How often do you attend a piano recital and discover that most of the program is unfamiliar? Well, that’s exactly what happened on “Super Bowl Sunday” when the Distinguished Artists Concert and Lecture Series presented pianist Sara Davis Buechner in an afternoon recital playing the new Yamaha CFX concert grand in Cabrillo College’s Crocker Theatre.

I have been attending piano recitals for 60 years, but except for the opening work, Haydn’s Sonata No. 52 in E-flat Major, which everybody knows, we heard rarely-heard works like a Sonata by Carl Maria von Weber, Ten Gypsy Dances by Turina and three Foxtrots by George Gershwin (which Buechner took off a piano roll). Since I have never heard any of these latter pieces, this was a very welcome and unusual program.

Buechner told the audience that in the von Weber Sonata we were going to hear a combination of virtuoso display and some operatic melodies. She was dead on, for at the beginning of the first movement the piece sounded like a Liszt transcription of a Bellini aria with lots of charm and glittery passages that flew under her fingers like quicksilver. The Adagio second movement offered some contrast to the flashy opening Allegro and revealed how sensitive and expressive Buechner’s playing can be. This slow movement wasn’t entirely slow, for there were agitated intrusions of Sturm und Drang followed by a lovely quiet ending over a persistent heartbeat in the bass. The Menuetto third movement’s virtuosity was interrupted more than once to take a time out for some more “operatic-paraphrase” moments. The final movement of the Sonata is a “perpetual motion” Rondo that at one time had a vogue as a popular encore. On this occasion Buechner played it so fast that the sounds she created were as blurred as the motion of her flying fingers on the keyboard.

Also a welcome novelty was the Ten Gypsy Dances by Turina. Buechner described these pieces as undervalued, and she was correct, for they deserve much greater popularity. Her masterful sense of style brought a lot of magic to the Spanish and Flamenco rhythms.

Especially charming were the three Gershwin foxtrots that ended the program, and I wondered how many more of these pieces she has reconstructed from piano roll recordings. I would love to hear them.

If there was any disappointment during the afternoon’s performance, it was the Haydn Sonata, Except for the gorgeously played slow movement, the other movements were entirely too fast and sounded scrambled. Perhaps her mind was preoccupied with the Super Bowl big game of the Giants vs. Patriots, for she mentioned from the stage that she had $1,000 riding on the Giants. Well, I don’t know who won the big game, but it was certainly Haydn who lost.

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We had a preview Sunday afternoon at Sunset Center Theater as we heard the exciting ensemble group, “Israeli Chamber Project,” in a concert presented by the Carmel Music Society. The Society’s President, Anne Thorp, announced from the stage that the concert we were hearing today would be repeated on Wednesday, February 1, at the group’s New York City Carnegie Hall debut in Weill Recital Hall.

The members of the Israeli Chamber Project we heard today were clarinetist Tibi Cziger, cellist Michael Katz, harpist Sivan Magen, pianist Assaff Weisman and violinist Itamar Zorman. It is interesting that some members of the group are based in Israel, some in Europe and some in the United States. The cellist heard today, Michael Katz, was substituting at the last moment for Michal Korman who was ailing and unable to travel.

The clarinetist Tibi Cziger holds a special place in the hearts of local concertgoers, since he was one of the principal prizewinners in the Carmel Music Society’s Instrumental Competition a few years ago. All of us who attended the competition that year remember that Cziger was the outstanding audience favorite.

The program on this occasion was kind of a sandwich, the bread being two staples of the chamber music repertoire, Shostakovich’s Trio No. 1 in C Minor and the Brahms Clarinet Trio in A Minor, Op. 114, which opened and closed the concert. We were expecting bold and exciting playing, and we were not to be disappointed.

In the Shostakovich, the opening cello solo by Michael Katz was outstanding and set the tone for what followed. Pianist Weisman showed himself to be nimble and ultra precise as he maneuvered around the keyboard with disarming ease. Violinist Zorman’s fine playing was every bit as masterful as that of his ensemble partners, and the total performance was quite satisfying. The Brahms Trio, a good deal longer and more extended than the Shostakovich, had its moments of heavy seriousness and its moments of brilliant excitement. Clarinetist Cziger was fabulous in his ability to bring clarity and stylish intensity to everything he played.

