Concert Review: Giant vs. Patriot

Garrick Ohlsson plays Liszt.

Piano reflections: Garrick Ohlsson.

On Sunday afternoon, piano lovers took a break from the NFL playoffs to see the piano giant Garrick Ohlsson do battle with the Hungarian patriot Franz Liszt at the 92nd St. Y. Mr. Ohlsson offered a program displaying stunning technique, split between familiar, but challenging works and serious examples of the composer's catalogue. 

Mr. Ohlsson is a formidibale artist who cemented his reputation recording the complete works of Liszt's friend Chopin. In turning to the flashier Liszt, he brings that same sense of sober, scholarly reconsideration to this music.

Liszt was the masters of the art of transcription, writing over 200 piano pieces adapted from orchestral music, songs, or other instruments. Fittingly, the concert opened with his piano version of Bach's Fantasia and Fugue in G minor.

This one of Bach's greatest organ works, a vast exploration of the cosmos through the complexity of figured bass. Mr. Ohlsson leant on his sustain pedal to create the ringing, overlapping sounds of Bach's organ. He then lifted his massive right foot for the fugue, playing with the delicate lines with a light touch that belied the complex sounds that blossomed forth as the work came to its climax.

Inspired by Schubert's Wanderer-Fantasie, Liszt's Sonata in B Minor revolutionized the form by condensing four movements into one.  Mr. Ohlsson used tremendous hand and wrist control to explore its complexities. The last two movements, a harrowing ride into the piano's minor-key bass register was followed by a slow elevation to the more "blessed" upper regions of the keyboard.

The second half of the concert featured four of Liszt's most compelling virtuoso pieces, displaying different aspects of both the soloist and instrument. As the recital progressed, it was clear that Mr. Ohlsson was presenting these four works as a kind of pastiche sonata, a mega-work for keyboard on a massive scale.

Les jeux d'eaux à la Villa d'Este is from the third book of Années de la pèlerinage, an expansion that Liszt wrote late in his life. It points the way towards Debussy and Ravel. Feux follets is fiendishly difficult, demanding fast, light playing from the soloist. The opening pages contain (among other things) the inspiration for the bells from Wagner's Parsifal.

This "mega-sonata" concluded with another devilishly challenging work, the Mephisto Waltz No. 1. Based on an episode from Nicholas Lenau's Faust, the Waltz recreates dancing villagers and the devil's fiddle from that legend. The staccato rhythms with great control, giving way to virtuoso runs that seemed to explode from the lid of the piano.

One encore was offered: the searching, inpressionistic Klavierstücke in A. These floating, fragmented melodies were played with restraint and beautiful tone. This rarely heard abstraction showed that even in his last years, Franz Liszt still pointed the way forward.

Opera Review: Swedish Salvation

The second cast takes over in Faust.

by Paul Pelkonen.

"You like me! You really like me!"
Malin Byström as Marguerite in Faust.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2011 The Metropolitan Opera.

The reason to hear Thursday night's performance of the Met's new Dez McAnuff production of Gounod's Faust was the house debut of Swedish soprano Malin Byström as Marguerite. 

As the opera's conflicted heroine, (central to this version of Goethe) Ms. Byström was not as dramatically mannered as her predecessor. She sang the role simply and honestly, soaring to some impressive heights in the Jewel Song and generating real angst in Act IV, when the pregnant Marguerite is tormented by the Devil and kills her own child.

Already established in Europe, Ms. Byström is an impressive singer with a secure technique and an interesting stage presence. There is great potential here. Should she rise to international fame, the Met might consider mounting Verdi rarity I Masnadieri for her. She has the very challenging soprano role (written for fellow Swede Jenny Lind) in her curriculum vitae.

Roberto Alagna's high-energy stage presence and fluid, easy French was a pleasure of the evening. Although the singer celebrated Faust's return to youth with a surprise cartwheel across the stage in the first act, it was vocal acrobatics that the audience wanted. Mr. Alagna showed his experience with this opera, (this is his third production of Faust at the Met) blending well with his old partner René Pape as Méphistophélès. His finest moment came in the Act III aria "Salut, demeure chaste et pure," which he delivered with supple tone and a smooth legato.

The tenor had a stage manager request the audience's indulgence in the pause between Act IV and V, claiming that he was ill and that he would attempt to finish. To be fair, he strained in the heavy orchestra in the (usually cut) Walpurgisnacht ballet. But he recovered for the final trio, helping to bring the prison scene to a thrilling climax. Mr. McAnuff's added last scene, where an aged Faust returns to the stage to drink poison (invalidating the whole opera) was played as a quick afterthought.

Mr. Pape continues to excel as Méphistophélès, the embodiment of well-dressed evil. Making his entry in a natty white suit, Mr. Pape toyed with the other singers and the audience. Once more, he rocked the Song of the Golden Calf. He would offer ironic commentary at one point, tear through an aria at another, and play to the house with gusto, as if letting the spectators in on the magnificence of his maleficent design.

Baritone Brian Mulligan gave a strong performance as Valentin, Marguerite's notoriously unforgiving brother. His burly stage presence and steady tone made this soldier an impressive figure, both in the famous "Avant de quitter ce lieux" and the Act IV duel with Faust. Mr. Alagna brought particular enthusiasm to this scene. He thoroughly enjoyed himself in the sword-fight. 

Mezzo-soprano Theodora Hanslowe, who inherited the role of Marthe after an onstage accident felled mezzo Wendy White, played along beautifully in the Act II quartet. Her interplay with Mr. Pape was a comic highlight of the performance. At one point, Marthe chased Mr. Pape across the back line of the stage, as if the Prince of Darkness would make a suitable date for Friday night. 

Also intact in this performance was the lyric, powerful conducting of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who has particular command over the big choruses that pepper this score. The Met chorus also gave a fine, lusty performance, as the Act II and IV soldiers. Later, they brought cosmic weight to the forces of good and evil as Goethe's drama plays out in the final act.