The internationally celebrated Bay Area pianist Jon Nakamatsu made a welcome return visit to Le Petit Trianon, San Jose for the Steinway Society The Bay Area, filling the 360-seat hall on both Saturday, January 3 and Sunday, January 4, 2004. Although his first appearance in the hall years ago had seen him placed second in the Society's Young Artists' Competition, he went on, of course, to win the Gold Medal at the 1997 Van Cliburn competition with exceptional performances of classical, romantic and modern works. The concert under review found him in excellent form, with only a slight regret that there was no modern music in the program, which was limited to the period between about 1800 and 1860.
Nakamatsu has recently been advocating the sonatas of Joseph Wölfl (1773-1812), having recorded four of them, and he began his recital with the E major sonata, Op. 33 no.3. The opening Allegro sounded much like Clementi, with occasional flashes reminiscent of Haydn, and the interpretation, while very clean, sounded on the dry side. It was immediately noticeable that the familiar model B Steinway had been replaced by a full-sized 9 foot model D, and the openness of the sound came into its own in the short but charming Andante cantabile. Nakamatsu then took the final Rondo: allegretto at a brisk allegro, with strong rhythmic accents, a delightful pp interlude, and a nimble conclusion.
Moving on to early romanticism, we next heard Schumann's always enchanting Papillons, op. 2. The variety of mood and invention in such a precocious work continues to amaze this listener. Nakamatsu found more warmth of tone in the instrument for Schumann's cantabileú melodies, and missed none of the wit in the lively movements. After the return of the initial waltz tune with its rising scale as a counterpoint in the finale, and the sound of the clock striking six, the quiet ending was especially effective, with the last, long-awaited chord exquisitely balanced.
Mendelssohn was even more precocious a composer, so gifted that some of his pieces sound as though they came too easily to him. Yet at his best, he is breathtaking, and the F-sharp minor Fantasy op. 28 certainly falls into this category. Nakamatsu shaped the melodies with tonal subtlety, and began to weave delicate filigree decorations which grew into incandescent virtuosity. This was a fine performance and a fitting tribute to the stature of the work.
After the intermission, we learned more of the new piano, which turns out to be a permanent acquisition for Le Petit Trianon. The owner of the hall, Keith Watt, came to the platform and treated us to an engaging description of his purchase, twenty years earlier, of what was then a church whose congregation had dwindled to seven. He had been introduced to the minister as “someone who would buy almost anything”, but his initial reaction was that he did not need a church … until he spotted an old piano, which turned out to be a Starr, for which make he had a special affection. So he purchased the property, “at the highest price ever paid for a Starr”. Music-lovers in the Bay Area and further afield are much in the debt of Mr. Watt for this beautifully restored recital hall, now enhanced with an impressive new Steinway concert grand.
Brahms' F minor Sonata op.5 was an excellent choice for the closing work of the program, since it foreshadows the composer's massive piano concertos and really benefits from a large piano that can produce fortissimi without undue sense of strain. It is yet another example of a composer's precocity, and I remember being unaware of its existence until being completely bowled over by hearing it played by Myra Hess some fifty years ago. Jon Nakamatsu would have had the same effect on anyone in his audience hearing the work for the first time, for he had the measure of the fire and the grandeur and the gentleness of this highly original masterpiece. The opening flourishes were done with a nice lightening of the upper phrases, and the pp contrast ended with a delicious 9 foot bottom C. The tenor register of the piano came into its own later, and in the ensuing Andante there were lovely singing sounds in the alto and soprano registers. The Scherzo went well, with the smooth arpeggio at the start especially felicitous, and the fourth movement Intermezzo had beautifully articulated soft triplets. The wide range of moods in the magnificent finale was presented without any loss of structural grasp, and the climax with its brilliant running presto and huge final chords led to a deserved ovation.
In his encores, Mr. Nakamatsu continued to show his excellent musicianship, dexterity and delicacy, first in Liszt's transcription of Schumann's song "Widmung", and then in Schubert's E-flat Impromptu. Finally, we heard rousing performances of Chopin's A-flat Polonaise and Fantaisie-Impromptu.
