PIANIST HAOCHEN ZHANG IN RECITAL
Reviewed by Lyn Bronson
It was quite an event last night as Steinway Society the Bay Area continued its fifteenth season with a slam dunk, “knock ‘em dead” recital by recent Van Cliburn Gold Medal winner, nineteen-year-old pianist Haochen Zhang. Added to the aura of this exciting evening was hearing Zhang in a new venue, the superb new McAfee Center in Saratoga, and to top that off, we heard Zhang performing on a magnificent new Steinway concert grand, a gift to the Center from a generous donor.
Undoubtedly there were some in the audience who had heard Zhang’s winning performances live from the Van Cliburn Competition via webcast last June. If so, they were in for a surprise. At the competition Zhang at times seemed soberly serious and somewhat restrained, for even as he was delivering first rate performances, it always seemed as though there was a tiger inside him straining to be freed. Well, last night the tiger sprang forth with a freedom and abandon that was as powerful as it was astonishing.
During his performance of the opening work, the Chopin Twenty-four Preludes, Op. 28, Zhang’s playing ran the gamut from the beguiling straightforward tenderness of the A Major Prelude to the more brilliant virtuoso Preludes in B-flat Minor and D Minor. Occasionally, his youth showed, as he tortured the simple line of the E Minor Prelude or overplayed a few of the larger pieces in the Opus, but by any standard this was a remarkable and strong performance, and even more remarkable from one so young. Always we had the impression that Zhang is a thinking and feeling musician, who never “just plays notes,” but one who has a first class mind delving into the mysteries and intricacies of everything he plays.
This impression was confirmed in his performance of the Brahms Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Handel, Op. 24. After navigating his way through the theme and the earlier variations, his last several variations before the fugue were beautifully calculated to progressively ratchet up the tension as a setup for the best and most logical performance of the great fugue I have ever heard. Zhang controlled the pace and maintained a relentless tension and dramatic power throughout this fugue — and always, when you thought he couldn’t develop more power and expressiveness, over the top he went and gave us more. This was an outsized, “Titanic,” type of performance, and I felt exhausted by the time the piece reached its conclusion.
The recital ended with a performance of Liszt’s Spanish Rhapsody. This work can come across as a tasteless display of rampant virtuosity that overstays its welcome and becomes quite tedious. However, Zhang pulled it off and almost convinced us that it is a great piece. No passage was too difficult for him, and the more difficult it was, the easier he made it seem. I had the impression listening to Zhang’s performance, that this must have been the way Liszt himself might have played it in his prime. This was a dazzling and powerful performance, one I will never forget.
Receiving a rousing standing ovation, Zhang played two encores. The first, as announced from the stage was a piece based on Chinese folk melodies, and the second was Ondine from Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit. Once again, we heard some very masterful playing.
Special mention needs to be made about the McAfee Center’s fine new Steinway concert grand, which proved itself capable of delivering fabulous sound from ppp to ffff (and a lovely quality sound at that). Despite the very hard playing Zhang subjected this instrument to, there was not a unison anywhere drifting out of tune by the end of the concert — thanks to the fine concert tuning and prepping from master technician Peter Acronico.
