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say a lot has happened in his career since Piotr Anderszewski
made his debut appearance at the Miami International Piano
Festival would be as much of an understatement as saying that
Chopin wrote some nice music for piano.
In just four years the Polish-Hungarian pianist has moved
from young unknown to cult favorite and, lately, to high acclaim
as one of today's leading young keyboard artists. Now 34,
Anderszewski is routinely lauded for his intelligence, first-class
technique and taste as well as his discerning and somewhat
quirky approach to repertoire. Even as a relative newcomer
in 1999, he showed an idiosyncratic streak, coupling music
of Bach with works of Grieg and Szymanowski at his first Miami
recital.
Bach once again, along with Chopin, will be in the offing
Wednesday night when Anderszewski opens the Miami International
Piano Festival's Discovery Series at the Lincoln Theatre in
Miami Beach. This second and final leg of this year's festival
will present three other highly regarded pianists in recital
through Saturday, in addition to appearances by a trio of
young prodigies and several lectures.
At this point in his career, Anderszewski (pronounced ON-dur-SHEF-ski)
could have his pick of glitzy venues and famous European capitals.
Yet he remains loyal to the fledgling Miami festival and its
guiding light, Giselle Brodsky, returning this year for his
fourth appearance.
"She puts so much heart and effort into this,"
says Anderszewski, speaking from his home in Paris. "Classical
music is in trouble, with audiences getting smaller and smaller.
I think it's a very, very positive thing that she's trying
to make work, and I just want to support it."
Since his career was launched in 1991 with a celebrated performance
of Beethoven's Diabelli Variations at London's Wigmore Hall,
Anderszewski has earned raves for his concerts and recitals
as well as his recordings for the Virgin label. Bruno Monsaingeon's
stylish studio film of Anderszewski's Diabelli performance,
and the audio release on Virgin, presented one of the most
penetrating performances of Beethoven's epic variations ever
recorded. More recently his discs of Mozart concertos and
Bach Partitas on the same label have earned similar glowing
notices.
In that Bach recording, Anderszewski, while noting matters
of ornamentation and good period style, was not shy about
deploying the full resources of the modern Steinway. Unlike
some Bach purists who opt for a straitened rhythmic and dynamic
palette, Anderszewski prefers to bring out the expressive
potential of the music.
"I think you should not be ashamed to play Bach on the
modern piano," said Anderszewski. "You should use
the piano as an incredible means of expression, while still
being aware of the style and knowing that you just can't do
certain things."
The difficulty is to keep from veering into post-Baroque
anachronism, he says, to refrain from using the piano as he
would for Rachmaninoff or even Chopin. "I'm trying to
put all this information into one big pot and stir it well,
and hope that something very personal comes out. There's a
little bit of struggling, but it's a fascinating process."
For Anderszewski, it's a huge leap from the dance-inflected
rhythms of Bach's Partita No. 1 to Book II of The Well-Tempered
Clavier, excerpts of which will frame Wednesday's program.
The ingenuity, variety and spiritual depth of Bach's 48 preludes
and fugues, written in ascending keys, pose a challenge to
even the most penetrating of musicians. Anderszewski, who
is a fan of both Edwin Fischer and Glenn Gould -- opposite
poles of Bach style -- says that scaling this mountain is
the hardest task he has ever attempted.
"It's very, very different from the Partitas and it's
much more difficult for me," says the pianist. "With
the Partitas you have some kind of indication in that they're
dances, so you know there's a certain character that a dance
should have or shouldn't.
"But with The Well-Tempered Clavier, you are free, you
are so free," he says. "To take the B major fugue
for example: It can be an organ work, a liturgical work or
it can be a trumpet and drums, pompous kind of ceremonial
thing. I mean, this work is so amazing, you can characterize
it really so many ways. You have to decide, and that for me
is a very difficult thing."
Anderszewski employs a process of repeated interpretive trial
and error until he thinks he has captured the essence of each
prelude and fugue. He doesn't agonize over every single prelude
and fugue the same way; some are more straightforward in style
and easy to "get."
"But some are so complex and so abstract. In the 24th
Prelude and Fugue you really have to give it an interpretation
and meaning and `orchestrate' it. Otherwise you could just
go to your computer and do it and the counterpoint would be
clearer and it would be perfect. But, that's not what this
music is about.
"Of course your goal is to make it as polyphonically
pure and lovely and natural as possible. But you also want
to get the feeling too."
Chopin will also figure in Wednesday's program with performances
of the three Op.59 Mazurkas and the Polonaise, Op. 53. Yet
if Bach has been a consistent favorite in his program arsenal,
Anderszewski has performed Chopin much less frequently --
heresy for a Polish pianist.
"As a student I played Chopin more than any other composer,"
he says. "I adore Chopin."
But with reservations. "The music is sort of, shall
we say, too instrumental for my taste. Too much solely for
the piano. And this sometimes really does bother me."
Still, Anderszewski finds himself drawn continually back
to Chopin's music, a composer he regards as an enigma. "There's
such wonderful, inspiring, amazing things; it's spiritual
and delicate and powerful. I want to give it another try.
I'd like to play some more Chopin in the future."
Anderszewski also wants to explore music of composers who,
like Chopin, are more piano-directed in their writing -- a
sea change form his early focus on thorny avant-garde scores.
"For so many years I played abstract, freely intellectual
music, which demands so much control and practice and thinking.
Chopin may be a way of kind of unblocking another side of
me -- a more pianistic side."
Closest to his heart is music of Mozart, as was richly demonstrated
by Anderszewski's compelling performance of the Piano Concerto
No. 24 in C minor, which he conducted from the keyboard at
last year's festival.
"I much prefer to play Mozart than Beethoven,"
he says. "I am so in love with Mozart. More and more."
Anderszewski opts for leading a chamber orchestra as soloist
to dealing with a conductor in Mozart's concertos. "I
think it changes everything when you conduct from the keyboard.
It becomes more like chamber music and more like a real dialogue.
You can take care over details and can try to work on the
same phrasing." His Mozart preferences will be apparent
with his next release of the Piano Concertos Nos. 17 and 20.
Since winning the prestigious and lucrative Gilmore Award
a year ago, Anderszewski's peripatetic life of international
travel and concerts has not yet afforded much time for the
degree of reflection and relaxation he would like.
"I would like to have six months off without actually
having to learn anything, just have some time of your own,"
Anderszewski says wistfully. "I'd like to just practice
and have a chance to decide where you want to go with your
career, where you want to go with your life. That's my wish
at the moment."
Lawrence A. Johnson can be reached at ljohnson@sun-sentinel.com
or 954-356-4708.
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