Arts & Events

Veteran pianist Garrick Ohlsson gave a masterful recital on Sunday, December 6 at Zellerbach Hall. Originally from White Plains, New York, Mr. Ohlsson now makes his home in San Francisco. He was heard last Fall with the San Francisco Symphony at Davies Hall in Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto conducted by Juraj Valčuha, (See my review of that concert in the October 17, 2014 issue of this paper.) At Zellerbach this Sunday, Mr. Ohlsson featured Beethoven’s Sonata No. 31 in A-flat major, Op. 110, Schubert’s Fantasy in C major, D. 760, “Wanderer,” and, after intermission, selections from Enrique Granados’s Goyescas.  

Playing without scores throughout the entire recital, Garrick Ohlsson lavished his admirable technique and interpretive sensitivity upon these major works for the piano. The Beethoven Op. 110 was a contemplative wonder. In this sonata, composed in 1821, Beethoven eschews the titanic struggles and dramatic contrasts of his middle-period sonatas, here immersing us in a harmonious world of pure music, almost devoid of human passion, or rather, beyond human passion. (Where passion is concerned, Beethoven’s friend and biographer Anton Schindler claimed that Beethoven intended to dedicate this sonata to Antonie Brentano, whom Maynard Solomon convincingly identified as the “Immortal Beloved,” although this dedication was omitted through the publisher’s oversight.)  

The Op. 110 sonata begins with a movement in sonata form, from which all contrast fades away in favor of a bright, sunny affirmation. The second movement, marked Allegro molto, offers spirited renderings of themes from Austrian folksongs for which Beethoven had supplied piano accompaniments a year earlier in 1820. The third and final movement is a lengthy discourse offering a mournful arioso dolente that leads to a fugue. This fugue, however, has none of the titanic tensions that Beethoven explored in his last years. Rather, this is a crystal-clear, joyful and songful fugue. As played by Garrick Ohlsson, this sonata was exemplary as a statement of pure music and open-hearted affirmation. 

Next on the program was Franz Schubert’s “Wanderer” Fantasy in C major., composed in 1822. Although Schubert himself never referred to this piece as the “Wanderer” Fantasy, this sobriquet stuck because Schubert took as the thematic material for this Fantasy his own 1816 song, Der Wanderer. Here he wove a tightly knit hybrid of sonata and variation forms, fashioning a work that, upon publication in 1823, was immediately acclaimed as one of Schubert’s finest compositions. Robert Schumann praised this Fantasy, noting that “Schubert would like in this work to condense the whole orchestra into two hands.” The variety of pianistic moods in the “Wanderer” Fantasy is astounding. Schumann saw in the opening movement a “hymn to the Godhead,” complete with angels praying. The second movement, an Adagio, offers a graceful set of meditations based on a voice-part from Schubert’s Der Wanderer song. The third movement is a lively scherzo based on a lyrical melody from the first movement. The Finale begins with fugal material, whose counterpoint eventually morphs into a brilliant series of transformations of the Fantasy’s principal theme. Here, too, as in the Beethoven Op. 110 sonata that preceded it, one had no doubt that, especially as played by Garrick Ohlsson, Schubert’s “Wanderer” Fantasy ranks among the masterworks for piano. 

After intermission, Ohlsson returned to play selections from Enrique Granados’s Goyescas, o Los majos enamorados/Goyescas, or The Majos in Love. These pieces for piano, composed in 1909-1911, were inspired by Granados’s admiration for the paintings of Goya. Hence its title, which means something like “Sketches in the manner of Goya.” Its subtitle suggests a series of meditations on love and death among the majos, the lower-class denizens of Madrid’s demi-monde, who figured in many of Goya’s most famous paintings, such as “The Naked Maja” and “The Clothed Maja.”  

The first selection played by Garrick Ohlsson, Los Requiebros/Flatteries, is in the style of a jota, a Spanish dance from the northeastern region of Aragon. Ohlsson brought out all the lively interplay of a lovers’ dialogue, now coquettish, now imploring. In the second selection, El Fandango de Candil/The Fandango by Candle-Light, Ohlsson delicately sketched the moods of a dancing couple of lovers, who alternate from the sensuous rhythms of their lively dance to moments of passionate embrace. The third of the Goyescas, entitled Quejas, o la Maja y el Ruiseñor/Laments, or the Maja and the Nightingale, is a dreamy, tender piece that Granados dedicated to his wife. It depicts a young maiden’s nocturnal song echoed back to her by a nightingale. As fashioned by Garrick Ohlsson, this was my favorite of the Granados Goyescas. For the final work by Granados, Ohlsson chose a 1915 piece, also inspired by Goya, entitled El Pelele/The Straw Man. This is a lively, carefree work depicting a game in which young men and women toss a straw manikin into the air from a blanket. There was a delightful charm in the way Ohlsson brought out the playful whimsy of this piece. 

As encores, Ohlsson played two pieces by Chopin -- the Waltz in E flat, No. 1, 

and a meditative Nocturne. All in all, it was a masterful recital by one of our finest and most sensitive pianists.