance of twelve of these lovely piano gems.
Itin was the winner of the 1996 Leeds International Piano
Competition where he also won the Contemporary Music Award.
He is a musician of unusual subtlety and imagination. His
technical command of the instrument is awesome.
To hear Itin's performance of Grieg's charming music was
like hearing the pieces for the first time. To the Chopinesque
"Butterfly" he brought fleet fingered elegance, "Homesickness"
had Tchaikovskian pathos. Itin was not afraid to imbue "Berceuse"
with warmth and charm. The concluding "Wedding Day At Troldhangen"
had folk like vigor but also classical restraint. Itin's range
of dynamics and tonal coloring brought a special richness
and depth to Grieg's music. His idiomatic affinity was reminiscent
of the late Norwegian pianist Robert Riefling. Ilya Itin also
offered "Four Preludes" by Sergei Rachmaninoff. This is quintessentially
romantic music. Itin played it with passionate intensity and
ardor. These miniatures seemed to spring from the keyboard
as brooding tone poems. Everything Itin played had a combination
of sensitivity and intelligence that marks him as a special
artist.
No less extraordinary was the Italian born pianist Francesco
Libetta. Libetta has pianistic power to spare, but his pianissimos
are ravishing to the ear. Ravel's "La Valse " often emerges
in performance as a somewhat shallow virtuoso showpiece. In
Libetta's hands it became a gem of impressionistic painting.
His beautiful tonal palette, rhythmic verve, and musical taste
produced a memorable performance. In one's imagination, you
could see elegant dancers swirling around Libetta's piano
- so vivid was the music making. Libetta's lightness of touch
made Cecile Chaminade's "Les Sylvains" a delight . Leopold
Gowdowsky's rarely heard transcription of Saint-Saens's "Le
Cygne" ("The Swan") was all flowing elegance through an ornamented
scrim. It was like Debussy rewriting Saint Saens. A pianistic
version of the "Blue Bird Pas De Deux" from Tchaikovsky's
"The Sleeping Beauty" had balletic sweep and virtuoso brilliance.
Libetta played the Hungarian flavored "Passpied" by Delibes
with wit as well as fiery abandon.
Francesco Libetta is a uniquely gifted artist. Everything
he plays has the strong imprint of a creative musical personality.
I look forward to hearing him perform with orchestra in the
concerto repertoire.
His recent Ft. Lauderdale performance of Mozart's "Piano
Concerto in C Major", K 467 had a light as a feather elegance
and grace.
When Libetta and Itin joined forces for the "Suite No. 1
- Fantasie Tableaux for Two Pianos", Opus 5 by Rachmaninoff,
the music making was unforgettable. While there was plenty
of dazzling virtuosity in the performance, Libetta and Itin
brought real depth and insight to Rachmaninoff's music.
The opening "Barcarolle" had a wonderful sense of ebb and
flow. "A Night of Love" was a rapturous outpouring of keyboard
passion. "Tears" was played with drama and eloquence. The
concluding evocation of Russian Easter, with its depiction
of ringing bells and Russian Orthodox chants was exhilarating.
Libetta and Itin's performance matched the greatness of the
music.
This program of miniatures was as satisfying as a concert
of larger scaled works due to the artistry of two superb pianists.
The poetry and enthusiasm of Libetta and Itin's playing throughout
the concert made the evening a celebration of the creative
spirit.
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