Pianist Joseph Moog came to town yesterday
to make his debut with a highly unusual but always interesting programme. The
young artist has been making a name for himself for rediscovering rarities and
gems from the early 20th century, virtuosic transcriptions as well
as concerti by less-than-household names such as Scharwenka and Moszkoswki.
While there is nothing surprising for us to
hear Beethoven’s popular Sonata in C
Minor, Op. 13 (Pathétique), the work has been appearing less regularly in piano recitals,
mainly because artists have lately been gravitating toward the profundities of
the later sonatas. It is easy for us to forget what an original and startling
composition this sonata is – the extreme dynamic contrasts of the introduction,
the stormy 1st and 3rd movements, as well as the heavenly
slow movement, an early example of the “three-handed effect” (the right hand
having to play both melody and accompaniment) so favoured by later composers
(Chopin employs the exact same texture in his celebrated Etude in E Major, Op. 10, No. 3). While the work was extremely well
played, the artist seemed to have been somehow inhibited, as if he was
emotionally ambivalent about the music. I missed the contrast in sounds and
colours called for in the outer movements, and even the beautiful slow movement
was lacking in a sense of repose, of transcendence. One admires the pianism,
but there was a curious lack of conviction in the music.
I had the same impression in Moog’s
performance of Liszt’s Réminiscences de
Norma. I admired the craft of piano playing in his performance, for it was extremely
well played, but there was missing a sense of fun, of joy, of élan.
One almost never finds Chopin’s Sonata No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 4 in
recital programmes. I had heard it once before in a recital by Lilya
Zilberstein. It is a work that has much beauty and originality. What is missing
is a sense of organic unity so evident in the later works of Chopin. It is
remarkable that the composer’s Op. 6 and 7 Mazurkas,
the Op. 9 Nocturnes, and the
groundbreaking Op. 10 Etudes, are so
far ahead of this sonata, in terms of both compositional skills and
originality. Still, we must be grateful to Joseph Moog for performing this
rarely heard work for us. I thought that his playing of the Larghetto movement, remarkable for its
5/4 time signature, was especially beautiful, the kind of beauty missing in the
slow movement of the Beethoven.
Gabriel Fauré’s elusive Theme and
Variations in C-sharp Minor, Op. 73, is also a rarity in piano recitals,
probably partly because of its extreme difficulty and an inner beauty that is
difficult to convey. It made perfect sense, as the pianist told us after his
recital, to combine Chopin and Fauré in the same
programme, for Fauré really is a spiritual
descendent of Chopin. In spite of the pianist’s skill in navigating the many
difficulties of the work, one misses the glow, the aforementioned inner beauty,
of this music.
The recital ended with a blistering
performance of Anton Rubinstein’s Fantasy on Hungarian Melodies, arranged by
the pianist himself. Once again, I had the impression that the playing was
incredible, but, as in the Liszt, there was missing a sense of élan, flamboyance,
and flair.
Incredibly, all the things that were
missing in the “planned” part of the recital, I found in the two encores - a
transcription by 19th century virtuoso Carl Tausig of Scarlatti’s Sonata in D Minor, as well as a
transcription of Charles Trenet's En Avril, a Paris by Bulgarian-French pianist Alexis Weissenberg. In these little gems, the
pianist, to me, came alive, and was completely in his element. What was missing
in the Liszt and Rubinstein, were there, in spades, in these two performances. There
was also a charm, and a sense of joy in the playing of these two miniatures.
The Vancouver Recital Society website
quoted a statement from the Denver Post, saying that, “This is a pianist with
all the ingredients for a significant career.” Playing a solo recital is an act
of courage that should be applauded. Joseph Moog does have a great deal of
talent, and he is still at the beginning of his journey of discovering both the
music and himself as a musician. I would like to hear this young pianist again
in a few years, to see what time and experience would do for his music-making.
