Just when you think you've heard them all, along comes a young pianist,
who makes you think you ain't heard nothing yet.

Stewart Goodyear, making his debut with the San Francisco Symphony
tonight, played the devilish Bartok Second Piano Concerto in a way I
had not thought possible.  The Toronto pianist not only tossed off this
killer piece, but he played the music sensitively, beautifully, not once
succumbing to the Machine Plays Piano shortcut when facing these impossible
demands.

He played without any histrionics - physical or musical - but approached
the instrument with palpable impatience to begin and his focus on the
music remained laser-like.  He became airborne with the last note, but
it was more built-up energy being released than showboating.  Throughout
the long concerto, Goodyear played to the orchestra (properly enough,
Bartok's concerti being true partnerships), not to the audience.

Goodyear's mastery of the opening Allegro's storm, his plain, unaffected
phrasing of notes floating over the orchestra's strange, muted passages
in the Adagio, and the untiring brilliance in the concluding movement
all amazed and dazzled.

Goodyear's syncopation was perfect: rhythmically and "ethnically"
authentic, but not overdone, as it so often happens.  The ethnic reference,
of course, is in comparison with Hungarian performances (Cziffra, Anda,
Schiff, Sandor and even, halfway, Watts) - I have not heard a performance
more authentic on that account than Goodyear's.

Paavo Jarvi (an increasingly scary Putin look-alike) conducted in
a superb partnership, and he was terrific leading Charles Coleman's
"Streetscape" and the Brahms Second Symphony, but more about that later.
The happy burden of this message - especially for those in the Bay Area,
Saturday and Sunday - is to seize the opportunity to hear a great new
virtuoso-musician.  If that cannot be done, check out the broadcast on
KDFC at 8 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 10:

Janos Gereben/SF
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