REVIEW

Fantastic fantasies

A night to remember as Jorg Demus treats a Bangkok audience to an incomparable programme of piano music

TRETIP KAMOLSIRI

A diverse audience gave a very warm welcome to the celebrated Austrian pianist Jorg Demus, who proceeded to impress them with an extraordinary performance at the Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel, Bangkok.

Demus, now in his late seventies, grew up in a musical family, and has been performing around the world since his concert debut when he was 14.

His has played on over 350 LPs and CDs and appears on many video recordings. He also composes and writes about music, and collects historical keyboard instruments.

Businessmen, classical music enthusiasts, music teachers, students, Thais and foreigners alike joined the audience for this charity concert, Fantasies for Piano, organised by Mercedes-Benz in support of the charity projects of the Rotary Club of Bangkok. It was quite a festive atmosphere. While some of the audience was still struggling with Bangkok's infamous traffic, many were gathering and enjoying the sumptuous pre-performance buffet, ranging from foie gras, oysters, baked Munich ham and sushi, to Atlantic salmon and red duck curry.

After feasting, and guided by the helpful and courteous staff, the audience was led into the concert venue: The Grand Ballroom. The stage was set with a Steinway piano in the middle of the ballroom, with the audience seated around the stage in a square, almost like a salon in the past, where musicians would play surrounded by the audience.

There were two big screens on each side which provided a great opportunity for the audience to closely observe Demus' playing, which was of great benefit for the musicians in the audience. They were also used for a brief presentation of charitable projects of the Rotary Club of Bangkok.

The evening's programme featured piano pieces, all from the genre "fantasie", which can be broadly defined as instrumental pieces that ignore the conventions of the time and employ instead imaginative improvisation. It was a form that didn't develop and become associated with a free, rhapsodic style of writing until the 17th century. Demus played pieces that had been composed in different eras and styles, ranging from the baroque to the romantic. He started with Bach's Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in D minor, BWV 903, written around 1723.

While it has never been easy to organise classical concerts in the hotel's ballroom (the main problem being the sound system, which is always problematic and can make or break a performance), Demus none the less amazed the audience with his effortless, natural and well-balanced playing. His improvised passages were sonorous, featuring a variety of harmonic shifts and intensities. But because of the poor sound system, the complexity of the contrapuntal scoring in the fugue section and the contrast of tonal colours could not be fully appreciated. The overall sound was loud and muddled.

Happily, the two following pieces, Mozart's Fantasia in C minor No. 1 (K 396) and Fantasia in D minor (K 397) were delightful and stylish.

The first half of the programme concluded with one of the most popular of Beethoven's sonatas, Piano Sonata No. 14 in C sharp minor, (also known as Quasi una fantasia), opus 27/2, most widely known as the "Moonlight Sonata". This fantasy sonata, implied by Beethoven's own instructions, should have all three movements played contiguously. Beethoven probably experimented and viewed this sonata as a single piece. Demus' subtle use of pedal in the first movement provided clarity and a beautifully tranquil atmosphere. This showed his incomparable skill and understanding of the use of the pedals in the modern piano, which is very different to the use of the pedal in the fortepiano (a forerunner of the modern piano) used by Beethoven. Demus is among a few outstanding performers on the fortepiano, a list that includes Malcolm Bilson, Gustav Leonhardt and Steve Lubin, to name but a few. Simple and charming, the second movement had the same sense of graceful swing as a minuet.

The intermission was longer than one would expect at a normal recital, about 45 minutes. The audience was pampered with a fantastic dessert buffet, including crepes suzette, cheese with fig paste, winterberries with mint and vanilla cream, pineapple and lime sorbet, chocolate fountains with strawberries, mango with sticky rice, and more.

Demus started the second half with Chopin's Fantasy in F minor, opus 49. He played the piece very much fantasy-like, continuously with little breathing space. The passage works were not very tidy; however the beautifully romantic phrases were rendered artistically and smoothly, especially in the chorale section.

Schumann's Fantasy in C major, opus 17, was perhaps the most astonishing piece of the whole programme. It was beautiful, full of imagination, passion and many emotional shifts. It was amazing to observe closely how Demus played the piece. He looked absolutely relaxed and played with simplicity and seemingly without effort. There was no over playing or excessive use of movement, however - his playing produced a variety of tones, volumes and dimensions. Especially in the slow section, the star-like glittering sound had a remarkably poetic quality of tone. His abrupt changes of harmonic colour were done beautifully. When stirring energy was needed, Demus took command with his powerful technical skills and sophisticated musical interpretation.

He received a standing ovation from the audience and returned for many curtain calls, and he graciously gave three encores.

A favourite with many pianists, Schubert's Impromptu in E flat major, opus 90/2, was a pure delight, with his light, swift playing as well as interesting musical phrases, rhythmic inflections and tonal colours. With a simple but elegant interpretation he continued to charm the audience with Beethoven's Bagatelle in A minor WoO 59 (aka Fur Elise), one of the composer's best-known piano pieces. The last encore he gave was one of his own beautiful compositions, with a chiming, beautiful melody.

The concert was followed by the presentation of a bouquet to the artist and a certificate of appreciation to the sponsor. How wonderful that a Bangkok audience had the opportunity to witness a live performance of one of the great artists of our time.

This was not only a charity event, but also an opportunity to learn for the young musicians who attended the concert. It is to be hoped that this will help and inspire them to develop their own musical skills.

The event's organising committee should receive much credit, and it is to be hoped that they will organise such an event again.

Bangkok Post
Wednesday January 31, 2007