Ken Turner

Writer, pianist, pundit

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2018 Site Reset and Recital Reviews

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Ken Turner at Carnegie Hall

The Author outside Carnegie Hall

Site History

I had a lot of fun blogging about current affairs when I started kenturner.net in 2012. But everything changed when I took up learning the piano in July 2014 at the age of 63.

Piano Recital Reviews

Over time, my site drifted to contain mostly piano recital reviews. But it is devilishly hard to write a personalized recital review and publish it in a timely fashion, particularly if you already have a full-time job. Writing reviews started to feel too much like work, and unfortunately I did not review of some best concerts of 2017.

Seon-Jin Cho

I most regret not reviewing Seon-Jin Cho‘s February 2017 Carnegie recital. I recall how skinny the pianist was, how restrained the first half of the recital seemed, and how he came wildly alive after the intermission. And I remember endless shrieks of delight from younger female members of the audience as the pianist stuck jagged poses for Chopin, eclipsing even Lang Lang at his most showy.

Site Reset

My reviews are a personal record of recitals I have attended, but they are a sideline. Now retired, I have time to blog about my primary interest: discovering the piano as an older adult. I started learning piano 55 years too late (by some accounts), but the experience has been life-changing.

This week I start work on the new face of kenturner.net. No content will be deleted, but links to existing posts may change. I hope to use URL redirects to minimize breakage in review links, but that’s just a theory at this point.

Pianist Han Chen at Central Park West

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Robin Shoemaker with Han Chen, May 20th 2017

At the May 20th 2017 concert at the Shoemaker salon on Central Park West, Han Chen played romantic era works by Scriabin, Schubert and Liszt.  He also played the hybrid Bach-Busoni Chaconne. What a swoon-fest!

Bach-Busoni: Chaconne in D minor

Ferrucio Busoni’s arrangement of Bach’s ethereal Violin Partita No. 2 applies romantic piano technique to baroque underpinnings. Han Chen’s signature touch was to reign in Bach’s crescendos to a precise but somber procession of thunderclaps, and then cut loose to a hectic race into the high arpeggios.

The acoustics of the Shoemaker salon were perfect for this work, enriching and damping the dominant bass. And yet, there was a detached, clinical feel to Mr. Chen’s rubato that left me wanting less cultivated drama and more instinctive passion.

Scriabin: Fantasy, Op. 28

The Scriabin Fantasy in B minor Op. 28  is a sweeping, sonorous work. I enjoyed the oceanic feel delivered by Han Chen, and was struck by his ability to bring out the color in Scriabin’s complex harmonies.

Schubert: Wanderer Fantasy, Op. 15, D. 760

In the Schubert, as with the Scriabin, Han Chen again demonstrated nuanced partial-pedal coloring. At times his right hand seemed like a passel of faeries dancing tiptoe across the upper registers. At other times his Schubert sounded Schubertianly (sic) ponderous. This is somewhat the nature of the Wanderer Fantasy, coming from the early part of the romantic era.

Liszt: Sonata in B Minor

Han Chen plays Liszt at Central Park West

Han Chen plays Liszt chez Shoemaker

Punctuated at the beginning and the end by a low staccato G, the great Liszt B Minor piano sonata is about half an hour long. This demanding work is so well-known that it has to be delivered with compelling authority, and Han Chen had no difficulty doing so.

From its deceptively simple opening to its keyboard-cracking crescendos, the slight Mr. Chen was totally on top of Liszt’s Sonata and performed it with impressive power and panache. Liszt broke pianos while playing works such as this, so I had to wonder whether Mr. Chen’s hands hurt afterwards. My ears certainly did.

Han Chen

I had no idea what to expect of Han Chen, other than the technical excellence that we take for granted in Julliard musicians. But at the end of the day, Mr. Chen’s Liszt Sonata overshadowed the rest of his program. It left most of us stunned, and your reviewer’s ears ringing.

In his closing remarks, our host Robin Shoemaker noted that in just a few days Han Chen would be participating in the Van Cliburn Competition. We wish Mr. Chen the best of luck: he certainly seems up to the challenge.

Li, Lipkina, Zimmerman: a Concert of Contrasts

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Three talented performers and host Robin at Central Park West

Zimmerman, Lipkina, Li, Shoemaker, NYC 2017-04-29

The three musicians at Robin Shoemaker’s Central Park West salon on April 29th were very different, except in one aspect: excellence. Each would have held our attention in solo recital, but thanks to our gracious host we got to experience them all.

Ning-Yuen Li

Ning-Yuen Li delivered a solid Haydn Sonata in C Major No. 58 Hob. XVI. His powered articulation gave Haydn a warm glow. But Ning’s special contribution to the evening was his gorgeous performance of Chopin’s Ballade No. 2 in F Major Op. 38. During this alternately serene and disturbed work Ning would lean far into the Steinway, as if to polish the keyboard with his distinctive forelock. Some pianists employ such theatrics for drama, but here it arose from Ning’s deep connection with the instrument and a very obvious love of Chopin (check out his F Minor Ballade).

Natasha Lipkina

Natasha Lipkina is one of the most accomplished musicians that I have had the pleasure of meeting. She and Ning delivered an enjoyable off-program partnership of violin and piano. This included a Telemann Fantasia and Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No.4 Op. 23. If their collaboration was unscheduled, that was not evident. They played as one from the sheet music, professionals to the core.

Margrit Zimmerman

When  Margrit Zimmerman joined us, Ms. Lipkina came into her own. Where Ning and Natasha together were at times a dueling duet, Margrit was restrained, slipping from foreground to background as called for. This sacrifice of self to the partnership is what we ask of the collaborative pianist, and it allowed Ms. Lipkina’s viola to shine.

Schubertiana

And shine it did! In Schubert’s all too short Litany for All Souls Day (arr. William Primrose), Natasha’s rendition was poignant but clean enough to avoid sentimentality. In his Arpeggione Sonata in A Minor D. 821, she showed her mastery of Viennese drawing-room lyricism. At the same time, she had a Haendel-like precision that made Schubert’s outbursts of dance crisply humorous and delightful. This was a musician at the peak of her art.

Contrasts

When I experience a performance such as that of Ms. Lipkina, I am profoundly stirred. But it would be unfair to single her out because each of these musicians brought their own unique flavor to the evening, such that the whole was greater than the sum of the contrasting parts.