Yefim the Great

[Ricordanza]

Question: Why has it taken me a week to post a review of Yefim Bronfman’s piano recital on Halloween night, Friday, October 31? Answer: While it’s not that great a challenge for the experienced listener to identify and describe flaws, it is substantially more difficult to come up with the words that explain why a performance is just right.

I could describe Bronfman’s playing as excellent, superb, outstanding, or any other number of adjectives--which would all be accurate--but none would convey the enormous satisfaction I experienced from attending this recital. But I’ll try anyway.

This was the fourth time I have heard Bronfman in solo recital (plus a couple of other times as concerto soloist). Each time, the program of this super-virtuoso has been varied in period and style, and this night was no exception. Yes, the program listed three sonatas, but what different pieces of music!

Bronfman opened with an elegant and attentive performance of Haydn’s Sonata in C Major, Hob. XVI:50, one of about 60 sonatas that Haydn wrote for the keyboard. Thirty years ago, virtuoso pianists would rarely include a Haydn sonata on their program. Why not? Did these lions of the keyboard (or perhaps their managers) consider it beneath them to play these deceptively simple works? Of course, as pianists such as Emanuel Ax, Marc-Andre Hamelin and Bronfman have shown us, these sonatas are not so simple after all, but rather, fascinating compositions full of musical and pianistic interest. Bronfman’s playing illuminated these points of interest, but always in a subtle way that never interfered with the overall flow and shape of the music.

While the Haydn sonata was compact and lean, the next work on the program, Brahms’ Sonata in F Minor, Op. 5, could best be described as sprawling. It’s a five-movement work which, based on past performances I’ve heard, is hard to hold together. But somehow (and I can’t quite describe how), Bronfman managed to pull this together as a coherent work. But to be a little more specific, the first movement is characterized by repeated heroic, exuberant passages, which can become, in other hands, a repetitious jumble of pounding music. Bronfman conveyed the passion of the young Brahms, but through careful control, managed to deliver a balanced rendition of this movement, where not everything was in high gear.

At the beginning of every Philadelphia Chamber Music Society concert, Artistic Director Miles Cohen comes out on stage and declares, “In my right hand, I’m holding my cell phone. I’m turning mine off, and asking you to turn yours off as well.” And every time, the audience applauds this reminder. Nevertheless, during one of the softer moments in the Brahms sonata (of course, it wouldn’t happen in a louder passage), a particularly obnoxious ring tone went off, fairly near to where I was sitting. Bronfman did not stop, but at the end of the movement, he turned to the audience and quipped, “Was that call for me?” I’m glad he has a sense of humor about this kind of needless and annoying interruption.

Prokofiev’s “War Sonatas,” Numbers 6, 7 and 8, are so named both because of the time period when they were composed (the outbreak of World War II) and their fierce and intense style. In two previous Philadelphia recitals, Bronfman has played the more familiar Sonata No. 7 from this set. This time, he played No. 6. The agonies of war are especially evident in the first and final movements, but it is a multi-dimensional and varied musical work. It’s also a work that places great demands on the pianist, and Bronfman responded with his usual commanding technique, as well as his deft touch in the lyrical passages.

Bronfman concluded the evening with two exquisite encores: a Chopin Etude and a Scarlatti Sonata.

[Donald Isler]

Thanks for the very interesting review, Ricordanza! I have yet to hear Bronfman perform live, and now I'm even more interested to hear him!

[arepo]

Henry..

I always admire your reviews and must say that this one was particularly well done. Bronfman was superb, indeed.

Best regards.

cliftwood