{"id":147332,"date":"2024-03-14T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-14T20:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/2024\/03\/a-pianist-his-preludes\/"},"modified":"2024-04-09T16:14:50","modified_gmt":"2024-04-09T20:14:50","slug":"a-pianist-his-preludes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/2024\/03\/a-pianist-his-preludes\/","title":{"rendered":"A pianist & his preludes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like others, I tend to repeat stories, but I figure it\u2019s okay if they\u2019re good ones. Let me quote a story I told in a September 2019 review<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

In the summer of 2012, I was driving from Ann Arbor, Michigan\u2014Ypsilanti, to be precise\u2014to Detroit Metro Airport (a short trip). I was listening to the CBC<\/span>, i.e., Canadian radio. On the air was a piano recital, devoted to Chopin. The playing was arresting: smart, clean, and beautiful. Who was the pianist? I was hoping I could find out before reaching the airport.<\/p>\n

It turned out to be someone unknown to me: Jan Lisiecki, a Canadian of Polish parentage. (This could explain the taste for Chopin.) And he was seventeen years old.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Today, he is twenty-eight (twenty-nine before the month is out). He played a recital in Carnegie Hall last night. He\u2019s tall and thin with a crop of curly blondish hair. He sometimes rises from the piano bench\u2014while playing, I mean\u2014for emphasis. He is a confident fellow, with much to be confident about.<\/p>\n

On the second half of his program, he played the Chopin Preludes, Op. 28\u2014all twenty-four of them. He began his program with a Chopin prelude, too: the one in D<\/small> flat, Op. 28, No. 15, nicknamed the \u201cRaindrop.\u201d So, he played it twice.<\/p>\n

What gave?<\/p>\n

The first half of his program comprised sixteen preludes, by various composers. So this was an all-prelude evening. And, for a reason known to him, he wanted to start with the \u201cRaindrop.\u201d He played the sixteen preludes in an order of his choosing. There must have been a method to his madness. The order was not chronological. In the third position, for example, was Bach\u2019s prelude in C<\/small> major from Book 1 of The Well-Tempered Clavier<\/i>\u2014and this prelude is arguably the father of all<\/i> preludes.<\/p>\n

Lisiecki played the sixteen first-half preludes one after the other, with no break\u2014as if they belonged to one another. As if they were a string. I was wondering why the recital was starting late: at 8:15. There was no opportunity for late seating. The hall must have wanted to give stragglers a break.<\/p>\n

Obviously, the idea of preludes means a lot to Mr. Lisiecki. For the evening\u2019s program booklet, he had written an eloquent, smart, charming note on the subject. But listen: the designation \u201cprelude\u201d is kind of random. You could call each one of those sixteen pieces something else and no one would be the wiser. No one would say, \u201cHey, wait a minute: that sounds like a prelude<\/i>!\u201d<\/p>\n

But people need their musicological crutches, apparently. What we heard on the first half of the program was a slew of great or good piano pieces. You can call them a ham sandwich. It makes no difference to me.<\/p>\n

Besides Chopin and Bach, Lisiecki\u2019s composers were Rachmaninoff, Messiaen, and two Poles (or two other Poles, I should say, bearing Chopin in mind): Szymanowski and G\u00f3recki. Lisiecki played selections from each man\u2019s Op. 1. (From Szymanowski\u2019s and G\u00f3recki\u2019s, I mean.) It was a pleasure to hear those pieces, so seldom heard.<\/p>\n

How did the young man play? I will not go through the preludes one by one, you\u2019ll be relieved to know. I will jot some generalities. Lisiecki is a mature pianist, full of poise. He knows his own mind. His playing is basically free of doubt. He is straightforward, attentive, and alert.<\/p>\n

I have my criticisms, as anyone would (including the pianist himself). Some passages could have been crisper. Other passages could have been less \u201cvertical,\u201d in my judgment\u2014glassier. The Messiaen pieces could have been more French.<\/p>\n

But these are cavils, and the important thing to say is that Jan Lisiecki is a pianist with excellent fingers and a wonderful musical heart.<\/p>\n

In the spirit of repeating myself, I will say what I often say when writing about the Chopin Preludes\u2014or what I often quote. The American music critic Henry Finck (1854\u20131926) said, \u201cIf all piano music in the world were to be destroyed, excepting one collection, my vote should be cast for Chopin\u2019s Preludes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, these preludes really do go together (although many can stand alone). While they are a set, each prelude has its own character. Jan Lisiecki was able to bring out the character of each one. He sometimes plays as if talking to you. (I should add that Chopin composes the same way.)<\/p>\n

