Garrick Ohlsson -- Chopin's birthday gift to San Francisco and vice versa

By Eman Isadiar

SAN FRANCISCO – Michael Tilson Thomas conducted the San Francisco Symphony last weekend inChopin's Piano Concerto No. 2 with pianist Garrick Ohlsson as part of a flurry of concerts held this year throughout the world to commemorate the composer's bicentennial birthday. The program also included the second movement of Litolff's Concerto symphonique No. 4 with Ohlsson as soloist, the orchestral suite from the ballet Giselle by Adam and Debussy's La mer.

Bay Area pianist and first American to win the Chopin competition Garrick Ohlsson Courtesy of San Francisco Symphony

The evening opened with the only movement of a single work by Henry Charles Litolff which seems to have endured as a concert piece – the Scherzo from his Concerto symphonique No. 4. in D minor. Without this movement, the world may well have forgotten the Franco-Scottish composer and virtuoso pianist to whom Liszt dedicated his own first piano concerto.

Bay Area pianist Garrick Ohlsson was the soloist.

As the title suggests, the Concerto symphonique elevates the orchestra's size and role as compared to a typical piano concerto. It is a charming work vaguely reminiscent of the music of Mendelssohn in its elf-like motifs. With the exception of a brief transitional section, the piano weaves in and out of the orchestra – non-stop from start to finish – with a repetitive theme featuring quiet, rapidly descending staccato mordents requiring great skill and control.

Then followed an unforgettable rendition of Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor, again with soloist Garrick Ohlsson, who also happens to be the first American ever to win the International Chopin Piano Competition 40 years ago.

Similar to Beethoven's second concerto, the work predates the composer's first concerto, but was published later and numbered counter to its chronology.

Chopin's unique brand of romantic classicism permeates this piece, with a fast and heroic first movement written in sonata allegro form, a slow, poetic and utterly enchanting second movement, and a fast folk dance-inspired third movement in rondo form.

Since the beginning of this historic anniversary year, audiences everywhere have been treated to the music of Chopin in concert halls big and small. Now that Garrick Ohlsson and Michael Tilson Thomas have shared the stage to honor the composer, the world can rest assured that Chopin's 200th birthday has indeed been celebrated.

Next on the program was music from the ballet Giselle by Chopin's Parisian contemporary Adolphe Adam. The work highlighted San Francisco Symphony's special flair for lavishly orchestrated and technically demanding romantic music. Apart from the conductor, the piece kept two orchestra members particularly busy – principal viola Jonathan Vinocour whose stunning solo passages pierced through the thick orchestration, and principal percussion Jack Van Geem whose precise striking of the triangle was simply brilliant as he switched back and forth among many other instruments.

The evening concluded with Debussy's three-movement symphonic work, or "three symphonic sketches" better known as La mer. Conducting from memory, Michael Tilson Thomas brought to focus the pronounced dynamics of the piece with wave after wave of symphonic sound gushing in a formidable musical deluge flowing from the tip of his baton.

Exaggerated climaxes such as we find in La mer are rare in the music of Debussy.

Paris, France figures prominently in the life of each and every composer whose work was included in the program.

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Eman Isadiar is a San Francisco-based pianist and music writer.

Pianist Adam Neiman Honors Chopin Bicentennial in Fremont

By Eman Isadiar

FREMONT, CA – It is unclear whether the legendary composer of the piano Frédéric François Chopin was born on February 22, 1810 or a week later on March 1. Fremont Symphony Orchestra presented the internationally acclaimed pianist Adam Neiman on the evening of Saturday, February 27—an approximate halfway point between Chopin's disputed birthdays—in a special recital dominated by the Polish composer's works. The performance also included music by Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, and Adam Neiman himself.

Fremont Symphony Orchestra presented pianist Adam Neiman in a special recital honoring Chopin’s 200th birthday (photo courtesy of Fremont Symphony Orchestra).

