By David Beech
The internationally celebrated Bay Area pianist Jon Nakamatsu made a welcome return visit to Le Petit Trianon, San Jose for the Steinway Society The Bay Area, filling the 360-seat hall on both Saturday, January 3 and Sunday, January 4, 2004. Although his first appearance in the hall years ago had seen him placed second in the Society’s Young Artists’ Competition, he went on, of course, to win the Gold Medal at the 1997 Van Cliburn competition with exceptional performances of classical, romantic and modern works. The concert under review here found him in excellent form, with only a slight regret that there was no modern music in the program, which was limited to the period between about 1800 and 1860.Â
Nakamatsu has recently been advocating the sonatas of Joseph Wölfl (1773-1812), having recorded four of them, and he began his recital with the E major sonata, Op. 33 No.3. The opening Allegro sounded much like Clementi, with occasional flashes reminiscent of Haydn, and the interpretation, while very clean, sounded on the dry side. It was immediately noticeable that the familiar model B Steinway had been replaced by a full-sized 9 foot model D, and the openness of the sound came into its own in the short but charming Andante cantabile. Nakamatsu then took the final Rondo: allegretto at a brisk allegro, with strong rhythmic accents, a delightful pp interlude, and a nimble conclusion.Â
