Date: Thurs, June 1, 2006

Pianist Frederic Chiu in Recital

By David Beech

Vindicating his choice of a program consisting entirely of transcriptions, Frederic Chiu treated an appreciative audience to some powerfully musical playing at Le Petit Trianon, San Jose on May 14, 2006. There were touches of genius at times, in the service of conveying the genius of the composer, with exemplary clarity and phrasing of the musical ideas, and characterization of changing moods. Another strong positive on behalf of the composer's intentions was the fine rhythmic drive and suppleness, without any distortion to circumvent technical difficulties.

Sometimes the musical thought was needlessly underlined, as in the first of three Bach-Busoni Chorale Preludes, “Nun Kom, der Heiden Heiland”, where the chorale line was too loud and hard for the encouragingly gentle introduction and accompaniment. The second of the set, “Nun Freut euch, liebe Christen”, was an immediate contrast, with dazzling running accompaniments and a delightful quiet section which proved this to be an effective transcription by Busoni for the modern piano, although the theme and climax seemed again too loud. It was in the lovable “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme” that Chiu gave us a more balanced tenor chorale with an effortlessly flowing counter-melody, even where it has a tricky interaction with the chorale melody, and it must be Busoni's fault that the ending of this piece always comes as a slight anti-climax.

The five Liszt transcriptions from Schubert's Schwanengesang were highly successful, being not only tasteful, but going beyond this to convey the transcriber's and the pianist's reverence for Schubert. In Liebesbotschaft (Love's message), the fluid rippling of the brook underlaid the lovely melody, the serenity disturbed only by brief modulations as the beloved perhaps received the message carried downstream. The staccato clop-clop of the horse's hooves came across beautifully as the hero rode out of town in Abschied (Farewell), putting a brave face on leaving behind the friendly girls at the window. Hand-crossing decorations and triplets illustrated his excitement before his emotional confusion found its way into remote keys and a soft ending. The familiar Ständchen (Serenade) was played slowly, with subtlety in the accompaniment and melody, and excellent echoes. The most somber drama came in In der Ferne (Far away) with its light arpeggio decorations and threatening tremolos leading to a warm melody and modulations through the moods of the broken-hearted exile, before the sad chromatic descent in the bass and abrupt close. To complete this well-balanced group, Chiu played the transcription of Schubert's last song, Die Taubenpost (Pigeon Post), with an engaging innocence and warmth.

Known for his complete recording of Prokofiev's solo piano works, Frederic Chiu has carried his enthusiasm for the composer further in making a piano transcription of the orchestral suite that Prokofiev derived from his film score for the comedy "Lieutenant Kije". Chiu played three movements on this occasion, moving up to his orchestral palette with many striking effects, if a little heavy-handed at times. The Romance had a rustic character, reminiscent of Moussorgsky's plodding ox-cart, with a vivid duet between the heavy masculine character and the flirtatious female. The sonorous E flat chords announcing Kije's Wedding alternated with a jaunty tune over a staccato accompaniment, veering into wild modulations that Schubert would have found indecorous. The Troika ride rounded off the selection in fine style, with rushing scales and sleigh-bells a-plenty.

Although one might have been forgiven for anticipating a keyboard performance of Beethoven's 5th Symphony with some apprehension, this turned out to be the kind of revelatory experience that one should have at least once in a lifetime. By way of introduction, Chiu described how he first performed the Liszt transcription at the invitation of Leonard Slatkin, who thereafter conducted the orchestral original — whereas Liszt used to insist on playing his transcription after the orchestra's (and Beethoven's) best efforts! The work got off to an auspicious start, with Chiu finding a rich octave tone for the motto theme, and crystal clarity for the ensuing development which made it more incisive and cerebral than an orchestra could easily achieve (unless drilled by Toscanini). There was fine rhythmic control of long paragraphs, and expressive variety ranging through magical pp, lovely pairs of notes echoed in the bass, and remarkable simulation of sustained sfp notes, all contributing to a compelling presentation of the drama and argument of this great movement. The slow movement began with gorgeous warmth in the melody over a gruff bass accompaniment, and the inspired range of Beethoven's variations was fully apparent. Only the single-note upward octave leaps suffered from lack of the different instrumental colors of the orchestra. The scherzo went well, and the trio had a punch to it that would throw down the gauntlet to an orchestra. Hearing several little scales in the repeat of the scherzo raised for me a more general question (so far unanswered) — were all of these details that came through so clearly on the piano already in the orchestral score, or how many of them were Liszt's "improvements"? Rumblings of the motto rhythm led into the heroic and rapid finale, delivered with both rhythmic vitality and suppleness of phrase despite extreme demands of keyboard virtuosity. The left-hand crossover decorations were perfectly timed, and as the volume increased to orchestral proportions, my assessment was that the sound had reached the maximum acceptable level, without quite exceeding it. Likewise, the heavy pedaling generally stayed short of becoming over-pedaling, skillfully sustaining consonances without much blurring, and it was easy to believe that this was the grand manner of the late nineteenth century as Liszt intended. The trills in the coda sounded like anticipations of late Beethoven piano sonatas, or (from Liszt's point of view) the application of a little hindsight, and the final simple peroration was played to perfection, leading to a tumultuous ovation for a performance that had measured up to one of the ultimate challenges of transcription — not only communicating the stature of an orchestral masterpiece, but shedding new light on it. Of course, when Liszt was taking his transcriptions on tour, long before there was a recording industry, he was providing many of his listeners with rare opportunities to hear the works in any form whatever, and it was interesting to find confirmation in Chiu's recital that good transcriptions have their own artistic merit, and even be instructive in a different way.

Even though Chiu was recalled many times by the audience, everyone understood that he was too exhausted to offer an encore, so we might end by just imagining him playing another Liszt transcription, of Schumann's song Widmung, as one more act of homage.