The C<\/small>-sharp\u2013minor prelude has rapid downward passagework in the right hand. From Lisiecki, this was ghostly, almost shiver-making. The \u201cRaindrop,\u201d let me say, went better the second time (although it had gone plenty well the first time). (I was afraid he\u2019d play this piece a third time, as an encore.) The F<\/small>-major prelude was lapping, rippling. And the concluding prelude, in D<\/small> minor, was fantastically intense.<\/p>\n

Lisiecki did justice to Op. 28 (these preludes)\u2014an achievement.<\/p>\n

An additional prelude or five for an encore? He played one\u2014one piece, but not a prelude. First, let me quote from a review<\/a> of mine last week:<\/p>\n

\n

It\u2019s curious: Musicians spend their lives communicating sounds to an audience. And almost none of them can announce an encore clearly and audibly. If they\u2019re not going to do it right, they should forgo an announcement and simply play.<\/p>\n

(You know who did it right? Artur Rubinstein. He did practically everything right.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Jan Lisiecki was loud and clear\u2014for which he should win some kind of award. And he was commendable in his encore: Schumann\u2019s Romance in F<\/small> sharp. This is a gentle piece, songful. I thought Lisiecki would follow up with something a little flashier. But that was it.<\/p>\n

In young pianists, we are swimming. I have recently reviewed Bruce Liu, Yunchan Lim, Seong-Jin Cho, and still others. Alexander Malofeev is coming next week. We will never run out of young instrumentalists. Never. Will there be audiences for them? Let\u2019s worry about that another time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On a recital by Jan Lisiecki.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1258,"featured_media":147420,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_eb_attr":"","advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","wds_primary_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[472],"tags":[637,695],"dispatch-city":[3291],"acf":{"participants":{"simple_value_formatted":"","value_formatted":"","value":"","field":{"ID":0,"key":"field_65fb0bff29d65","label":"Participants","name":"participants","aria-label":"","prefix":"acf","type":"user","value":null,"menu_order":0,"instructions":"","required":0,"id":"","class":"","conditional_logic":0,"parent":"group_651c53615a3f7","wrapper":{"width":"","class":"","id":""},"role":"","return_format":"object","multiple":1,"allow_null":0,"bidirectional":0,"bidirectional_target":[],"_name":"participants","_valid":1}},"featured_image_credits":{"simple_value_formatted":"","value_formatted":"","value":"","field":{"ID":0,"key":"field_651c536113a8e","label":"Featured Image Credits","name":"featured_image_credits","aria-label":"","prefix":"acf","type":"wysiwyg","value":null,"menu_order":1,"instructions":"","required":0,"id":"","class":"","conditional_logic":0,"parent":"group_651c53615a3f7","wrapper":{"width":"","class":"","id":""},"default_value":"","tabs":"all","toolbar":"basic","media_upload":0,"delay":0,"_name":"featured_image_credits","_valid":1}},"enable_paywall":{"simple_value_formatted":"No","value_formatted":false,"value":"0","field":{"ID":0,"key":"field_66009169342f2","label":"Enable Paywall","name":"enable_paywall","aria-label":"","prefix":"acf","type":"true_false","value":null,"menu_order":2,"instructions":"","required":0,"id":"","class":"","conditional_logic":0,"parent":"group_651c53615a3f7","wrapper":{"width":"","class":"","id":""},"message":"","default_value":0,"ui":0,"ui_on_text":"","ui_off_text":"","_name":"enable_paywall","_valid":1}}},"author_meta":{"display_name":"Jay Nordlinger","author_link":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/author\/jay-nordlinger\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Lisiecki_cropped-300x157.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Lisiecki_cropped-scaled.jpg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Dispatch<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Dispatch<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["Music<\/a>","New York<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Music<\/span>","New York<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":0,"relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 2 months ago","modified":"Updated 1 month ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on March 14, 2024","modified":"Updated on April 9, 2024"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on March 14, 2024 4:00 pm","modified":"Updated on April 9, 2024 4:14 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"mfb_rest_fields":["author_meta","featured_img","jetpack_sharing_enabled","jetpack_featured_media_url","coauthors","tax_additional","comment_count","relative_dates","absolute_dates","absolute_dates_time","featured_img_caption","series_order","jetpack-related-posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147332"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1258"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147332"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":147419,"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147332\/revisions\/147419"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147332"},{"taxonomy":"dispatch-city","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/dispatch-city?post=147332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}