Pianist Arnaldo Cohen Mezmerizes Audience

Author: Richard Lawless

The 2002-2003 Middlebury College Performing Arts Series went out with a bang with Arnaldo Cohen's brilliant performance this past Friday at the Center for the Arts.
Entering the hall with a personable demeanor, Cohen took a few moments to collect his thoughts before commencing the evening's performance with Alberto Nepomuceno's "Air" from his "Suite Antigua, Op. 11." Nepomuceno's piece began with a slow, eloquent minor chord progression, which was quite different from the vigorous flourish with which many performers begin.
The change was a welcome one, though, setting a contemplative and emotional tone to the evening's repertoire. The melody of the piece was drenched in sorrow, descending into coarse low notes. The contrast of high and low notes rose to a climax accented with a trill, followed by a cautious denouement.
Succeeding Nepomuceno's piece was RadamÈs Gnattali's "Valsa No. 7." Though short in length, the piece spoke volumes with its dissonant, sudden bursts of notes and glistening textures. LuÌz Levy's "Valsa No. 4" followed, beginning with a beautiful minor chord progression, reminiscent of a glassy lake.
An allegro section was marked with vibrant dual scales and concluded with a major cadence. A resurgence of the main theme reinforced the romantic and emotional nature of the piece, ending with a forceful, punctuated major chord. After a brief pause for much-deserved applause, Cohen launched into Ernesto Nazareth's "Odeon." The piece began in a sprightly allegro tempo and was remarkably rhythmic in nature.
Cohen leaned in close to the piano at points, his body swaying with the playful, bouncy feel of the piece. The pianist's left hand carried the melody, while the right hand played third. Though the piece sped up and slowed down frequently, the tempo never dropped below allegro.
The second movement began with a lightning-fast trickle of high keys and took advantage of dynamics, swelling in volume as the section drew to a close.
The playful rhythms re-emerged in the third movement, this time being doubled in speed. At this point, Cohen's dexterity and skill was evident, and the audience could barely withhold its applause until the piece's explosive conclusion.
The next piece of the evening was "Apanhei-te, Cavaquinho," also written by Ernesto Nazareth. Beginning with an ominous stomping of lower notes, which contrasted highly with the high notes at the end of the previous piece, Cohen lurched around the piano, pounding keys left and right. There almost seemed to be a war of sorts between the upper and lower notes on the piano here, as Cohen alternated between them so frequently and with such force. The second movement was much slower and subdued than the first, consisting of unusual minor and diminished chords on the lower half of the piano.
The section eventually built up with a flourish to a thunderous passage punctuated by accented major chords. The third movement was quite memorable, contrasting an upper-key marching melody with lower-key rumbling.
As the section continued, the left hand began to undermine and eventually overpower the marching theme, leading to a sheet of dissonance emanating from the piano. This section was revisited later on in the piece, leading to the ending, which was constructed of long pauses interspersed with quiet, minor chords. One of the many highlights of the evening was Cohen's selection of two pieces by Franz Liszt: "Funerailles" and "Spanish Rhapsody."
The pianist sounded like he was plucking rather than hitting the strings, as he effortlessly glided through major and minor arpeggios of "Funerailles," which soon led to the crashing successions of chords of "Spanish Rhapsody."
As the latter piece drew to a close, Cohen's hands were blurred with feverish activity. The triumphant conclusion led to a rapturous applause from the audience. After intermission, Cohen began his final scheduled piece of the evening, FrÈdÈric Chopin's "Twenty-Four Preludes, Op. 28." Each prelude began in a different key, with Prelude No. 1 commencing in C Major.
The second prelude, in A minor, simultaneously combined major and minor chords, creating a most unusual sound. Starting in G major, the third prelude was sunny and bright with its allegro tempo, while the fourth, in E minor, was strongly introspective.
The short fifth prelude was followed by the ghostly sixth, in B minor. The 11th prelude, in B major, had a graceful, flowing feel, complemented by a sweet melody. A sustained note juxtaposed to changing lower-register chords characterized the highly memorable fifteenth prelude, which was in D-flat major.
Cohen took a brief pause after this prelude and suddenly exploded into a furious minor chord workout of the 16th prelude in B-flat minor.
The piece drew to a close with forceful runs up and down the piano in the 24th prelude, in D minor.
A climactic descent down the piano concluded the piece, as Cohen pounded the lowest note of the piano repeatedly to mark the end of an utterly amazing and evocative performance. Cohen treated the audience to a brief encore, playing the first movement of a Sonata in F Major by Haydn.
The piece was light and enjoyable, marking a departure from the heavy and complex repertoire of the evening - a fitting way to ground the audience from the stunning beauty of his mesmerizing skill.