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This afternoon we had yet another opportunity to hear pianist Hans Boepple in recital. This was during the 2009 MTAC Convention in Santa Clara. For over thirty years Mr. Boepple has been an active performer in California, not only in recitals, but also as a distinguished concerto soloist – his performances of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No.1 in Santa Cruz, and the Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini in Palo Alto, heard in recent years have been on the highest professional and artistic level.
Mr. Boepple represents the ideal of “Artist Teacher.” Some pianists are great performers, but mediocre teachers, and some great teachers are mediocre pianists, but Hans Boepple has always managed to get it right. Despite a busy schedule of teaching, both in individual private lessons and in master classes, he has always maintained his skills at a very high level and over the years has given us superb performances of many of the great masterpieces of the piano repertoire.
One of the most impressive aspects of Hans Boepple’s artistry is its naturalness, for with him, “Music’s the Thing.” He never indulges in gratuitous technical display or unnecessary mannerisms. There are no soulful looks toward heaven, no dramatic throwing of the hands in the air at ends of pieces, no overplaying and banging in climatic moments. His playing is always about music.
Boepple has for many years had a special affinity for Bach’s keyboard works, and thus it was no surprise that he began his recital with one of his favorite works, the Toccata in D Major.What we heard on this occasion was some super sensitive playing – the kind of shaping of phrases and voicing of contrapuntal textures that harpsichordists can only hope to suggest. The recitatives were lovingly inflected and the tremolos had an artful easing off at their ends that seemed utterly natural. If there was any part of the Toccata that seemed slightly off kilter it was the final Gigue, which would have been more effective starting softer and building to a climax, and perhaps without the all too persistent non-legato touch. Still, by any standard, this was Bach playing that wormed its way into your heart.
The Barber Sonata that followed showed an entirely different aspect of Boepple’s artistry. This sonata is a twentieth-century work to which Boepple brought a quasi-romantic well integrated symmetry and powerful logic. After a strongly compelling Adagio, the final Fuga was a knockout.
The Chopin Barcarolle is a work that has received a wide variety of live and recorded performances, from the solidly conservative to the almost hysterical and nearly over the top (I will mention no names), but Boepple put his own personal stamp on this piece, and his performance was totally compelling.  His shaping of phrases was uncanny. There were several instances of long melody notes accented because of their length with Boepple listening ever so carefully as the sound decayed and gauging precisely the right dynamic so that the following notes completed the phrase in the most natural and artistic manner. This was music making of the highest order!
Boepple ended his program with a performance of Liszt’s Venezia e Napoli, the supplement to the second book of the Dieuxieme Années de Pélerinage. This is not a work we often hear in its complete three-movement form, since it is the final movement, Tarantella, which is most often performed alone. Boepple gave us lots of charm in the first two movements, and then blew us away with a perfectly proportioned and exciting final Tarantella.
After a rousing standing ovation, Boepple returned to the stage to perform one encore, the Intermezzo in A Major, Op. 118, No. 2. It was the best performance of this piece I have ever heard. Every note was so perfectly molded and shaped I found myself holding my breath at times, for it was so beautiful.
Incidentally, the Steinway concert grand heard in this concert was a New York Steinway, but with the high gloss finish we normally associate with Hamburg Steinways. Â Concert technician Peter Sumner, who prepped the piano for this concert, revealed that in the future we are going to be seeing more and more New York Steinways with this high gloss polyester finish.
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