Chopin, Piano Concerto in E minor, Op. 11
Pianist Garrick Ohlsson played lyrically, expressively and with a singing tone on an historic Erard piano dating from around 1860, with the Orchestra of the 18th Century, conducted by Grzegorz Nowak.
Historic piano performances are a major, but not exclusive, part of the Chopin and His Europe festival and a favourite inclusion of festival artistic director, Stanislaw Leszczynski.
Mr Ohlsson's vast experience on the concert platform was evident tonight as he extracted all available nuance and tone colour from the aged and frail old Erard, a process of nursing it along, treating it with respect and judging how much force and power can be applied before it struggles and complains. This was the difference between an intelligent master at work and a young Lion, who treats the old instruments as if they were a modern instrument, thrashing and bashing about only to produce a distorted, blurred auditory mess.
In addition, one major premise of the Orchestra of the 18th Century is that they too choose to perform on historic instruments. Now, this is not unusual when it comes to string players. Many fine old instruments are in use amongst the violins, violas, cellos and double basses in many of the world's great orchestras, however authentic period instrument orchestras like this one, extent that to the woodwind, brass and even percussion sections as well. As a consequence, they usually tune to an historic pitch, in this case A430. The Erard piano was tuned likewise which suits the period from whence it was made and therefore the lower string tensions match the structural capabilities of the cast iron frame and sound board.
There were in this performance some odd tuning irregularities at times from the orchestra, mostly due to the valveless horns seemingly having difficulty matching the pitch of the piano. Also the historic oboes were at odds with the tempered scale in use for the piano, something that should be easy to sort out, as the music is written almost 100 years after Sebastian Bach released his Well Tempered Klavier - a series of 48 preludes and fugues designed to prove that music can sound pleasing in any key, in Bach’s case using one of the Well Temperaments, which is not equal temperament but relatively close. Anyway, it's not a complaint - just an observation.
The Polish audiences love Garrick Ohlsson. Deafening applause once again and a refusal to let him go without an encore, this time Chopin's Nocturne in E flat.
Antoni Magee
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