SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Mendelssohn: Variations sérieuses in D minor, op. 54

Beethoven: Sonata in C sharp minor, op. 27/2 (“Moonlight Sonata”)

Chopin:
Scherzo No. 2 in B minor, op. 31
3 Grandes Valses brillantes, op. 34
Grande Valse in A flat major No. 5, op. 42
Valse No. 6 in D flat major, op. 64/1
Valse No. 7 in C sharp minor, op. 64/2
Valse in E minor (B. 56)

Liszt: Etudes d’éxécution transcendante, G 139
No. 9 in A flat major, “Ricordanza”
No. 10 in F minor, “Appassionata”

 
Alice Sara Ott seems to have the perfect background for a successful piano career. She fell in love with the piano at age three. Her parents – a Japanese mother who had studied piano and a German father – both tried to dissuade her from playing the piano rather than pushing her to satisfy their own ambitions. She prevailed and went on to win her first piano competition at age seven. So the ingredients are there: a rich cultural background, sound parents, love of music, talent, perseverance, and healthy instincts to boot: “I never practice eight hours a day,” she said in a recent interview and professed that when she used to enter “competitions for young pianists, it was never my goal to win or compete against others.” Three years ago, at 18, she was signed on by Deutsche Grammophon (which, rather disrespectfully to her as well as the audience, markets that other ingredient – stunning looks – as much as her pianism).

Her (altogether three) recordings also reveal her to be an intelligent musician, as did this recital. In Chopin’s Scherzo No. 2 – where she was able to make the piano sing beautifully – she did choose some idiosyncratic phrasings, which however made sense, as did the transitions from tenderness to passion. As for the passion itself, Ott played with a certain emotional reserve throughout the evening. She once stated that her impetus for playing the piano was because it allowed her to express herself more fully than words. And yet, sometimes it seemed as if music served as protection against real emotions. This also had its charm: the C sharp minor waltz, played extremely tenderly, sounded like a shy courtship, full of longing to be loved. Altogether the waltzes, rendered with a perfect mix of brilliance and fragility as well as a fine sense of the polyphonic elements in Chopin’s music, also had reflective moments.

This reserved and introverted approach did not always work perfectly, as introversion often avoids emotional extremes. In another interview Ott stated that she prefers to practice completely in the dark and believes a pianist should be able to play every piece blindfolded. Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” started out unsentimental and dreamlike, albeit fairly fast, almost Mozart-like. The soft beginning of the third movement was quite effective, but however fast the tempo, it lacked the element of breathlessness that seems to me inherent in the piece.

The shortcomings of an introverted approach became most apparent in Mendelssohn’s Variations sérieuses, perhaps the composer’s least “facile” work for piano solo. While rendered with great clarity, Ott’s interpretation did not probe the last depths of the composition. It was as if she understood the music but not always what was behind it and what it should express. The interpretation lacked somewhat in maturity. While Mendelssohn was yet to suffer the greatest loss of his life when he wrote his op. 54 at age 32, his variations express extreme emotions – and longing for a profound emotion, however deep, is not the same as a deep emotion itself. Opening the recital with this powerful work may not have been a fortuitous choice.

On the other hand, the evening could not have been concluded any better than with Liszt. Ott rendered the rich and varied tone colors of the two “transcendental studies” masterfully, and the encore – the arguably most popular of Liszt’s “Studies after Paganini” (no. 3, based on the B minor concerto) – finally shifted the focus on sheer technical brilliance and instantly generated an upbeat mood to bring the evening to a satisfying conclusion.

Thomas K Thornton