Pianist Peter Serkin Captivates and Surprises
“Peter Serkin made us work hard this afternoon - and it was worth it,” audience member Peter Alexander commented as he left Merrill Auditorium yesterday afternoon.
Like Mr. Alexander, I too was challenged, surprised, and captivated. Throughout I remained in awe of Serkin’s style – the way he approached (sometimes attacked) each piece as its own gem. I am fortunate to have attended the Ovations Offstage lecture with Dr. Elliott Schwartz, whose insights helped knit together the perspectives of the various composers, their works on the program, and the curatorial underpinning that is uniquely Serkin’s. When a concertgoer commented to Mr. Serkin after the recital about the emotion he delivered in his performance, he simply stated, “That’s not me, it’s already in the music.” And they were speaking specifically to the Schoenberg pieces.
Mr. Serkin concluded the adventurous program with two encores: 1) Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in B-flat Major from the First Book of The Well Tempered Klavier and 2) Chopin’s Etude in G-flat, fOp. 25.
A program that includes unfamiliar and contemporary music is a perspective shared by other artists on this year’s chamber series. Brooklyn Rider—a string quartet of innovative musicians, who in addition to retaining a claim on traditional classical repertoire have worked on cross-cultural, cross-genre projects such as Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble – will again bring together the known and the unknown.
As I noted in yesterday’s program notes, one of the pieces Brooklyn Rider will perform is an original composition by ensemble member Colin Jacobsen that is directly inspired by the ensemble’s work with master of Persian music Kayhan Kalhor. That collaboration resulted in a recording, “Silent Night,” which Gramophone praised as “superbly conceived, organically evolved, and wonderfully rich.”
With that, I am pleased to share with you the program for Brooklyn Rider on Saturday, February 27, 2010:
Colin Jacobsen - Achilles’ Heel
Lydia’s Reflection
Second Bounce
Loveland
Shur Landing
Philip Glass - String Quartet #5
John Cage, arranged Justin Messina - In a Landscape
Claude Debussy - String Quartet in g minor, Op. #10
As we did with Peter Serkin we will post the Brooklyn Rider program notes - in this case with contributions by the ensemble - to the Ovations website as soon as we have them. We hope these will help you chart your own course of discovery.
Peter Alexander says:
Thank you, Irv. Your comments about concert etiquette are right on the mark. The hacking and coughing really was quite amazing—even more so because it seemed to stop BETWEEN pieces, only to pick up again with the opening notes of the next—but at least the offending cell phone had the courtesy to wait until the fading last note before chiming in, and only slightly off key. I was lucky enough to be seated close to the front and was captivated by the encores, not aware that people were leaving in the back of the hall. What a loss to them! The Bach Prelude & Fugue and final Chopin were like ice cream and cookies—familiar treats well worth waiting for to cap Serkin’s sometimes challenging but always masterful program. The enthusiastic standing ovation was well deserved. Thanks to Portland Ovations for bringing such a high quality program and world class performer to our community.
Jim Morgan says:
I am grateful to Peter Serkin for his revealing peformance of the Schoenberg Opus 25. I heard angst, humor and a bit of the roaring twenties.
Irv Williams says:
Peter Serkin’s concert was a wonderful way to start our subscription to Portland Ovations. It was indeed challenging and rewarding. We are indeed very lucky to have this world class pianist in our small city. That said, it would seem that Portland audiences are in dire need of a basic primer in concert attendance. One, if you have a cold by all means stay home and give your tickets to someone who is feeling better than you. The first 10 minutes of the concert was totally ruined by audience hacking, sneezing and coughing. Two, turn off your stupid stupid cellphones before you come in to the concert hall, or better yet, leave them in your car. It will not kill you to be out of touch for 90 minutes. Three, don’t exit during the encores. It is VERY rude to the artist and disruptive to the rest of us who applauded and had our enthusiasm gracefully acknowledged by Mr. Serkin not once, but twice. The extra 10 or 15 minutes will do wonderful things for your soul, and are way more important for you than whatever it is you are rudely rushing away to do.