Executive and Artistic Director John Orlando of Distinguished Artists Concert & Lecture Series certainly has the knack. Consistently during the past 25 years he has managed to discover interesting young performing artists and bring them to Cabrillo College for its Concert Series.
So it was last night in Cabrillo College’s new Music Recital Hall, a lovely new 375 seat state-of-the-art facility. We were hearing the debut of the brand new recital and music hall plus the local debut of the interesting young Lithuanian pianist, Andrius Zlabys. Originally we had been scheduled to hear the exciting young Russian pianist Alexander Romanovsky, but at the last moment he wasn’t able to obtain a visitor’s visa. This misfortune turned into a blessing, for it gave us the opportunity to hear the equally exciting Mr. Zlabys.
Several times during the past twenty-five years I have arrived in Aptos to hear what for me constituted an unknown young pianist, and then departed from the concert absolutely convinced that Mr. Orlando had once again discovered a major young artist. So it was last night, when after Mr. Orlando’s introduction, out on stage came a lanky tall young man looking utterly confident, and who, after no fuss, simply sat down at the Steinway and proceeded to make heavenly music.
His unusual program for the first half of his recital consisted of two Partitas by J.S. Bach – the No 2 in C Minor, and No. 6 in E Minor. Most pianists would have been content with playing one Partita, but Zlabys was exceedingly generous to give us a “twofer,” and why not, since the two partitas he performed couldn’t be more different in artistic intent. Mr. Zlabys is no shrinking violet. His style of Bach was big and bold, with pedaling where needed, and projecting clear musical lines in the contrapuntal passages and the occasional fugue. There were also surprising moments of soft tender lyrical playing with beautiful shaping of phrases.
This first half of the recital gave us an opportunity to listen not only to the music, but also to the acoustics of Cabrillo College’s Music Recital Hall. My initial impression, as the program got under way with the two Bach Partitas, was that the hall was overly resonant so that its reverb tended to blur the clearly articulated 16th note passages in Mr. Zlaby’s Bach Partitias. I noticed that the depth and breadth of the stage suggested it was a multi-purpose music environment suitable for large choruses, 90-piece orchestras and large concert bands, as well as for small ensembles and recitals. Although high over the stage there were acoustic panels for fine tuning the sound of the hall, there was no portable free-standing Wenger acoustical shell behind the piano on stage to keep the sound from dispersing toward the high ceiling, and instead focusing and directing it toward the audience. This overlapping, unfocused and undirected sound meant that we as listeners in the first half of the concert at times really had to concentrate in order to appreciate the keyboard artistry of Mr. Zlabys. To be absolutely fair, by the end of the first half of the concert, our ears, working hard, of course, eventually became used to the blur and overlapping, and began to accept them.
A miracle happened after intermission when Zlabys sat down and entered the richly colored world of Claude Debussy’s Suite Bergamasque. After 45 minutes of listening to Bach, the swirls and washes of color from Zlaby’s imaginative pedaling were startling by contrast. In the Prelude of this suite, we suddenly seemed to hear the acoustics of this Hall at their best. Here sounds blended and blossomed in a magical way. From fortissimo to the softest ppp, the sounds had character and substance, and they were always clear. In the following Menuet, we heard new varieties of sound, a delicate non legato touch and rhythmic precision that also served the music well. Most surprising was Mr. Zlaby’s lovely performance of Clair de lune. If anyone had asked by a show of hands how many in the audience had studied and learned this piece, I am sure that more than half the audience would have had their hands in the air. Yet, Zlabys created a lovely charming magic and made this piece as fresh as an evening mist in a meadow. It was simply the best live performance I had ever heard of this piece.
To end the concert Zlabys served us up Cesar Franck’s mighty Prelude, Chorale and Fugue. This was a strong and virile presentation (not delicate and perfumed), and it achieved in its climaxes big and stormy explosions (there were even a few moments when it almost sounded like “The Great Gate of Kiev,” yet the dreamy Prelude and the magnificent Chorale were lovely and charming. This was a compelling performance!
Graciously, Mr. Zlabys offered the audience one encore. Since he did not identify it from the stage, I had no idea what it was, nor did anyone seated near me.
Well, the Distinguished Artist Concert & Lecture Series just got off to a whale of a start. And there is much more to come during the next year.
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