In retrospect, it was the inner part of the sandwich that turned out to be the most absorbing part of the program, for it consisted of works most of us rarely hear. Especially fascinating was “Night Time” for harp and violin by Sebastian Currier, in which harpist Magen and violinist Zorman created a magic web of mysterious and exciting sounds. In its third section, “Vespers,” we heard harp playing like we have never heard before  — almost like a duet between two harps. Violinist Zorman achieved amazing clarity in the musical line, even at extremely soft dynamic levels. The fourth section, “Nightwind” was no slouch either, and both players demonstrated a dazzling virtuosity in its fleet performance.

Bartok’s Contrasts, for clarinet, violin and piano was one of the most intriguing works on the program. Written for violinist Josef Szigeti and clarinetist Benny Goodman, it was full of jazzy effects and totally delightful. The best was yet to come: “Three Songs Without Words” by Paul Ben-Haim for harp and clarinet. In its opening Arioso we heard clarinetist Cziger achieve amazing control of tone and beautiful shaping of phrases. In the Ballade that followed, we heard a fabulous harp solo and great repartee between harp and clarinet. In the concluding Sephardic Song, we heard Cziger achieve sounds as subtle and close to the human voice as you could possibly imagine.

Wow! Well, we wish these musicians all the best in their New York City debut.

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Nathanael Pengrazio and soprano April Amante

Music at All Saints’ continued its new season last night with a concert titled, “Nathanael Pangrazio and Friends.” Composer Pangrazio is a Monterey Peninsula native in his twenties who received his first music instruction at the late age of 13 from Carmel pianist Barbara Ruzicka. In addition to his skills as a pianist, Pangrazio at an early age exhibited talent as a composer and by the time he was eighteen had been awarded commissions for performances at San Carlos Cathedral in Monterey, the Carmel Bach Festival, I Cantori, Camerata Singers and Hidden Valley Music Seminars. Presently living in Los Angeles, his works have been performed nationwide. He has composed for film and television, and is additionally engaged in a wide variety of musical activities.

It is not often that we have an opportunity to have a composer come to us and present in concert his own compositions (and also perform some of them). Actually, it did happen last summer when Philip Glass was heard here in a three-day festival of his own music. At that time, although there were many Philip Glass fans present, there were others who thought that, aside from his film scores, Mr. Glass might be committing compositional suicide by pursuing his obsession with minimalism. And, indeed, it did seem as though he had little to say, but kept saying it over and over again with endless, mind-numbing repetitions.

Thus, it is a pleasure to report that Nathanael Pangrazio does have much to say, and he says it effectively. Although his works are composed in a variety of styles and genres, he turns his back on many 20^th-century experiments that ultimately led nowhere, such as atonalism, twelve-tone serialism, musique concrête, aleatoric chance music and various experiments with the Moog synthesizer.

The overwhelming impression we have from hearing Pangrazio’s compositions is that he is not trying to impress or shock us with gimmicks and outrageous experiments. He is simply writing well-crafted music as he feels it, and as he thinks it. One of the reasons his music has such an immediate appeal is its grounding in the romanticism of the late 19^th century. Many recent contemporary composers have rather rudimentary keyboard skills, and we suspect that many of them don’t really like the piano at all, since they often mistreat it, bang on it, and even “prepare” it on occasion with foreign objects inserted on the strings and soundboard.

However, every work on Pangrazio’s program, with the exception of the final a capella selections, contained significant writing for the piano. Pangrazio has a love and respect for the piano, and you hear it in every note of his scores.  We also heard in his music a love for Sergei Rachmaninoff, for Pangrazio loads his music with rich romantic sonorities and beautiful-sounding piano figuration in accompaniment figures. I mean this as the greatest compliment, for Rachmaninoff’s music was for a hundred years demeaned by critics, one of whom said in the Fifth Edition of Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians (while Rachmaninoff was still alive), “his music finds little favor among musicians and its popularity is unlikely to outlast his lifetime.” Pangrazio’s spiritual affinity with Rachmaninoff is quite appropriate, since the wheel has come full circle and other composers today, like Pangrazio are aiming to write music that has immediate appeal. There was an interesting cumulative effect that became noticeable throughout this concert. Over and over again we became aware that Pangrazio had one very special gift in all his compositions, and this was how skillfully he ended each piece – often prolonging the mood with extended cadences or holding the last chord and listening to its gradual diminution. It was lovely.

