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A Concert Review
By Julie Stern
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THE NEWTOWN BEE, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2006
Soyeon Lee's Talent Was A Pleasant
Sunday Afternoon Treat
Listening to a lovely young woman produce lovely melodies and complex
harmonies from a piano with remarkable technique as well as a force and
vigor that belies her willowy build is a very pleasant way to spend a
Sunday afternoon. Thus Soyeon Lee's solo performance was a rich treat
for the people who attended the third in this season's Friends of Music
concert series on November 5.
Ms Lee began her performance with Joseph Haydn's Sonata in G Major, Hob.XVI:40.
Written in the 1780's specifically to be played by his patron, Prince
Esterhazy, this is a joyful, musically fluent piece whose success depends
upon the virtuosity of the pianist. We don't know what it sounded like
when the prince played it, but Sunday afternoon it was a sheer delight
to hear.
Next came Robert Schumann's spirited Carnaval, Opus 9. This is a highly
complex set of short pieces which taken together recreate a masked ball,
mixing real people including his wife, Clara, and his former girlfriend,
as well as famous musical figures such as Chopin and Paganini, together
with imaginary literary characters such as Pierrot, Harlequin, Florestan
and Eusebius, Pantalon and Colombine.
Beginning with the spirited preamble, the tempo switches back and forth
to a waltz, a flirtatious dalliance with butterflies, a somber and mysterious
middle, another waltz, and ending finally with a booming march celebrating
David's victory over the Philistines.
After the intermission, Ms Lee played two pieces by Alexander Scriabin.
The first, the deeply romantic Etude in C-sharp minor, Opus 2, #1 was
written when the composer was only 15 years old, and represented his idolization
of the Polish composer Frederic Chopin.
The second, his Fantasy in B minor, Opus 28, is still in the romantic
tradition, but it is clearly a more mature work, demonstrating by contrast
an intensely rhythmic style and more complicated harmonies.
Last on the program was La Valse by Maurice Ravel. Originally commissioned
in 1919 as a ballet for Sergei Diaghilev, it was never used for that purpose.
Instead it was played for concert audiences who were delighted (and have
been ever since) by what Ravel himself described as "Through whirling
clouds, waltzing couples may be faintly distinguished. The clouds begin
to scatter. An immense hall peopled with a whirling crowd is gradually
illuminated. The light bursts forth at the fortissimo: An imperial Court,
about 1855."
And that's exactly what was heard on Sunday.
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