concert review: Garrick Ohlsson, piano

[calimac]

It was Ohlsson vs. the Oshman acoustics at this concert, and the results were something of a draw. Ohlsson wants to play with the most intensely subtle shades of color and tone, while Oshman's acoustics insist on turning everything into big bold splashes of primary crayons.

Ohlsson managed to get his point across in a few miniatures by the American impressionist Charles Tomlinson Griffes, but his Chopin (Opp. 31 and 49) was less successful. I've heard him play these pieces with melting beauty before, and was sorry to have it knocked out of the park this time.

As for the louder and noisier half of the program, Beethoven's Op. 28 sonata and Schubert's "Wanderer" Fantasy - the latter probably the noisiest of Schubert's piano music - forget it. Ohlsson lost the battle and the crayons ruled. I was particularly sorry at the absence of the soft stealthiness that ought to dominate Beethoven's Andante, one of my favorites of his slow movements.

This was the last Oshman concert of the season, and the first one ever, I think, featuring a performer I'd heard before, or even heard of.

Comments

[wild-irises.livejournal.com]

Wow, Garrick is still playing. I never knew him, but he went to my high school a few years before I did, and one of my closest high-school buddies was his best friend. Some decades ago, Dave Nee and I went to an Ohlsson concert and it turned out my friend was there, leading me to wonder if they were partners, but no, it was just a coincidence.

BTW, I know you're not a sports guy, but "knocked out of the park" is a compliment to a home run, not a criticism.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, Garrick Ohlsson is still around, and plays regularly. Going over my old LJ entries, this is the fourth time I've seen him in the last six years. He's gotten grayer, but the playing is still the same. But he is venerable by now. His program book bio begins with a reference to his having won the Chopin competition in 1970, and I was thinking how long ago that is now. That was about when I started attending concerts, and the time distance is the equivalent of hearing in 1970 a pianist who'd been around in 1927, which, come to think of it, I did (Rudolf Serkin).

It's interesting that Ohlsson should turn out to be the pianist for whom a friend cites a personal connection, because of something I've long noted about his person. When he's not at the keyboard, he walks and carries himself in a distinctive way that I've noticed in a lot of male SF fans but hardly anybody else. One would think it portended a rather heavy, galumphing style at the keyboard, but instead his style is notably gentle with delicate shadings.

I'm sure I used the wrong wording in the sports metaphor. Rather than baseball, I was probably thinking of golf.