The evening’s concert began with a performance of Pangrazio’s Piano Trio in C Minor performed by pianist Ayse Taspinar, violist Boryana Popova and cellist Chris Ahn. This is a work the composer wrote at age 16, and it was marvel of tender, romantic writing for the instruments and was played with a spontaneous grandeur that was well received by the audience.

Next we heard the lovely soprano voice of April Amante as she and Pangrazio performed four French art songs. Although it was so dark in All Saints’ Church that we couldn’t read the text or its translations, it was clearly obvious that Pangrazio has absorbed the styles of Debussy, Ravel, du Parc, Fauré and others, but also added some of his own flavors and contributed something very beautiful to the genre of the art song.

Pangrazio introduced us to violinist Boryana Popova, who had played so well in the Piano Trio and now appeared with Pangrazio at the piano to perform two “Violin Poems.” We heard a lovely tranquility in the first, and some profoundly disturbing agitation in the second. There was a lot of beautiful playing here.

Ending the first half was a performance by cellist Chris Ahn and pianist Pangrazio of the slow movement of Pangrazio’s Sonata for Cello and Piano. Before the performance began, I was wondering whether it would be reminiscent of Rachmaninoff’s slow movement of his Cello Sonata. Well, I was pleasantly surprised how Pengrazio found new ways to write for piano and cello so that each instrument sounded glorious. There were some very effective dissonances and a great climax to this piece.

After intermission we heard three Nocturnes for piano solo. The most wildly dramatic of the three was the first one played by guest pianist Anna Sarkisova. It sounded very difficult, but she played it with such authority, she made it look easy and it had a sense of inevitability about it. The other two Nocturnes were played by Pangrazio, in which he projected some lovely moments of serenity and dreamy ecstasy.

Winding up the program were three a capella choral works featuring singers from “Top Shelf A Capella Group” consisting of Grant Gordin, Lauren Hayes, Ramsey Kouri, Laurel Sanders. They were joined by special guests soprano April Amante and tenor Todd Samra, with Pangrazio conducting the ensemble. The three selections ran the gamut from a lovely “Kyrie” to a fine arrangement of “My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose.”

There was a good sized and enthusiastic audience of about 150, many of whom had known Pangrazio while he was a Monterey Peninsula resident and contributing so much to our musical community. We have much to be grateful to All Saints’ Church (the best acoustics on the Monterey Peninsula), its Rector Father Rick Matters, and all the people who helped make this new concert series such a resounding success.

To add to the success of this enchanting evening, the Church hosted a reception after the concert during which members of the audience mingled with the musicians.

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Violinist Michael Ludwig

You could certainly tell there was a big game on TV Sunday afternoon. The traffic on Highway One was lighter than I had ever seen it, there were hundreds of empty parking places in downtown Carmel, and there some conspicuously empty seats at the Sunday afternoon performance by the Monterey Symphony at Sunset Center.

Well, we hope that some of those symphony absentees will come Monday evening to hear the same program, for if they don’t, they will be missing an excellent concert featuring a new guest conductor, Peter Bay, and an exciting young violinist, Michael Ludwig.

The opening work on the program was Dvorák’s “My Home” (not to be confused with Smetana’s composition by the same name), and it turned out to be a pleasant, although not especially memorable, work. The most exciting musical event of the afternoon was violinist Ludwig’s powerfully expressive and moving performance of Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole. A musician of bold gestures and flamboyant expression, Ludwig gave us a whale of a performance. Especially effective was his performance of the last two movements, in which his rich sound in the Andante and his exciting virtuosity in the concluding Rondo brought the audience to its feet in a storm of applause and spontaneous bravos.

