Yet another excellent Young Artists Concert of the Steinway Society of the Bay Area took place on Sunday evening, April 23, 2006 at Le Petit Trianon, San Jose. The only pity was that the uniformly high standard of performance did not get the large audience it deserved. Perhaps the rather bland "Young Artists" designation has something to do with this — a more informative and enticing title for next year might be "Rising Stars".

In the first half of the concert we heard three of the 2005 prizewinners from the International Russian Music Piano Competition, which is held annually in this same hall. This is a competition that is going from strength to strength — this year's event, which will be held from June 1-11 and is open to the public, has accepted 112 entrants from 24 countries.

David Ko was the 2005 Junior winner. Now aged 13, he was born in Yokohama and for the last five years has been resident in San Francisco. He offered the last two movements of Prokofiev's 2nd Sonata in D minor, Op. 14. He impressed immediately with his relish for the harmonies in the Andante and his clear grasp of the structure of the movement, with a gradual crescendo to the first climax and a more dramatic one later, and a good change of coloration between these for the con tristezza section. His posture was neat and assured, with hand movements notable for their economy and precision, and he easily rose to the first challenge of playing lyrical Prokofiev, of making a lovely sound despite the dissonances. The second challenge, it seems to me, is that Prokofiev tends to write rather banal melodies that sound as though they are plodding along on the white notes, even when they are not, and here a little more magic was needed. The ensuing Vivace movement was delightfully quick and witty and rhythmical, with the transitions between 6/8 and 2/4 well managed, and the Moderato interlude sweetly played, before the return of the scherzando in heightened form, and the final occurrence of the big descending arpeggios to the loud D minor conclusion. This was a fine confident start to the program.

Next we heard Hotaik Sung, aged 16, who in addition to his first place in the Young Pianists' Beethoven Competition in 2005 took third prize in the Intermediate category of the International Russian Music Piano Competition. Hotaik's family is from South Korea, and he lives in San Jose. In this evening's concert, he began by distilling the lush harmonies of Liszt's Harmonies du Soir, the eleventh of the twelve Transcendental Etudes. Hotaik has supple movements and flexible wrists, and he conjured some lovely legato melodies from the instrument, with graceful spread chords as accompaniment. It seems for a while as though this is what the study is all about, but Liszt is not content with a peaceful evening, and soon moves from reflective D flat into very quietly heroic E major that leads to a soulful melody and soon to stormily heroic E major, before returning to the original mood and key, and a soft close with harp-like spread chords una corda. Hotaik carried us through these episodes with fine sonority, ranging from delicacy to brilliance.

Hotaik Sung then launched into an impassioned performance of Messiaen's Regard de l'Esprit de joie, the tenth of his twenty Regards sur l'enfant Jesus. The limits of the piano were frequently tested but never exceeded, with successive sections displaying ostinato, incisive dissonance, widely separated treble and bass, Chinese gong effects, sequences of consecutive harmonies, even an anticipation of boogie. This was highly promising playing of uncompromising music, showing great insight, conviction, and virtuosity.
 
The winner of the Advanced prize in 2005, Anastasia Dedik is now 25 years old and studying at Oberlin, having graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory two years ago. She began with Mikhail Pletnev’s superb transcription of three movements from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite, and the first of these, the Andante Maestoso, brought tears to the eyes. Tchaikovsky’s heart-warming melody was played with exactly the right inflexions and total absorption, while another pair of hands seemed to be playing the arpeggios running up and down the keyboard. The effect was almost orchestral, and later there were zipping scales to add to the excitement, before the subsidence to the quiet close, and a bottom G struck just heavily enough to blend into the resolution of the final chords. The Sugar Plum Fairy followed, as charming as ever, with some appropriately plummy staccato, followed by a vivid Trepak, again on an orchestral scale. This was highly accomplished and authentically Russian pianism.
 
Anastasia then treated us to a dazzling performance of Liszt's Mephisto Valse No. 1 always enjoyable, although something of a warhorse — it was played in the corresponding concert a year ago. As the demonic waltz got underway, and especially when it reached the rapid octave passages, it was interesting to observe a different hand position from those of the two previous pianists, with a preference for the high wrist and concave back of the hand. All of the positions seem to work, given enough practice! Anastasia made the most of the seductive D flat interlude, the rippling repeated note decorations, the temporary departure from waltz time, and the simple meditation before the dash to the grand climax and a deserved ovation. Let us hope to hear her play a longer program in the not too distant future.

To summarize: all of these pianists exhibited exemplary fingerwork, rhythm, interpretive gifts, power, and delicacy; but the overriding impression is that they all made fine sounds, even when loud and dissonant — the Trianon's model D Steinway has never sounded better.

After the intermission, we were treated to a longer program by the highly talented and experienced 20-year old Chinese pianist Jie Chen ? she entered the Shanghai Conservatory at age 8, the Curtis Institute at age 12, and at age 15 played Rachmaninov's second concerto with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Wolfgang Sawallisch. Despite her immense technical ability, it was the simplest piece in her program that seemed outstanding to this listener – Bach's familiar "Sheep May Safely Graze" in an exemplary arrangement by Egon Petri. The legato melody sang with great length and poise over the delicately flowing accompaniment.

In other works, the tone of the instrument in Chen's hands sounded rather hard and shallow compared to what we had heard in the first half of the concert. Beethoven's E major Sonata Op.109 began with a slightly mannered treatment of the recitative, but then brought out beautifully the flow of the melodic line between the hands (quite strongly arched in shape), with some good bass effects. The Scherzo was vigorous, if a little rough for brioso, and the trio section was well done as a gentle interlude. The great theme and variations of the finale got off to a rather ponderous start, with the theme lacking the legato and subtlety required by Beethoven's molto cantabile marking, but his lively invention in the variations fared better, leading to a fine climax with the decorative arpeggios and double trills. The quiet return of the theme was genuinely moving this time.

A notable virtue of Chen's playing was her rhythmic control, vividly exploiting the Spanish idiom of Triana, the sixth piece of Albeniz's Iberia, which also charmed with some delicate staccato. Finally, in Schulz-Evler's Concert Arabesques on Johann Strauss's Blue Danube Waltzes, we heard nineteenth-century rubato in the grand manner. The piece begins with light ripples that must be representing somewhere very near the source of the Danube, but soon arrives in the vicinity of Vienna as the lilting waltz gathers in strength, and Chen brought the work to a fine conclusion with all manner of brilliant decorations.