# Gilles Vonsattel March 30



## hreichgott

My wife and I got to hear Gilles Vonsattel perform at the University of Massachusetts in a demanding solo recital last Saturday night. He played Beethoven/Bagatelles Op. 126, Holliger/Partita for Piano, Ravel/Sonatine, Honegger/Homage to Ravel, and Ravel/Gaspard de la nuit.

First of all, Vonsattel is a truly excellent pianist. He plays with perfect control and efficiency. About his technique, all I have to say is that this is the first time I have seen anyone make Gaspard look easy. Especially at the end of a two-hour program when any pianist must be exhausted. His phrasing, projection of line and expressiveness were quite lovely and each piece in this large variety had its own distinct type of playing. Personally, I would have appreciated a bit more drama in the Ravel and a bit less rubato in the Beethoven, but those are just personal preferences and his choices were objectively quite excellent. The essential character of those Bagatelles, as if a hero is almost but not quite ready to lay down his arms and contemplate the end of his life, was beautifully done.

Vonsattel's stage presence, visually (not his playing!), is a bit distant and even distracted, as if he forgets the audience is there. Not everyone has to be Lang Lang -- one is more than enough -- but at the end of the Honegger he did not sit back or give any other visual cue to show that the piece was over, and as no one in the small hall was familiar enough with the piece to know that it was over, no one had a chance to applaud, until after he launched right into the beginning of Gaspard and we audience members sort of looked at each other guiltily realizing that we had lost our chance at applause.

This was my first exposure to Holliger's Partita. It is the sort of contemporary music that is built entirely of gestures: not much rhythm, line, harmony or melody. The gestures range from gentle to dramatic to ethereal strums directly on the strings. It is quite inventive and brilliantly put together. Also rather lengthy. Vonsattel played it with gusto and it was clear that he meant every single gesture. This particular style within contemporary composition is not my cup of tea, but that's another personal opinion that must stand aside from the objective quality of the work. To give an example of the structure here is a brief account of the beginning of the opening movement, the Prelude:
00:15 There are loud dissonant things followed by quiet consonant things.
00:20 The consonant things are created by pedaling only certain notes from the loud dissonant things. Cool effect!
01:00 It's still a cool effect, but it is getting a little boring and repetitive.
01:45 Wait, there are other relationships here. The sequence of dissonant and consonant things has some sort of logic to it.
02:30 I can start to follow what's happening with the consonances. It's a little like a very stretched-out, interrupted Bach chorale. And the loud dissonances are a little bit verbal in nature. Like singing and shouting in the same piece. Genius.

The most effective performance of the evening, in my opinion, was Le gibet, the second movement of Gaspard de la nuit. It was haunting and beautiful and ever so quietly scary. I am not sure I breathed during the entire movement.


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## Novelette

Sounds like a phenomenal concert, Heather! I can't pretend that I'm not a little jealous.


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