By Lyn Bronson

 

There was a lot of activity this weekend on the Monterey Peninsula. There were many thousands of golf fans here for the AT&T, another few thousand came to enjoy the nice weather during the long President’ (and Valentine’s Day) Weekend, and then there were several hundred piano buffs who came to Carmel’s Sunset Center Sunday afternoon to hear a return performance by distinguished pianist Gustavo Romero, who presented a recital of some of Frederic Chopin’s greatest works. This event was presented by the Carmel Music Society’s Mozart Series.

Since this was Mr. Romero’s third recital appearance in Carmel, he has some fans, and they were not to be disappointed. During this long and difficult program we heard piano playing in the grand manner with sweeping gestures, long melodic lines, cantabile playing that made melodies sing gloriously above beautifully controlled accompaniments and virtuoso playing that made light of thorny difficulties.

The program opened with a work we rarely hear in concert, the Prelude in C-sharp minor, Op. 45, a dreamy and sensuous work with interesting harmonies and suspensions that create a mysterious mood. This was followed by the Nocturne in B major, Op. 60, another mysterious and rarely heard piece. Both of these received lovely performances that demonstrated Romero’s fine control of refined piano sound. The remainder of the program was devoted to some of Chopin’s most important works: the Barcarolle, the Polonaise in F-sharp minor, the Scherzo in B-flat minor, and after intermission the four Ballades.

It has been said that many piano virtuosos today sound alike and have little individuality. Well, you can’t say that of Gustavo Romero, for he has his own unique approach to the Romantic repertoire. One dominant feature in his playing is his leisurely style, not because he chooses slower tempos than the norm (his fast tempos really do zip along with the best of them), but because of his remarkably frequent use of the spontaneous tempo fluctuations we call tempo rubato. Another aspect of his playing that tends to interfere with the forward momentum of the music is his predilection to reveal to us heretofore unnoticed inner voices in passages and melodic lines. My guess is that Mr. Romero never met an inner voice he didn’t like or couldn’t play more expressively (and with more rubato). Many times during the afternoon, we would be enjoying a melody or a passage, and then suddenly out of nowhere would come some insignificant inner voices to distract us from that which was truly important.

Nevertheless, Romero gave us grand dramatic moments in every work he played and exhibited a masterful and authoritative technical control –  especially in his exciting performances of the B-flat minor Scherzo and the F major Ballade. Although his refined tonal control left no doubt in our minds that he can shape a phrase as well as anyone (and he exhibited this gift many times during the afternoon), he does have a disconcerting habit of punching out notes he intends to accent and overplaying  in climatic passages that produced some clangy, ugly sounds.

After a standing ovation from his enthusiastic fans, he gave us one encore, “Black Earth” by Turkish composer Fazil Say. This was a remarkable piece in which a sinister melody in the bass was answered by an eerie hollow sound created by Romero damping the bass strings with the palm of his left hand while thumping piano keys with the fingers of his right hand.

In recognition of Valentine’s Day, the Carmel Music Society presented a lovely champagne punch reception in the outer lobby, arranged and hosted by the incomparable Vickie Davis.

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