Translating inner worlds to an external audience is no easy feat.
But veteran pianist Emanuel Ax achieved just that in a solo recital of two Beethoven sonatas paired with two complementary sonatas composed by Robert Schumann.
Playing from memory to another sold-out posse of Friends of Chamber Music patrons at Gates Concert Hall on Tuesday night, Ax – a familiar face to Colorado concertgoers – was masterful in his evenhanded approach to making each well- known work sound fresh.
Intellectually adroit as he is technically dexterous, Ax delivered a reading of Beethoven’s Sonata No. 2 in A Major that was slow and pondering in the second of four movements, even academic at times. Yet Ax didn’t stop there – his capacity to grasp the theoretical construct of music serves only to undergird his stirring delivery of the emotional heart of it.
Sinking into each note with careful deliberation and just the right measure of intensity, the unassuming virtuoso deftly drew out the melodic lines that, in less capable hands, are too easily hidden among clustered harmonies. The extended scherzo movement was played with swift precision, and the final rondo movement was brilliantly crisp.
In Schumann’s improvisational Fantasy in C Major, Ax’s poetic impulses illuminated the harmonically lush, if fragmented, themes. Arguably Schumann’s greatest piano work, it is unified by a musical motive from Beethoven’s song cycle “An die ferne Geliebte.”
Continuing with Schumann’s character piece “Papillons” after intermission, Ax delved into the colorful carnival feeling of the airy, playful work. Here, too, he not only shaped each delicate nuance with tenderness and exactitude, but held the silences between musical thoughts with exquisite timing.
In Beethoven’s furious and fervent “Appassionata,” Ax’s extraordinary endurance bore out the trills, tremolos and deep rumbles of the mighty work with controlled ardor.
The only distraction to the sheer artistry that unfolded on stage was a mysterious high- pitched ambient sound that recurred throughout the evening.