Neiman proved to be an especially gifted speaker, capable of communicating the musical highlights of each piece equally well to the average concertgoer as to the aficionado. His introductions from the stage primed the listener to follow particular musical details that may otherwise have gone unnoticed.

The first half of the concert was dedicated entirely to Chopin's music—short single pieces, which Neiman presented in pairs based on tonality and character without pause for applause.

The Prélude in C-sharp minor of opus 45 was the concert-opener, paired together with the Barcarolle in F-sharp major. Then followed the familiar Waltz in C-sharp minor of opus 64 and the highly energetic Waltz in A-flat major. The passionate Nocturne in C Minor of opus 48 was presented together with the lyrical Nocturne in F Major of opus 15. The F-minor Ballade of opus 52—Chopin's last—made a worthy conclusion to a program meant to honor the single most important composer of the piano in history.

While Adam Neiman showed remarkable clarity in outlining the musical contours, with carefully measured peaks and valleys, it was his delicate pianissimo that left the audience breathless on multiple occasions throughout the evening. He proved to have a special knack for mining melodic gems buried deep in the elusive middle voices. Neiman's approach to Chopin's counterpoint bears the unmistakable mark of an artist well-versed in the fugues of Bach.

Another significant quality in Neiman's playing was his ability to raise Chopin's smaller pieces, such as the C-sharp minor Waltz, to the same level of artistic merit as the larger works on the program, like the Barcarolle and the Ballade. The same degree of painstaking musical finesse was apparent in the miniature pieces as in the epic works.

The second half of the program included works by two diametrically opposed Russian contemporaries named Sergei—Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev. While Prokofiev sought to provoke and shock with his inventive harmonies and percussive rhythms, Rachmaninoff continued the work of composers in the preceding century and brought his own brand of extreme romanticism. Both drew brutal criticism during their lifetime, and both changed the course of piano writing forever. The Russian works were separated by Adam Neiman's 2004 composition titled Vision.

Rachamaninoff's Etudes tableaux numbers eight, two and one (the French title implies studies in tonal painting) offered a wide spectrum of the composer's style and temperament. They also demonstrated many more facets of Adam Neiman's playing, chief among them his exceptional singing tone.

Following Rachmaninoff, Adam Neiman presented his own work, which was apparently composed for a PBS documentary. Vision is a hypnotic piece with a repeating harmonic pattern laden with intricate finger work. Neiman made no secret of his affinity for the movie industry, and his ambition to pursue a secondary career composing for film. Judging by the sample included in the program, composition is also a highly promising career choice for Adam Neiman.

The program ended with Prokofiev's Sonata No. 2 of opus 14, which Neiman infused with an impressive array of emotions ranging from disdain to dread to triumph. Before playing the piece, Neiman divulged his imaginary mascot for the third movement—an old Tolstoyesque exile to Siberia with a long frozen beard, dragging a ball and chain. Whether or not Prokofiev had a similar image when composing this movement, the world shall never know. The music, however, was a perfect fit for the image.

Neiman reminded us that conjuring a visual image or a specific storyline for each piece is a valuable tool in communicating its musical ideas. Pianists of the world, take note!

The audience showed no hesitation in offering a heartfelt standing ovation, which Adam Neiman gracefully reciprocated with an encore—the Prélude in C from the first book of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier.

For generations, pianists have been taught to simulate the harpsichord when playing the music of Bach, with detached articulation and total avoidance of the pedal. Neiman, however, made no such attempt. Au contraire, he gave a highly “pianistic” interpretation, which was a refreshing break from tradition.

Having played a program of Chopin with the clarity of Bach, Adam Neiman now gave us a Bach with the sensitivity of Chopin. Clearly, here is an artist who does not merely play with flawless technique, but has taken complete ownership of the instrument—a quintessential pianist.

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Eman Isadiar teaches piano at the Peninsula Conservatory and writes about music in the San Francisco Bay Area.