SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

JS Bach: Italian Concerto in F Major, BWV 97

Beethoven: Piano Sonata no. 18 in E-flat Major, Op. 31, no. 3

Schumann: Symphonic Etudes, Op. 13

Ingrid Fliter is an impressive pianist, and her recital on Sunday, 13 June introduced Chicago audiences to her work. The first piece was Bach's familiar Italian Concerto, which opened the program with an appropriately joyful note. The technical facility that Ms Fliter would display in the stylistically various pieces later in this program was present from the outset. Yet the Italian Concerto's second movement showed a side of the performer that is even more profound. In performing the slow movement, Ms. Fliter used a sensitive touch that gave an intimate sound to the modern piano used in this recital. Her approach gave the sense of a period instrument by using a quieter and subtler touch. This sensitive reading of the slow movement made this familiar piece fresh and exciting, not just for the contrast it offered, but the sense of a different Affekt, invoking the sense of period without reducing the allusion to caricature. With the final movement, Ms Fliter's virtuosic approach to the piece demonstrated the technique that she would use to good effect in the two works that followed.

At the core of the recital - a program included as part of the Chicago Symphony's Beethoven Festival - was the composer's Piano Sonata No. 18, written in 1803 just before the Fourth and Sixth Symphonies, which were performed in the same hall earlier this weekend. Ms Fliter offered an authoritative reading of the sonata, which was obvious from the well articulated opening gesture. Here Ms Fliter's sense of color was evident in the voicing of the opening sonorities, a hallmark of the entire reading that followed. Her sense of Beethoven's style took shape in varied fashion, as she sometimes allowed her accurate playing to display an improvisatory tone. The first movement was remarkable for its focus and its clear articulation of structure. With the Scherzo, Ms Fliter shaped the piece with nuanced dynamics, but it was in Finale that she was most impressive, as perfectly controlled technical flourishes combined with expressive gestures to bring the work to a satisfying conclusion.</p>

The second half of the program was devoted to Robert Schumann's Symphonic Etudes, Op. 13, a demanding work because of its technical and structural challenges. Ms Fliter gave a moving performance of this piece, from the subtle opening chords of the first section through the sometimes explosive passages toward the end of the movement. Her facility was evident in the third etude (Vivace), and her lyricism in the seventh etude. The clear articulation of Marschner's "Du stolzes England" from his opera <em>Der Templar und die Judin</em> was stylistically appropriate, with the variations that followed full of bravura. As she brought the sonata to a conclusion, Ms Fliter allowed its sonorities to linger in the hall, bringing out the drama of the piece and also its many colors. As much as Ms Fliter was overtly expressive when the music required aptly rhapsodic gestures, she also showed an intimate side that made the final section of the piece truly memorable. Some might quibble with the placement of two posthumous variations after Etude no. 12, but it made sense in the larger scope of her interpretation. The enthusiasm of the audience inspired Ms Fliter to perform two familiar pieces by Chopin as encores after a wholly riveting recital.

James L Zychowicz