I try never to miss a recital by Mitsuko Uchida.  I've always liked her
Mozart sonatas and it was she who got me to appreciate Schumann's Carnival,
which till I heard her play it, I always thought an overrated work.  And it
was also she who was able to make Schoenberg's solo piano pieces sing for
me.

Her program this evening was Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 2, Webern's
Variations, Op. 27, Mozart's Adagio in b minor, K. 540, and, after the
intermission, Schubert's Sonata in D, D.850.

The concert hall was filled, even the balcony seats on the side away from
the keyboard.  She entered the stage and before we realized that she had
seated herself at the piano, she had started on the Chopin.  As one who
doesn't play the piano, or any other instrument, I always feel hesitant
at presuming to describe what I like about a performance.  Let me just
say this Chopin was one of the most moving I remember hearing, live or
recorded.  The flow of the music, whether slowly paced single notes of
melodic line or rapidly played stampeding chords, the controlled variations
in dynamics and rhythms, the syncopations that insinuated themselves upon
the listener w/out being intrusively conspicuous, all kept me fixed upon
the pianist like one hypnotized.  After a while it was almost as if her
music was all I had ever heard or experienced, that it had never had a
beginning, and that time itself had been suspended...until it was over
and I felt I had been lifted out of a spell.

As she had on an earlier occasion eased me into Schoenberg, she had me
laughing silently as she played the Webern Variations.  With her fingers
over the keyboard, she seemed to be sneaking up on the keys, playing
"gotcha" with them as she struck one and pulled her hand back as though she
had gotten an electric shock, only to sneak up on another key.  Although
doubtless a much more difficult piece than the Chopin, at least to listen
to, I found it an emotional respite.

If the Webern was an emotional respite, the Mozart Adagio plunged us right
back into emotional turmoil.  It's a work I'd heard before but not often
enough for me to recognize, and the program notes describe it as one of
Mozart's least-known solo piano works.  After I returned home, I replayed
the work from my recently acquired set of Lili Kraus recordings.  W/ all
respect, it was like a different work, devoid of much of the emotional
impact I had heard earlier in the evening...and don't get me wrong, I
like Lili Kraus.  I think I now understand better the person who recently
remarked over the Internet that he found Uchida's Mozart (too?) Romantic.
IMO this Adagio, at least, needs a romantic presentation to be credible.
My friend attending the concert w/ me was literally in tears while she was
listening to this performance.

The Schubert Sonata, w/ its assertive, fanfare-like opening into which Ms.
Uchida launched after the intermission w/ the same lack of preliminaries
as she had at the beginning of the concert, and with the "Unter einem
Fliederbaum, da traeumt es sich so suess" ("Underneath a lilac tree one's
dreams are all so sweet") melody, apparently a variant of the theme from
the slow movement of the Rosamunde Quartet, in the last movement, played
now teasingly reticent, now w/ full vigor, concluded the regular program.
The audience rose to a rousing standing ovation in response to which Ms.
Uchida quickly played too encores back to back, not bothering to leave the
stage after the first to be called back to the second.  I could not
understand her as she announced them from the stage, as the applause was
still drowning her out, nor did I recognize them.  The first, short, piece
was according to someone else in the audience by Schoenberg, who also
confirmed my suspicion that the second, much longer piece was by Scriabin.
They too were gems, both of them, and of such fine water that a further
encore was unthinkable, and indeed, the house lights went on after their
conclusion.

Walter Meyer <[log in to unmask]>