By Lyn Bronson

Sometimes we hear in concert prestigious pianists with big reputations, who also command whopping big artist fees — although I can’t mention names, some of them have the initials M.P., A.S. and E.A. They come into town, play a recital, and then go off to their next engagement to play exactly the same program. They play with admirable technical control and scrupulous accuracy to the printed score (Urtext, of course), yet there is often something missing in their playing. We keep waiting for something to happen — something beyond merely hearing the notes. We keep waiting to hear vital performances that will fully engage our hearts and hold us enthralled.

Wait no further! Pianist Jura Margulis (pronounced “YOUR-a  Mar-GU-las”) performed such a recital last night at Hidden Valley Music Seminars in Carmel Valley Village. It may be a long eleven-mile schlep from Carmel (and five miles further from Monterey and Pacific Grove), but it was worth it, for this was a recital that was as interesting as it was thrilling.

Since Margulis is Russian born, it was perhaps surprising that the program contained no works by Russian composers. Perhaps because of his assimilation into European traditions (most of his musical training was in Germany), his recital last night featured only three composers: Chopin, Debussy & Liszt.

The most imposing work on the evening’s program was the great Liszt Sonata in B Minor, and it was a knockout! Although this is a work much recorded, live performances of it are far less common. This is because the work not only makes great demands on the performer, but also on the audience. This piece is long and tends to ramble (allegedly Johannes Brahms gently slipped into the arms of Morpheus during the slow movement in a private performance by pianist Hans von Bülow). Therefore it requires careful pacing and planning to hold its many sections together in a compelling fashion. In the performance by Margulis last night, beyond his magnificent technical mastery and gorgeous shaping of phrases, it was his architectural planning and control of the disparate elements that made the performance so compelling. There were quiet sensitive sections that almost brought tears to your eyes, and there were parts so virtuosic and exciting that we were abducted and taken on a thrilling gut-wrenching ride.

There were two other masterpieces on the program: Chopin’s Polonaise in F-sharp minor and his Ballade No. 1 in G minor. The F-sharp minor Polonaise in the wrong hands can be a tedious work — there is a minimalist section in the middle where an irritating rhythmic figure containing four 32nd notes is repeated (with some minor tonal modification) 56 times in succession.  Margulis shaped this section with careful dynamic shading and developed it so beautifully and logically that it contributed to the work’s effectiveness, rather than detracted from it. Overall in this work there was glorious abandon and freedom, with moments of lovely cantabile melodies that wormed their way into your heart. The other Chopin masterpiece, the G minor Ballade unfurled with a compelling logic and charm and exploded at the end into a thrilling and dramatic coda.

Some less technically demanding pieces were also included in the program: two Mazurkas by Chopin, Liszt’s Consolation in D-flat major, and Debussy’s Reflets dans l’eau. In these works Margulis demonstrated his ability to create moments of magic, not dependent on virtuosity, but on beguiling us with lovely dynamics and shaping of phrases. One other grand work by Debussy was also heard during the evening: L’isle joyeuse, and it worked itself up to a thrilling powerful climax.

We had no doubt last night that we were hearing a compelling and vital pianist in Jura Margulis. He displayed the ability to touch us emotionally and involve us is everything he played. There were some noticeable tendencies, however, to exaggerate dynamics on the louder side so that f became ff, and ff became ffff. This tendency marred the effectiveness of the two Chopin Mazurkas and several other works on the program, and it often weakened their moments of tenderness. The piano can only be pounded to the threshold of its limits, and beyond its limits the sounds tend to get ugly. It was significant that Margulis has an extraordinarily refined control of the softer dynamics, with many lovely levels of shading between ppp and mf, yet hardly any shades and hues between f and ffff.

Ultimately it was a small price to pay for an evening of compelling music making by a masterful pianist who thoroughly succeeded in engaging our attention, our emotions and our hearts.

End