Photo credit: Aleks Karjaka
Classical pianist Mabel Kwan
Virtual concerts, by necessity, have quickly become increasingly prevalent in these pandemic times. They don’t replace the experience of a live performance, of course. We miss the acoustics of the concert hall and a sense of how the audience is listening and reacting. Most of all we miss just being with many other people in a large room without worry.
Present Music kicked off this classical season with a pre-recorded piano recital by Chicago-based artist Mabel Kwan, showing many potentials of the instrument. She tackled extremely difficult music by young composers of various nationalities with assurance and sophisticated style in an intense and serious concert entitled “In the Key of Now.” The recital was recorded with artfully edited video from four camera angles and excellent audio quality.
The program began and ended with inventive music by Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir (b. 1977). Scape is atmospheric, with ominous resonating low notes, over which are busy, scurrying gestures in various ranges of the piano. Thorvaldsdottir’s Reminiscence moodily moves through seven short movements, each one reluctantly abandoned after a bit of reflection.
Expanded techniques of playing, using the piano strings in various ways and sustained sounds (created by the sostenuto, or middle pedal) were embraced without self-consciousness throughout the program, all which Kwan pulled off with apparent ease and fluidity. Music included where cobalt waves live by Irish composer Ann Cleare (b. 1983); (ghosts) behind articulation by Brazilian Igor Santos (b. 1985), who now lives in Chicago; Radius by Taiwanese-Australian composer Annie Hui-Hsin Hsieh; and Mráz (Czech for frost) by American Trevor Bača (b. 1975).
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Impressionistic harmonies were welcome new sounds in Santos’s piece. Intricate dialogue between the piano strings and keys was an ear-catching aspect of Hui-Hsin Hsieh’s Radius. There was some similarity in style to Kwan’s choices in repertoire, even if each piece is a well-polished gem. If I have a criticism it would be that the concert could have benefitted from more sharply defined contrasts in the music chosen.
With tickets at just $10, the concert may be accessed for online viewing through Dec. 19 at presentmusic.org.
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