This concert concluded with Schumann’s Symphony No. 3, the “Rhenish,” and on this occasion the piece received a solid and nicely styled performance. Schumann’s use of brass choirs (the trombone playing was fabulous) was all too brief, but hearing this symphony reminds us how often Schumann is underrated as a symphonist. Curiously, at the end of the performance, the audience seemed somewhat subdued. There was no standing ovation for the orchestra and guest conductor, almost as though some of the male members of the audience wanted to nip home as quickly as possible to catch a portion of the big game.

Perhaps this is merely one more symptom of how classical music continues to take a back seat to sports.

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What has 24 legs, 12 souls and 1 voice? You guessed it. What makes Chanticleer the marvel that it is? I will tell you. Each singer is a soloist. Each singer is not an egotist. Ergo, the ensemble is made up of fabulous, unselfish artists who perform for the good of the whole, for the good of the music, and ultimately, for the good of our ears. I looked up the word “blend” in the dictionary and it read: see Chanticleer. Yes, the beauty of sound is overwhelming, the detail to dynamics is unparalleled, and the musicality is unmatched. The success of Chanticleer really lies in the fact that, in addition to the voices themselves, they listen to one another. They LISTEN. Sometimes, I think there is more listening going on than singing. How else could the attacks and cut offs be so precise? How else could the blend (again) be so pure? How else could the essence and message of the music be so unforgettably presented?

Case in point: at 6 pm on Wednesday, December 21, at the Carmel Mission, Chanticleer offered a variety of selections covering music from the late 1500’s to today. Each period of music, each season, was true to the time and to the composer. Each selection was treated as if it were gold; full of nuance, care and respect. Singing early works, an ensemble must be clear and clean, and so very much in tune. They were. To sing the “modern” pieces (A Hymn to the Virgin, Lulajze, Jezunin and Die Stimme des Kindes) an ensemble must be fearless, confident and very, very talented. They were. The modern works were my personal favorites because they were filled with such powerful dissonance and intricate moving lines. They were at a level of difficulty to which any musician should aspire.

If you did not hear Chanticleer this time around (or if have never heard Chanticleer) you MUST go next year. You MUST get your tickets NOW. If you don’t, “the angels will weep for you” (Shaw).

Soap box: Any performance by any performer in any discipline should be performed for the connoisseur. Chanticleer delivers.

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Reg Huston has been a concert soloist and has performed leading roles in opera and musical theater throughout the greater Monterey Peninsula for over thirty years.

Anne Thorp, President of the Carmel Music Society, addressed the audience at the beginning of last night’s concert at All Saints’ Church by the Gryphon Trio and told us that originally a different group of musicians had been scheduled for this evening’s concert. However, after they unexpectedly cancelled, the Society immediately booked the Gryphon Trio for a reengagement based on the enthusiastic response to the Trio’s previous appearance here a year ago. This was our good fortune!

The players, violinist Annalee Patipatanakoon, cellist Roman Borys and pianist Jamie Parker, generated a lot of excitement in their performance a year ago. Once again they had arrived here from their native Canada in winter, where we understand the lingering remnants of an early snowfall helps to remind Canadians what real winters are like. Added to their enjoyment of the Monterey Peninsula’s balmy weather, the musicians sounded at their best in the fabulous acoustical environment of Carmel’s All Saint’s Church.

Sometime we hear routine, academic performances of Haydn Piano Trios that sound like curtain raisers and warm-ups to what some might call the “really expressive” and “really exciting” music of the 19th and 20th centuries. This was certainly not the case last night, for the musicians gave us a hair-raisingly brilliant and satisfying performance of the Trio in G Major, Hob. XV:27. The dominant star here was pianist Jamie Parker, who was astonishing in his extraordinary and masterful playing. He has it all ― virtuosity, refined elegance, stylistic purity and the added panache of making it all look incredibly easy. In this work his partners had less important parts, especially cellist Borys who was basically playing a continuo part duplicating the bass line of the piano. Anyway, we had lots of opportunities to hear pianist Parker play beautiful passages that he imbued with more clarity and significance than we thought possible, and we heard a fantastically brilliant final Presto movement that was awesome. (“Hello, Guinness Book of Records. We want to report a new world’s record for the fastest final Presto movement of Haydn’s Piano Trio Hob. XV:27”).

