Anton Kuerti isn’t well- known, and that’s a shame.
The Austrian-born pianist – who grew up in the United States and has spent most of his life in Canada – is surely among the world’s finest. In his stop in Denver on Friday night, he garnered three well-deserved standing ovations for his performance of Robert Schumann’s popular and pleasing Piano Concerto in A minor.
With fellow Canadian Peter Oundjian conducting the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Kuerti delivered an artful, expressive performance of a work replete with mood shifts that overlay a unifying theme.
Schumann’s compositions aren’t flashy, and neither is Kuerti. The concerto isn’t an attempt to show off pianistic virtuosity, although it requires considerable technical aptitude, which Kuerti possesses.
Rather, the concerto is an introspective, intellectual exploration of the inconsistency of human emotions, both sunny and dark. It was here that Kuerti proved himself a master, deftly and deliberately taking his time to shape each delicate phrase, much as an experienced actor who understands that the key to effective delivery of a script is timing, expression and inflection. The notes, or words, on a page become merely a means to end.
Especially in the graceful Intermezzo movement, the unwavering warmth and radiating resonance of Kuerti’s touch enlivened the score’s lush melodic themes, setting the stage for the rhythmic, dance-like conclusion in which a sense of yearning happily resolves into joy.
The sparse but attentive audience at Boettcher Concert Hall was also treated to Oundjian’s proficient delivery of Haydn’s Symphony No. 22 in E-flat Major. The four-movement work, known as “The Philosopher” symphony, promenades the listener through a musical landscape that is sometimes meditative and stately, sometimes jaunty. The rippling, high-speed finale was especially invigorating.
Punctuating the orchestra’s superior performance was Alice Rybak’s first-rate harpsichord playing in the Haydn symphony.
