Thursday, April 11, 2013

Lifschitz plays Schubert's last three sonatas: at times uneven, but all sublime


Apr. 10 at the National Concert Hall, Konstatin Lifschitz playing Schubert's last piano sonatas: D.958 in C Minor, D.959 in A Major, and D.960 in B-Flat Major. This is a marathon of a program, to be sure, and it comes hot on the heels of Lifschitz's earlier concert on the 8th, in which he played another marathon of Beethoven's last three sonatas. Unfortunately I neglected to hear his Beethoven, but after seeing what everyone had to say about that concert, I decided not to miss his Schubert.

I tried very hard to like the first part of Lifschitz's program, Schubert's C Minor sonata, but as the intermission approached I started to feel rather disappointed with his performance. I don't know if it's owing to him having a bad day, or if it is the piece that is to blame — granted, I don't believe Schubert was writing as his personal best in this sonata: he presents a wealth of material, which is not always fully developed (this is, after all, Schubert, and not Beethoven or Haydn). But the way Lifschitz handled it seemed at times haphazard, lacking a sense of coherency. I was particularly befuddled with the way he treated Schubert's contrapuntal lines in the second movement — completely muddled; in addition, the general lack of structure made the numerous Generalpausen sound as if they were thrown in as afterthoughts, and not contributing to the music as a whole. 

However, whatever problems Lifschitz had in the first piece, they were gone after the intermission. The A Major sonata sounded lusciously unified and tight, with a wonderful palette of tone colors in the outer movements, and a palpitating sense of tension in between the notes of the slow movement. Here is also a musician who appreciates silences, much as what Leopold Mozart says separates the good from the bad. 

Somewhat abnormally, Lifschitz has another intermission before the rightfully famous B-Flat Major sonata. In my opinion, Lifschitz used a bit too much pedal in the third theme section of the first movement — I like to hear the theme played detatched, but that’s just my taste. In any case, my nit picking didn’t detract the least from the sublime atmosphere Lifschitz painted with his excellent palette of colors in the first movement. The second movement, however, saw another one of my dissatisfactions tonight: for all his skill, Lifschitz does not seem to transcend beyond the limitations of the piano (which is, after all, a percussion instrument by its nature), and quite a bit of the slow movement seemed overtly harsh and percussive. My guess is that that kind of touch would sound exactly right on a fortepiano. The final movement is, in my opinion, the best example of how any rondo movement should be played: full of unexpected twists and turns, with each reinstatement of the theme sounding as both a surprise and a relief from the tension built up in between. From the B-Flat Major sonata alone, one can tell that this is definitely a pianist who has thought carefully about his art, and although I daresay that his performance of this piece today was not as magical as I when I heard Pollini play in the Berlin Philharmonie in 2011, it nevertheless is an extremely well-crafted and solid performance, by an artist well in confidence of his supreme artistry. The encore, No.6 of Schubert’s Moments Musicaux, was equally a delight, bringing today’s marathon performance of Schubert’s last piano sonatas to a wonderful close.