Pianamerica! Part 2
A Festival of American Piano Music performed by the studio of Jennifer Hayghe
It's an interesting thing to walk out of your bedroom, meander down a path for 2 minutes, and suddenly find yourself inside a recital hall where extremely talent musicians perform for you (at no cost). As strange as it may be, that is what I did on Thursday at 6:35pm-- I got up and walked for two minutes into the Hockett Family Recital Hall in the Whalen Center for Music here at Ithaca College.
The concert in question-- a piano "festival" of sorts, lasted about an hour and a half, and consisted of five pianists each performing an individual performance of various classical arrangement or Opus', arranged in vaguely chronological order through history.
I'd like to go back to the first piece performed in the recital: Ramble on Love from Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier (1922).
The piece was delicate-- the Pianist who performed it, Jonathan Vogtle, used intricate ornamental touches throughout the piece. Overall, the biggest impact from his performance was the silence when he was not playing. Some of his runs could almost be described as a rambling of sorts, so the moments when he held back and instead released a mere touch of sound after several seconds of only reverberation were by far the most impactful. In many ways the title of the piece was beyond accurate for the way Jonathan performed it-- a delicate and emotional ramble on love.
The next excerpt to be performed was the Suite for Piano, Op. 13 (1978), a three movement piece composed by Robert Muczynski. The pianist, Melody Zimmerman, talked to us for a minute before she began playing to talk about what to expect for each of the three movements. The first movement was hyper with "in-your-face" clusters of notes causing confusion for myself and I'm sure most other listeners. The title of the first part was, aptly enough, "Festival." The second part, "Vision" was far more downtempo, containing much more space sonically speaking. There was a dreamy atmosphere and single note melody which never contained more than one note playing at a time. What really set this movement apart was the juxtaposition of staccato (short) and legato (elongated) notes which formed the foundation for the slow and abstract melody. The third and final movement, "Scherzo" was similar to Festival, except with less confusion and while containing fewer notes. The melody was also more structured, even though this part shared many other characteristics with it. There was an urgent pulse within the rhythm of this movement that seemed to urge me as a listener to complete some sort of action or decision. This feeling ended when the piece ended on an abrupt note.
The concert in question-- a piano "festival" of sorts, lasted about an hour and a half, and consisted of five pianists each performing an individual performance of various classical arrangement or Opus', arranged in vaguely chronological order through history.
I'd like to go back to the first piece performed in the recital: Ramble on Love from Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier (1922).
The piece was delicate-- the Pianist who performed it, Jonathan Vogtle, used intricate ornamental touches throughout the piece. Overall, the biggest impact from his performance was the silence when he was not playing. Some of his runs could almost be described as a rambling of sorts, so the moments when he held back and instead released a mere touch of sound after several seconds of only reverberation were by far the most impactful. In many ways the title of the piece was beyond accurate for the way Jonathan performed it-- a delicate and emotional ramble on love.
The next excerpt to be performed was the Suite for Piano, Op. 13 (1978), a three movement piece composed by Robert Muczynski. The pianist, Melody Zimmerman, talked to us for a minute before she began playing to talk about what to expect for each of the three movements. The first movement was hyper with "in-your-face" clusters of notes causing confusion for myself and I'm sure most other listeners. The title of the first part was, aptly enough, "Festival." The second part, "Vision" was far more downtempo, containing much more space sonically speaking. There was a dreamy atmosphere and single note melody which never contained more than one note playing at a time. What really set this movement apart was the juxtaposition of staccato (short) and legato (elongated) notes which formed the foundation for the slow and abstract melody. The third and final movement, "Scherzo" was similar to Festival, except with less confusion and while containing fewer notes. The melody was also more structured, even though this part shared many other characteristics with it. There was an urgent pulse within the rhythm of this movement that seemed to urge me as a listener to complete some sort of action or decision. This feeling ended when the piece ended on an abrupt note.
Jumping ahead to the fourth piece, "Toccata for Piano" (1979), performed by Jennifer Pham-- this was for me the most impressive and fascinating performance of the night. It began with a whirlwind of murky harmonies and then Jennifer actually stuck her hand into the piano to mute certain strings, allowing her to create a clicking/ tapping sound which seemed to replicate raindrops or footsteps in quick succession. She used silence to her advantage here, outputting quick bursts of staccato rhythm followed by several seconds of silent, letting the notes reverberate. As the piece began to draw to a close she began playing the piano in a way I had never seen before-- she stood up and began to bang on the innards of the piano creating pounding beat and using the strings in a guitar-like way. This part was frantic and almost aggressive-- she utilized almost every surface to create a sense of turmoil and even legitimate concern, before ending the piece.
Overall, the recital was phenomenal and I couldn't be happier that I went. There were many moments where my mind was opened by the diversity of sound and musical flexibility of the piano. I left the concert in a positive mood, and I will surely be back for another.
E
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