United States Mozart – Mitsuko Uchida Master Class: Matthew Figel, Evren Ozel, Tomoki Park, Xiaohui Yang (piano). Resnick Education Wing, Carnegie Hall, NY, 1.3.2023. (RP)
Mozart – Piano Concerto No.25 in C main, Ok.503; Piano Concerto No.27 in B-flat main, Ok.595
‘I dislike masterclasses!’ was Dame Mitsuko Uchida’s welcome to these gathered to look at her mentor 4 pianists at Carnegie Hall. The foundation for her disdain is a private dislike of being taught herself.
The 74-year-old pianist and conductor is particularly identified for her interpretations of the music of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Schumann. As a Carnegie Hall Perspectives Artist, she shall be an everyday presence there for the following two years, after having been absent from its levels since 2009.
Uchida’s performances this season embrace a latest recital wherein she performed Beethoven’s ultimate three piano sonatas (evaluate click on right here) and an upcoming live performance with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra wherein she’s going to conduct and seem as a soloist in Mozart’s Piano Concertos No.25 and No.27.
She figures prominently in subsequent season’s schedule with duo performances that discover the music of Schubert, together with Winterreise with tenor Mark Padmore and an all-Schubert program with pianist Jonathan Biss. Leading the Mahler Chamber Orchestra from the keyboard, she’s going to once more carry out Mozart piano concertos, in addition to seem as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin in Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G main.
Carnegie Hall’s Executive and Artistic Director Clive Gillinson had the chance to interview Uchida on the occasion saying the 2023/24 season. He started by asking why she selected to concentrate on Schubert for the upcoming Perspective Series. He by no means had the possibility to ask one other query. For the time allotted, and maybe extra, Uchida defined why Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert have been so essential to her as a musician.
She mentioned that whereas Mozart and Beethoven have been maybe extra technically proficient, Schubert was an identical genius. His accomplishments have been much more exceptional as a result of he got here from a relatively humble background. As to what made Schubert’s music so particular, it was the sense of longing in it, which no different composer has ever been capable of specific so completely in music.
The music of Mozart, nonetheless, was the main focus of her grasp class the next afternoon, particularly the 2 piano concertos that she’s going to carry out with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra later within the month. Four younger pianists carried out as pairs, every taking turns enjoying the solo half and the piano discount of the orchestral rating. Xiaohui Yang and Evren Ozel partnered within the Concerto No.25, and Matthew Figel and Tomoki Park in No. 27.
Before a word was performed, Uchida had phrases of knowledge to impart. She informed the pianists that it’s important for a soloist to know your entire rating of a concerto so as to uncover what the composer supposed to specific. Uchida urged them to view Mozart’s piano concertos as small operas with the piano and principal wind instrument because the singers. It is by discovering and interesting within the musical drama in Mozart’s music {that a} performer can unlock the secrets and techniques of a rating and specific them by way of their enjoying.
She additionally suggested that the story surrounding a piece’s composition is integral to understanding it. Mozart was at very completely different levels of his life when he composed the 2 concertos, which is essential to know to understand and interpret them.
Completed in 1786, the Concerto in C main is a monumental work, virtually symphonic in scale. In that 12 months, Mozart carried out some 20 concert events, however this concerto was his final hurrah as piano virtuoso of the second. The B-flat main concerto was his ultimate work within the style, and its premiere in 1791 was the final time Mozart carried out in public previous to his loss of life later that 12 months. Uchida noticed that he had been saying farewell in his music since 1788 however, on this concerto, one senses that he meant it.
For such an eloquent speaker, Uchida spoke surprisingly little as soon as the pianists started. All performed a motion of their respective concertos with out interruption. After they completed, Uchida mentioned nothing about method and gave virtually no insights relating to interpretation within the conventional sense. Rather, she targeted on the harmonic construction of the items.
However, she did play, alternating between performing the solo half or accompanying one of many 4 as they did so. It was as if phrases have been insufficient for her to information them on their respective paths to find the feelings imbedded within the notes. It was one thing that this most insightful and articulate of artists was solely capable of impart by way of sound: a language that the 4 younger pianists understood higher than anybody else current.
Rick Perdian