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In addition to its tortuous name, the Miami International
Piano Festival of Discovery can sometimes be faulted for an
over-reliance on the same artists. But at least one barrier
was overcome this week with the recital of Mihaela Ursuleasa,
the first woman to perform in the festival's five-year history.
Expectations were high for Ursuleasa's concert Wednesday
night at the Lincoln Theatre, less for gender reasons than
on musical grounds. The 24-year-old Romanian did not disappoint.
In a generous and wide-ranging program, Ursuleasa displayed
a sterling technique matched by a striking expressive sensibility,
balancing passion and refinement.
She was especially inspired in music of her countryman George
Enesco. Known primarily for his once-omnipresent pops staple
the Romanian Rhapsody, Enesco wrote a great deal of fascinating
music, such as his Piano Sonata No. 3. The sonata offers pungent
coloring, flattened harmonic notes and quirky humor, presented
in some fiercely demanding piano writing.
The pianist show-ed herself fully in synch with her compatriot's
brand of East-European Romanticism. Ursuleasa tossed off the
witty coda of the first movement delightfully, and brought
a remarkable range of tonal coloring and nuanced expression
to the Andante's kaleidoscopic Impressionism. Bartok's more
bluntly rhythmic Romanian Dances, Op. 8, made a fine pairing,
Ursuleasa easily surmounting the knuckle-busting difficulties
of the relentless perpetual motion whirlwind.
The Romanian musician chose to dive in at the deep end, leading
off the evening with Schubert's Klavierstücke (Piano Pieces),
D.946. She handled the ebb and flow of Schubert's long-lined
structures with admirable control. If some of the transitions
seemed more dexterously signposted than seamlessly traversed,
she judged the expressive potential with fine feeling. The
idyll of the central Allegretto was phrased with supple tenderness,
and the concluding Allegro in C major thrown off with exhilarating
power and brilliance.
Yet it was Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 3 that received the
best playing of the evening. Ursuleasa held the sprawling
structure of the first movement together superbly, with a
flowing expressiveness that was never sentimentalized. The
rapid cascading notes of the scherzo were as impressive as
the finale's headlong abandon, delivered with virtusoic brilliance.
The pianist unfolded the long melodic lines of the Largo
with a fresh and natural eloquence and multi-hued tonal coloring.
In this familiar music, she brought a delicacy suffused with
quiet regret that was all the more moving for its restraint.
This was world-class Chopin playing.
An encore of Chopin's Nocturne in C minor was spun with a
gossamer softness, hushed and eloquent. Ursuleasa finished
the evening with Ravel's Alborada del Gracioso, as dazzling
and brilliant as the Chopin was interior and ruminative.
Lawrence A. Johnson can be reached at ljohnson@sun-sentinel.com
or 954-356-4708.
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