Inon Barnatan's Spectacular Recital at Peoples' Symphony Concerts

Tonight I attended the spectacular recital by Israeli-born, New York-based pianist Inon Barnatan at Peoples' Symphony Concerts, Washington Irving High School.  I had not heard of Barnatan prior to receiving the announcement of this concert, but a visit to his website filled me in nicely before the event.  Barnatan has studied with many fine teachers and has had concerto debuts with several leading orchestras in the U.S. and abroad.  He has one solo commercial recording to his credit so far, a Schubert disc (second set of Impromptus and the D960 Sonata) that was for sale at intermission.  I'm listening now as I write this, and the disc, although made several years ago, captures the same special quality that I heard tonight.

This special quality, which only the best pianist-musicians possess, is the ability to create an effect of spontaneity in their playing even thought it is clear that what they are doing has been very well thought-out and rehearsed.  When this is combined with an extraordinarily sensitive touch that creates the most beautiful piano tone I've heard in a long time, one has a fantastic musical experience in store.

Mr. Barnatan assembled a program centered on a very loose theme - the idea of some sort of "awareness of what lies beneath" in all the pieces, according to a footnote in the program.  I'm not sure I understand what he is getting at here, but I found it to be a program that cohered very nicely.

The first half began with Claude Debussy's Suite Bergamasque, an early piece not quite characteristic of the mature Debussy although it includes one of his most famous compositions: Clair de Lune.  Each movement of this 4-movement suite needs to be carefully characterized, and Barnatan did an excellent job of capturing the special quality of each.  From the very first notes, his beautiful tonal production swept me away and held me enraptured.  Even at extremes of dynamic range, the piano always sounded beautiful, the tone full and rounded.  His soft playing was exquisite, his loud playing full of well-contained power.

Debussy was followed by an arrangement by Ronald Stevenson of a piano fantasy using thematic material from Benjamin Britten's opera, Peter Grimes.  (I'm assuming it is composer-pianist Ronald Stevenson who was the composer here; the program just says "Arr. Stevenson" and there are no explanatory notes.)  This was hard to judge on first hearing.  It certainly held my attention with its dramatic contrasts of mood, but I would want more familiarity before saying much more about it.  The same goes for Darkness Visible by Thomas Adès, a brief piano fantasy that apparently provided the thematic inspiration for the entire recital program, as the pianist placed its title at the top of the program.  Both of these pieces showed that Mr. Barnatan has a flair for contemporary piano music, which is refreshing from a young pianist, as so many of them seem to want to concentrate on the same Chopin-Schumann standards.

He ended the first half with the solo version of Maurice Ravel's La Valse - a pardonable bit of exhibitionism.  This is an orchestrally-conceived piece and in one sense there is no reason to play it in a piano recital except to show off.  On the other hand, one does get a different dimension of the piece from hearing it in the relative "black and white" of the piano instead of the glittering sonic "colors" of Ravel's orchestration.  It was an exciting way to end the first half.

After intermission, with a complete change of place, we had Franz Schubert's Piano Sonata in A, D. 959.  This is a very strange piece, especially the second movement Andantino as played by Barnatan to emphasize the strangeness.  Nothing was smoothed over or stifled; instead, extremes of dynamics were faithfully produced, pauses were given their full length, and that air of spontaneity was especially effective in the dramatic moments of loud anguish in the Andantino.  The scherzo struck me as a bit rhythmically unmoored the first time through the opening statement, but gradually the rhythmic underpinnings came clear, and the repetition after the "trio" section made much more sense.  The final Allegretto was played with an extraordinary sense of joy by the pianist, with a bit of a smile in the sound as well as on his face.  This pianist is very adept at transmitting emotion through music.

The audience responded to all of this with great enthusiasm, earning two encores: Felix Mendelssohn's "Introduction & Rondo Capriccioso" and a fast sonata by Domenico Scarlatti with lots of impressive hand-crossings, to send the audience out on a high note.

I was eager to hear more, so purchased the CD at intermission, and am enjoying it now.  A visit on-line showed that there is also a violin sonata diskof Beethoven and Schubert, which I now have on order from cduniverse, which lists it as an import (Amazon hadn't heard of it), and there are downloads available through the pianist's website from various concert performances.  I hope there are more CDs to come, and I hope he will get to play with the New York Philharmonic some time soon.  This pianist is a treasure to be savored.  Add another triumphant discovery for Peoples' Symphony Concerts!

Comments

[Eileen]

I saw the concert tonight too, and I completely agree - he was wonderful. Came home and did a search on him and found your review - you work fast!