Born in the town of Othello, Washington, young pianist Stephen Beus performed a solo recital at the Simms Center for the Performing Arts on Sunday as the final regular season concert presented by Chamber Music Albuquerque. Recorded on the prestigious Harmonia Mundi label, Beus presented an intriguing afternoon of Preludes and Fugues coupled with Sonatas. 

Beus began his recital with Bach's great Prelude and Fugue for organ in a minor (BWV 543) transcribed for the piano by Franz Liszt. With complete command of the Steinway grand he rang great peals of sonority from the keyboard, almost as if to match the power of the work as it might be heard on the organ. The only drawback was the room itself. The Simms auditorium, while an excellent venue for chamber music, unfortunately and unfairly tends to muddy the loudest sounds of the piano, at least from close to the stage where I was seated.

The Mendelssohn Sonata with its generally quieter dynamics fared much better in that regard. This sonata is rarely heard though written around the same time as the Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream and the Octet—that is to say, when Mendelssohn was 16. While there are no melodies which standout strikingly, there is a sense of playfulness and impetuosity which Beus brought out naturally and effortlessly.

The second half of the program also contained a Prelude and Fugue and a Sonata, though from the 20th century. Like Bach, Shostakovich wrote a series of 24 Preludes and Fugues, one in each key, major and minor. The D minor offering is nearly the longest of the set as well as perhaps the most deeply moving. Near the middle of the fugue, the repeated note theme appeared first in an almost wistful mood, then built slowly and organically to a tour de force of counterpoint in blazing intensity.

Anyone silly enough to pigeon-hole Samuel Barber as a "neo-Romantic" need only be reminded of the Piano Sonata which embraces many of the most severe tendencies of the early 20th century. Yet as Beus has rightly said in providing his own program notes, "Barber always finds a way to incorporate singing lines." Even through the most dense harmonic language, Beus clearly finds the melody.

The middle movement might well be called surrealistic for its curious journey through a variety of bizarre musical landscapes. Beus succeeded marvelously in traversing the many unexpected twists and turns.

The finale of the work, which one can see Beus play on YouTube, became the crown jewel of the afternoon. He paused briefly before leaping into a wild hurricane of sound in this monstrously difficult 4-voiced fugue, executed with lightning fast, pounding strokes to the keyboard.

In completely contrast to the Barber, he performed a sweet, simple selection from Kabalevsky's Pieces for Children as an encore.

Your Name:

Your Email Address:

Rate this article:
Poor Great

Comment:

BOLD

"QUOTE"

UNDERLINE