In case anyone was feeling sorry for cellist Roman Borys having to noodle his way through the bass line of the Haydn Trio, in the opening moments of Dvořák’s “Dumky” Trio we suddenly heard Borys, the world-class cellist, suddenly emerge into the limelight and demonstrate how beautifully and expressively he can play. Wow! What gorgeous tone! It was fabulous, and there was much more to come. Violinist Patipatanakoon also was heard in some strong and earthy playing, and then we had pianist Parker showing us his nineteenth-century virtuosity that was big, bold and tremendously exciting. The “Dumky” trio is a dazzling work, full of gypsy rhythms, lovely melodies and constant contrast between agitated and more poignant moments.

Ending the program the musicians performed for us Beethoven’s Piano Trio in B-flat Major, Op. 97, the “Archduke Trio.” Coincidentally, we had heard the “Archduke Trio” a few weeks previously in Sunset Center, but the performance by members of the Gryphon Trio on this occasion was on an entirely different and more exalted level. It was a pleasure hearing this mighty work played by three musicians whose years of experience allowed it to emerge with new vitality and freshness.

The enthusiastic response by the audience brought us a reward of two encores, both by Piazzolla ― “Oblivion” and “Autumn.” The first was a surprise, for the expected Tango elements were subordinated to lovely schmaltzy melodies; however the second encore was like a Tango on meth. These were knockout performances.

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Julio Bragado-Young & Gillian Murphy 

With Conductor Max Bragado-Darman at the helm, the Monterey Symphony launched its second concert of the 2011-2012 season last night in the Performing Arts Center at the Steinbeck Institute of Arts and Culture (most of us will forever continue to refer to it by its former name, “Sherwood Hall”). We heard on this occasion an unusual program with only two works performed. However, these two works assumed special significance since one included a ballet performance by four distinguished dancers from the American Ballet Theatre, and the other featured a new beginning of collaboration between the Monterey Symphony and Youth Music Monterey.

The concert opened with an entertaining piece of nostalgia, “Who Cares?” consisting of Hershy Kay’s delightful symphonic arrangements of ten Gershwin songs featuring four dancers and choreography by George Balanchine. The dancers, Paloma Herrera, Gillian Murphy, Maria Riccetto and Julio Bragado-Young (son of Max Bragado-Darman), gave us an entertaining mix of classical ballet and the more jazzy dancing we associate with Broadway Musicals (it sometimes conjured up images of Cyd Charisse and Gene Kelly). There were several solos and pas de deux that created some nice moments of magical nostalgia about the 1920s, the “Charleston” and the “flapper” era. The Monterey Symphony players also captured the ambiance of the “Jazz-Age” and there were some great piano solos by Brenda Vahur. Audience response to the Gershwin was wild and enthusiastic.

The other work on the program was Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.2, sometimes called “Little Russian,” and on this occasion the Monterey Symphony was joined by seventeen members of Youth Music Monterey’s Honors Orchestra. Although members of the Honors Orchestra have appeared previously in youth concerts presented by the Monterey Symphony, this was the first time that these young students have joined side by side with members of the Monterey Symphony in a regular subscription concert. The young musicians have had rehearsals and mentoring with both YMM Conductor Larry Granger and with Monterey Symphony Conductor Max Bragado-Darman. This concert, for most of the young players, was probably the first time they had played with a major orchestra and will undoubtedly be an experience they will never forget. And make no mistake about it, this was not like playing Eine Kleine Nachtmusik in a string ensemble, for the score of Tchaikovsky’s Second Symphony is a large challenging work demanding instrumental mastery and mature musicianship.

Well, we heard plenty of that on this occasion, and one of the most stirring moments was observing 17-year-old percussionist, Gabrielle Micheletti, giving us an unforgettable demonstration of timpani playing at its finest. The sight of her as one of two timpanists side by side on stage in perfect and thrilling synchronicity in the climatic movements of the Tchaikovsky’s last movement was something that I would like to go on YouTube and see over and over again.

