A Very Welcomed Return

What a stupendous performance it was!

 

Pianist Sorita Kyohei made a welcomed return to Vancouver, and played to a capacity audience at the Vancouver Playhouse this past Sunday.

 

The concert began on an intimate note, with Es ist ein ros’entsprugen, one of Brahms’ 11 Chorale Preludes, Op. 122, No. 8. The work is in the same sound world as all those wonderful piano pieces, from Op. 116 to 119 that Brahms wrote at the end of his life. With the first notes, Sorita drew us into this innigkeit sound world that is so evocative of the late Brahms idiom, giving the music its own truly beautiful “fifty shades of grey”.

 

From the very private sound world of late Brahms, Sorita then presented us with the composer’s Piano Sonata No. 3 in F minor, Op. 5, the last and arguably most popular of his monumental three sonatas. The artist identified completely with every aspect of Brahms’ enormous canvas, giving us playing of a truly grand scale, with a big, rich sound, and capturing the sweep and drama of this incredible work. 

 

In the second movement, inspired by the passionate lines of Otto Inkermann, or Sternau’s poem, Sorita’s playing brought out all the expressive beauties of the main theme, and he endowed the poco più lento (m. 37) section of the movement with special warmth and depth. The third movement, with his sweeping gestures and passionate outbursts, almost foreshadows the two Op. 79 Rhapsodies that would come from the composer’s pen later, was also perfectly captured by the pianist yesterday. Sorita’s pacing of the relatively brief fourth movement, indeed making the music here a perfect intermezzo between the two outer movements. He was in complete command of every musical as well as the inconsiderable technical demands of the final movement, with playing that captured our attention until the triumphant final chords, leaving the audience exhilarated but the piano limp, with much work for the piano technician to do during intermission. 

 

In September, Charles Richard-Hamelin gave a very fine performance of Chopin’s Four Scherzi. The truly incredible thing about great music is that another performer can come along and give us an entirely different and fresh interpretation of the exact same notes on the page, charging the music with new meaning. And that was exactly what transpired with Sorita’s performance. In the Scherzo in B minor, Op. 20, Sorita highlighted what Horowitz referred to as the demonic and angelic elements of the work. The outer sections were as dark, angry and brooding as the music demands, and in the middle section, the artist lavished upon the music all the tenderness and innocence of Lulajże, Jezuniu, or Sleep, Little Jesus, the Polish Christmas carol from which the melody was taken.

 

Under Sorita’s hands, I was reminded of how bold and original the oft-played Scherzo in B-flat minor, Op. 31 sounded. The beautiful melody, marked con anima, that first appeared in m. 65, was indeed filled with spirit. The more subdued A Major section was charged with meaning, and the many pregnant pauses filled with tension. The pacing throughout this work was impeccable. 

 

The pianist’s performance of the Scherzo in C-sharp minor, Op. 39, beautifully contrasted the light and darkness inherent throughout the music. I have rarely heard the cascading downward flutter of notes that appear so often sound so glittering and light, almost like a sprinkling of fresh powder snow. Sorita’s performance of the fiery coda took my breath away. 

 

Of the four scherzi, the Scherzo in E Major, Op. 54, is probably the only one that could aptly be thought of as a scherzo. Sorita’s performance of this, arguably the most technically and musically demanding, as well as the largest in scale, of the four, with nary a thought for its many hurdles. It was a towering performance that took the audience through the rapidly and frequently changing moods of the music. 

 

The cheering audience brought Sorita back to the stage for two encores. I was tremendously moved by his performance of Chopin’s Polonaise in A-flat Major, Op. 53, for the absolute “Polishness” of his playing. It was truly a performance that highlights not for its virtuosity, but one that truly embodies the heroism and pride of the Polish spirit. For his second encore, he gave a meltingly beautiful performance of Schumann-Liszt’s Widmung, the composer’s great love song for Clara. It was a performance filled with tenderness, passionate and ardour, a performance that touches the deepest recesses of the heart.

 

It has been two years since Sorita performed in Vancouver, and it was obviously that his art has deepened and matured. We must continue to keep our eyes and (especially) ears on this, probably one of today’s most original young musicians, an artist that truly has a unique voice of his own that needs to be heard by many.