Beethoven and Manzoni

Wednesday night's concert was part of a series conceived by renowned pianist Maurizio Pollini, entitled "Pollini Perspectives."  The program paired the world premiere of a work entitled Il rumore del tempo commissioned by the Lucerne Festival from Italian composer Giacomo Manzoni, with 3 sequentially composed Beethoven piano sonatas bookended by two well-known warhorses: the Waldstein Sonata and the Appassionatta.

Both were a huge success with the audience. Manzoni's work sets texts by Austrian and Russian writers to music sung by soprano (Anna Prohaska) and accompanied by spare instrumental writing -- almost commenting or highlighting points in the songs -- for clarinet, viola and percussion, with solo piano parts "bridging" the several songs. The music was simple and primeval. As I do not read Russian and barely read German, I will take the program notes' comment that the texts and resulting songs share a common theme of humanity's "impermanence in the face of eternal nature" at face value and obviously better informed than I can be. That description certainly semeed to fit the music that I heard. The audience received the work enthusiastically, calling the musicians back fot bows several times. As a result, Mr. Pollini called Mr. Manzoni, the composer, from the audience to the stage, where he received great applause. (If only all contemporary composers of merit could have such stellar performers and such a receptive audience!) We were surprised to see that he had been sitting just a few rows in front of us. Nearly 79 years old, with a kind face, Mr. Manzoni was clearly moved by the warm reception. Bravo, indeed.

Pollini is Pollini, and Beethoven is Beethoven, at least in his hands. He avoids inconsistent, random, or artificial changes of dynamics, tempo, rhythm, self-indulgence, etc. Suffice it to say that I would rather hear Pollini than, say, Lang Lang any day. He received the expected enthusiastic applause, many standing and more than a few bravos. I didn't feel like he shined a new light on anything, but that can be good or bad. A note that at least from my vantage point (main floor, front left where the sightline for the pianist's hands is ideal but the acoustics are not quite as good sometimes, as on the right side), the large hall served surprisingly well. However, it was pretty full and detail was often lost in homogeneous sound from our seats

[Tonight the schedule calls for two Beethoven symphonies with Daniel Barenboim conducting the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, the brainchild of Barenboim and Edward Said, bringing together yung musicians from Israel, Palestine and other Arab nations in an effort to foster "listening" as the building block for peace and understanding. It will be like attending a football game, as this concert sold out almost immediately when the tickets went on sale, and we ended up way back and way, way up in the fourth balcony. It should nonetheless be a great concert and undoubtedly, a moving and inspiring one].