There was a large audience in attendance last night, and it was a family audience with some very young children who were remarkably attentive and well behaved. I wondered how many of them were probably studying instruments privately and someday in the next few years might be joining the young professionals on stage. Well, when it happens, we will be there to hear them.

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Nikki Chooi 

The first concerto on the program was Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61, and it served to remind us that we don’t hear this concerto as often as we should. It is an extraordinary work from beginning to end, and on this occasion it received an extraordinary performance by 22-year-old guest artist Nikki Chooi. He turned out to be a violinist of formidable gifts who managed to hold our attention for forty-five minutes while transporting us us on a magical journey that displayed his command of his instrument and love for the work he was performing. Sitting toward the rear of the 700-seat Mello Center, his solid, vibrant tone, always meticulously in tune (even in the highest registers and in occasional harmonics) easily filled the hall and was always commanding and full bodied. This was also a stylish performance with not a hint of gratuitous technical display, since every note, every phrase and every musical gesture served a musical purpose. This was a performance to be treasured ― mature, insightful, and masterful from beginning to end.

Aaron Miller

The second concerto of the afternoon was Mozart’s Concerto in C Minor, K.491, with soloist Aaron Miller, who first appeared with the Santa Cruz Symphony when he was twelve years old. Miller has an unusual career, for he has one foot in academia (he is on the faculty of UC Berkeley’s Center for Korean Studies), yet is involved in a wide variety of significant musical activities. His appearance as soloist today in the Mozart C Minor Concerto certainly proved that his pianistic skills and refined musicianship have not lost their edge. He served us a fleet and stylish account of this important concerto (with cadenzas by Paul Badura-Skoda) and even surprised us with some discreet, but very effective added ornaments and embellishments in the second movement. The last movement of this concerto (some of it so largely scaled with an imposing, richly textured piano part, that it at times sounded like Beethoven), brought out some powerful emotional playing by Miller and the exciting coda was thrilling.

Ending the afternoon’s concert was a performance by Chetan Tierra of that perennial favorite, Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto. We have heard Tierra twice previously in the Santa Cruz area, once playing the Prokofiev Third Piano Concerto with the Santa Cruz Symphony and once at a magnificent solo recital at Cabrillo College. Performances of the Tchaikovsky First Piano Concerto run the gamut from mellow and solid at one extreme to violent and brutal at the other. Tierra’s account on this occasion tended toward the violent and brutal, and although he convinced us that he can play octaves louder and faster than Vladimir Horowitz, some of the more musical qualities of this concerto were lost in a maelstrom of virtuosity. However, if success can be gauged by the degree of enthusiastic audience approval, then this was a very successful performance, indeed.

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By any standard it was a “Gala” occasion! It was the concluding event in the 2011 Paderewski Festival, and we had among us in the Grand Ballroom of the Paso Robles Inn the Consulate General from the Polish Republic, the Mayor of Paso Robles, the Mayor of Tarnow, Poland, the entire Paderewski Festival Board, and many other distinguished guests. Someone quipped that Barack Obama had sent his regrets, which is just as well, for otherwise we might have been knee deep in Secret Service agents and sniper teams on the rooftops. Well, anyway it was dramatic enough without Mr. Obama’s presence, and it was also an occasion where every distinguished guest seemed to be giving other distinguished guests very nice token gifts. The most impressive were the honorary gold medals presented by the Polish Consulate General Joanna Kozińska to Festival President Joel Peterson, Artistic Director Marek Zebrowski, Frank Mecham, John Hamon, Steve Cass, and a few other honorees, whose names I couldn’t quite hear.

After the gala festivities there was also a gala concluding recital by pianist Eduard Kunz performing on the fine Hamburg Steinway concert grand provided by Sherman Clay. Mr. Kunz is an artist with an extraordinary variety of colors on his pianistic palette. Never before had I heard so many different shades of piano and pianissimo, so expressively used and in so many imaginative (although not always logical) ways. This is not to say that he couldn’t bang out a fortissimo when the occasion needed it, and there were times when he played so loudly I imagined I saw some plaster flaking down from the ceiling. Thus, there was a lot of contrast during Mr. Kunz’s performance. There were sublime quiet moments as in his performance of Rachmaninoff’s “Moment Musical” in B Minor, the melancholic Chopin Waltz in A Minor, Op. 34, No. 2, and the Rachmaninoff transcription of his song “Lilacs.” But, there were also the “Damn the Torpedoes and Full Speed Ahead” moments as in the Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12 and the Chopin E Minor Waltz, where it just wasn’t possible to play certain passages any louder or faster than he did on this occasion.

