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Prokofiev at His Hidden Best
An Almost SymphonyThursday, March 10, 2005
By Paul M. SomersNew Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Keri-Lynn Wilson (conductor); Gary Graffman (piano). Mendelssohn: Hebrides Overture ("Fingal's Cave"); Prokofiev: Piano Concerto no. 4 in B-flat (for left hand alone), op. 53; Brahms: Serenade no. 1 in D major, op. 11. bergenPAC, Englewood.
Let's have show of hands. Everyone who had heard of the Prokofiev Piano Concerto no. 4 before, hoist the digits. Okay, now, of you folks, everyone who has never actually heard it drop your hand. Finally, all of you who had heard it on the radio or a recording of some sort but have never heard it live, drop your hands, too.
The rest of you, perhaps what - five people? - why haven't you been demanding to hear the Prokofiev Fourth Piano Concerto again?
This writer will admit to being in the first lot to drop their hands: I only knew of the piece, period. It is another masterpiece by Prokofiev. All his identifiable turns of phrase and temporary shifts of *tonic are present. His lyricism is related to that in his masterful Symphony no. 5, and even with but one hand playing soloist Gary Graffman achieved an unexpected sonic grandeur.
One of the most amazing aspects is that Prokofiev actually asks for and Graffman delivered a *third-hand effect in some passages. But ownership of that kind of technical wizardry and know-how blended with musicality is why both Prokofiev and Graffman are who they are in the musical pantheon.
Graffman, who has for years been forced into the left-hand literature by a right-hand injury (he's beginning to do a few two-handed works again after years of only left hand), was impeccable, his mix of bravura and elegance as engaging as ever. He used music, and so turned the pages with his right hand, as well as at times using it as a leverage point, grasping the right edge of the piano while he let loose with his left. The dark joke was that "this was not an authentic performance practice" concert because Paul Wittgenstein, for whom it was composed, had lost his right arm in World War I and could not have done anything with his right hand.
Many people with both hands in working order play Wittgenstein's most famous commission, Ravel's Concerto for the Left Hand. Perhaps more of them should take up the Prokofiev Fourth. It is brilliant and gutsy writing as well as having some of the composer's greatest lyric moments.
Conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson and Graffman were on the same page, as it were, their ideas about the piece and Prokofiev in general clearly in synch.
The other major work was Brahms' Serenade no. 1 in D major. This early work finds the composer warming up for writing a symphony. Of course, for us in retrospect, it is a symphony, but neoclassicist Brahms would not have considered using that name for a six-movement work.
While this is the serenade with full strings, the winds are still quite prominent. Oboist Carolyn Pollak was at her finest, with her dark and solid tone as the instrument of very Brahmsian phrasing reminding this listener at times of no less than the legendary Lothar Koch. But no less wonderful was the clarinet duo of Karl Herman and Andrew Lamy with their matched sound and intonation so perfect that it disguises the amount of attention it takes for them to achieve it.
Wilson picked perfect *tempi and achieved a wide dynamic range which was used to stirring effect. The Scherzo was bold and edgy, especially for the horns and busy violas. But of course it was the final Rondo where the horns and flutist Kathleen Nester had their big moments.
The concert began with a dramatic and crisp reading of Mendelssohn's classic Hebrides Overture ("Fingal's Cave"). It was our first exposure during the evening to Wilson's vivid dynamic sense and her demand for crisp string passage work, elements which surfaced again and again throughout the concert. There is a reason that the piece is popular: it does what it sets out to do and does it with economy and imagination working in tandem. Well, that's not a bad definition of Mendelssohn's music in toto.
building.