Living stories

Another pianist, this one a world star: Garrick Ohlsson.  It was during this concert that I realised I hadn't heard much solo piano recently; piano yes, perhaps in a concerto or trio or in jazz, but not solo classical.  To hear a master like this was a revelation.  He's a big man, so a decent grand piano doesn't seem so large and the stool seems small.  His knees only just seem to fit under the piano.  I guess his hands are large, too, which often seems a great advantage to a musician.  Certainly, I note big strong hands suits double bassists.  Then his interpretation: delicate, hugely varied dynamics and phrasings and great flexibility in tempo and delays and pauses and commas throughout.  I described it as "telling a story"; a pianist friends spoke of colour.  For there was immense interpretation here, every line, every phrase considered over much practice.  He played a 10-page original composition commissioned for this tour, Thomas Misson Convocations, and introduced it with admiration.  Interestingly, he said he's spent more time on this over the last 3 months than the rest of the program.  Even so he was reading.  It says something about how much input was granted to the rest of the memorised, complex pieces before that.  Practice makes perfect, even if aptitude is also required.  Otherwise, he played his program 1: Schubert impromptu, Liszt sonata Bmin, a series of shortish Scriabin pieces and a Chopin Nocturne as encore.  The Liszt was a star piece and I am told is Liszt's best or near to.  My pianist friend said he'd looked at it and decided to refrain.  Whatever, he didn't make anything look easy, but he did make it all look well considered and deeply imbibed and scarily well performed.  This was really an eye opener to this admirer of local ambition.  It's a big world out there and Garrick and a string of Musica Viva performers bring some to us.

Garrick Ohlsson (piano) performed at Llewellyn Hall for Musica Viva.

This is CJBlog post no. 2,650