By Lyn Bronson
Hans Boepple surprised us in his annual faculty recital last night at Santa Clara University. What we have come to expect from him are solid and masterful performances of the great masterpieces of the standard piano repertoire. Well, last night he came out with guns blazing and delivered a knockout performance of the Barber Piano Sonata, one of the most important piano sonatas written in the 20th century, and not a piece that we would expect to appeal to his more conservative tastes. Of course there is the possibility we may have misjudged him and are merely seeing another aspect of his artistry. What next ─ Karl-Heinz Stockhausen or the Boulez sonatas?
In any event, Boepple delivered the goods and managed to hold the audience in the palm of his hand through 30 minutes of expressive and highly intense playing that brought the audience to its feet in a storm of bravos at its conclusion. We don’t hear this sonata anywhere often enough, and in retrospect, after hearing it in performance, we tend to remember mostly the great fugue that comprises its final movement. However, in this performance Boepple made a powerful impression in all four movements. Not only had I forgotten how interesting the second movement, Allegro vivace e leggero, can be in the right hands, but I was unprepared for the lovely effect of the gorgeous slow movement.
