Anderszewski Takes CFA Stage

Author: Christopher Lizotte

The last several Fridays at the Center for the Arts Concert Hall have featured pianists of international renown who have performed programs drawn from the works of composers as diverse as classicists like Hayden and post-modernists such as Milton Babbitt.
On Sunday, the trend continued with a performance by Hungarian-Polish pianist Piotr Anderszewski.
Performing a focused program drawn from Beethoven's "Diabelli Variations" and the works of Johan Sebastian Bach, Anderszewski brought a unique, if not universally pleasing, interpretation to these standard works.
Anderszewski, an internationally recognized concert pianist, first performed the "Diabelli Variations" at his first international performance in London in 1991.
These 33 short pieces are based on a short waltz theme, composed with the intention of inviting several then-contemporary composers to submit a variation on it. Instead of only one variation, Beethoven eventually submitted the collection performed in its entirety by Anderszewski.
This section of the performance, lasting over an hour, drew mixed post-concert comments from the audience.
While Anderszewski demonstrated a precise command of articulation and phrasing, there were times when his expressive style tended toward a rather severe dichotomy of either explosive blocks of sound or exaggerated gentleness.
To a certain extent, expressive shades of gray between these two extremes were abandoned in favor of a starker delineation in dynamic levels that was, perhaps, not the most appropriate interpretation for a piece of the Romantic era.
Some experienced pianists in the audience, for example, commented on what appeared to be an excessive use of the una corda pedal -- the soft pedal -- and a sometimes excessively forceful playing technique that was simply too loud.
On the other hand, it was exactly these aspects of his playing that seemed to give Anderszewski command of a whole orchestra of timbres and tonal colors. He appeared at times to be more of a conductor than a musician, directing instruments other than the piano in his explorations.
At times, the nuance necessary for the effective expression of the music suffered at the expense of the wide variety of sound Anderszewski employed.
On the whole, however, the first half of the performance was an enjoyable rendition of Beethoven's masterful suite.
Anderszewski's precise style seemed to lend itself more effectively to the second half of the program, which consisted of a collection of preludes and fugues from Bach's "The Well-Tempered Clavier" and "Partita No. 1 in B-flat Major."
Here Anderszewski effortlessly delivered on the complex counterpoint characteristic of much of Bach's music. Under his touch, the multiple interweaving voices seemed to multiply to an extent not possible with just two hands.
Interesting passages in the music, especially chromatic phrases that accentuated many of the pieces and especially the A-minor, were brought forth with impressive clarity, and Anderszewski's machine-like balance of sound and silence was nothing short of amazing, especially at the beginning of the prelude in B-flat minor.
The Partita flowed easily as well, as Anderszewski masterfully harnessed the rhythmic complexity of several instances of polyrhythm and painted an aural portrait that seemed to be more than the sum of its parts.
Building from the enthusiastic Praeludium, the climax of this piece was reached in the middle, during the Courante and Saraband as the period of the most harmonic and rhythmic tension.
From there the two Minuets brought the contour of the piece down to a level at which the short but effective Gigue brought the piece and the concert to a quiet, but dignified, close.