Hearing pianist Di Wu at Cabrillo College last night was an extraordinary and revelatory experience! Originally scheduled to perform works by Granados, Schoenberg, Prokofiev and Debussy, Executive Director of the Distinguished Artists Concert & Lecture Series John Orlando addressed the audience prior to Ms. Wu’s appearance on stage to inform us she had made some changes in the program we were to hear during the evening. Indeed, it turned out that the program had been totally changed to feature three entirely different works: Schumann’s Davidsbuendlertaenze (with an introductory minor work by Clara Schumann that inspired the opening section of Die Davidsbuender), Ravel’s Miroirs and ending the evening with Liszt’s concert paraphrase of the Waltz from Gounod’s Faust.
It was the second half of her program, devoted to Ravel’s Miroirs, that was the most sensational. Ms. Wu plumbed the depths of her artistic imagination to bring the five pieces comprising this work to life in a glorious way. So original and profound was her performance on this occasion that, although I have been familiar with this work all my life, I felt as though I were hearing it for the first time. Ms. Wu not only charmed us with the magical subtleties of her beautifully sculpted swirls of sound and deliciously shaped phrases running the gamut from pppp to mezzo forte but also dazzled us with virtuosic flights of fancy that explored the upper dynamic ranges from f to ffff. She seemed to have a palette with an extraordinary variety of colors, all of which were used to achieve amazing results. We always had the impression that her tonal magic and virtuoso skills were being used, not for effect, but to reveal and emphasize the inner magic of the music.
The “killer” piece in Miroirs is Alborada del gracioso, a virtuosic tour de force featuring a bazillion repeated notes and some amazing double-note glissandos, mostly in thirds, but also one in fourths. It was a spectacular and abandoned performance, yet one entirely under control. The lovely sounds she created in Noctuelles (Night Moths), Oiseaux tristes (Sad Birds), Une barque sur l’ocean (A Boat on the Ocean) and La vallee des cloches (The Valley of the Bells) were astonishing and totally absorbing.
The first half of the program was less successful. Although it was interesting to hear the brief piece by Clara Schumann, the real substance was Die Davidsbuender itself. Ms. Wu commented to the audience that each section in this long work contains either the initial “F” or “E” at its conclusion revealing an aspect of Schumann’s personality in recognizing his own dual nature and assigning them the names “Florestan” (impetuous and impassioned) and “Eusebius” (deeper and more contemplative). In the several sections showing Schumann’s Eusebius persona, Ms. Wu was magical, but in the more extroverted Florestan moments, Ms. Wu went over the top with such rapid tempos and a tendency to rush that Schumann’s musical ideas tended to tumble over each other, somewhat to the music’s detriment, since it was often difficult to hear what was going on. Another aspect contributing to the difficulty of hearing Die Davidsbuender more effectively is the problem of the overly resonant acoustics of the new recital hall. Sounds tend to ricochet back and forth between the hard surfaces of the three walls and floor of the stage, plus also from the rear wall. In the Miroirs this was not a problem, since the sounds were intended to blend and intermingle.
Di Wu wound up her recital with an unbelievably powerful performance of Liszt’s concert paraphrase of the Waltz from Gounod’s Faust. This is a piece I have heard countless times and normally couldn’t care less if I never heard it again. However, Di Wu’s performance was so absolutely astonishing in its freedom and emotional abandon that I was simply stunned! Hearing this performance reminded me of accounts I have read from witnesses attesting to the majestic superlative performances by the great virtuosos of the past like Franz Liszt, Anton Rubinstein and Ferruccio Busoni.
By any standard, Di Wu is an extraordinary artist, and I would gladly crawl over broken glass to hear her again. At the end of the recital, she received a thunderous standing ovation, and gave us one quiet encore, “Pleading Child” from Schumann’s “Scenes from Childhood.” It was beautiful!
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