However, as pianist-composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk once said as he was about to go out on stage and impress an audience with some splashy virtuosity, “Well, a hundred years from now it will matter little.” The audience seemed to love Mr. Kunz’s playing and was rewarded with a single encore ― the Liszt-Paganini Etude in E Major. You won’t ever hear it better played, or with more abandon. The glissando passages were absolutely spectacular in their simplicity and ease.

One curious feature of this recital was Mr. Kunz’s need of a page turner during the first half of the recital, especially since the pages being turned were not from some thorny, impossible-to-memorize contemporary works, but instead represented relatively easy familiar repertoire that intermediate piano students memorize easily and routinely. One other puzzling aspect was Mr. Kunz’s departure from the program printed in the Festival Program that kept some people in the audience somewhat confused about where we were, where we had been, and where we were going.

Well, as Mr. Gottschalk said, “A hundred years from now it will matter little.”

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Joel Peterson, Sofia Talarico, Elizabeth Lee, Kevin Park, Daniel Ha & Madeline Anderson

A capacity audience gathered yesterday afternoon in the grand ballroom of the Paso Robles Inn to hear the Winners’ Recital of the 2011 Paderewski Festival Youth Piano Competition. On hand for the event was an enthusiastic audience of devoted fans of the Festival, plus a surprising number of young children. Master of ceremonies for the occasion was Festival President Joel Peterson who greeted the audience and paid tribute to the generosity of donors and supporters who make this event possible. Special thanks were given to Artistic Director Marek Zebrowski and David Dumont of Sherman Clay who helped provide a magnificent Hamburg Steinway concert grand for the Festival’s use.

Peterson handed over the microphone to the Honorable Joanna Kozinńska, Consulate General of the Republic of Poland from Los Angeles, who praised the young winners and expressed her hopes that all their artistic dreams may someday come true. She also mentioned that it gave her spirits quite a lift to arrive in Paso Robles and see flags of the Polish Republic being displayed in honor of the twentieth anniversary of Poland’s independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Joel Peterson then introduced the young winners as each came to the stage to perform pieces they had played during the Youth Piano Competition. Peterson said that the Festival was especially proud to launch a new award this year, the “Paderewski Legacy Award,” to honor a gifted young performer who is a resident of San Luis Obispo County. The winner of the award, Sofia Talarico, 11, a resident of Atascadero and a piano pupil of Torsten Juul-Borre, gave a charming bow to the audience and played that perennial favorite by Beethoven, Fűr Elise.

Third Place Winner in the Junior Division, Elizabeth Lee, 10, a resident of Pacific Grove, who studies piano with Lyn Bronson of Carmel, California, performed “Knight Errant” by Friedrich Burgműller.

Second Place Winner in the Junior Division, Kevin Park, 10, who lives in Santa Maria and studies piano with Lynne Garrett performed two works — Chopin’s Waltz in A Minor, Op. 34, No. 2, and Beethoven’s Rondo in C Major, Op/ 51, No. 1

First Place Winner in the Junior Division, Daniel Ha, 11, lives in Nipomo and is currently studying piano with Lynne Garrett. He also performed two pieces, the first movement of Beethoven’s Sonata No. 1 and the last movement from Dimitry Kabalevsky’s Sonatina, Op. 13, No. 1

Ending the Winners’ Concert was a performance by Senior Division First Place Winner Madeline Anderson, 15, a resident of Monterey who studies piano with Lyn Bronson of Carmel. Madeline performed Chant du Voyageur by Paderewski and the Rigoletto Paraphrase by Liszt.

After the concert the winners were recalled to the stage for a final round of applause, presentation of awards and a photo opportunity for proud parents and members of the Paderewski Festival Board.

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