The treasure that is the Tri-Cities Opera Center served to showcase yet another treasure on Sunday March 21. On this, the 200th anniversary of the birth of Frederick Chopin, four extremely gifted pianists presented a program never before heard in its entirety in this area. They masterfully performed Chopin’s 24 Preludes, (Op. 28), and the 24 Etudes, (Opp. 10 and 25) in front of a spellbound audience.
Rhimmon Simchy-Gross, Erika Tazawa, Dai Yi, and Sean Carmichael are students at the Crane School of Music at SUNY Pottsdam, under the tutelage of Paul Wyse, an internationally known lecturer and master teacher at the school. Wyse is justifiably proud of his charges, and he brought them here to perform in the spring recital of our own “Classical Pianists of the future.”
Any of them could have performed alone, and whould have left an audience thankful that such talent still exists, and so close to home. The four artists together forged a performance so powerful that Chopin himself – had he heard it – would have smiled and said “That is exactly what I meant!”
The artists took turns at the beautiful Bechstein concert grand piano, and presented the Preludes, then the Etudes, in a seamless performance that brought out the composer’s original intent, and at the end they received an ovation exceeding any I have ever heard in this area.
The afternoon was also graced by the presence of Judy Berry, a wonderfully gifted soprano, who sang three Chopin songs especially for this occasion. She said that she had just learned them for this recital, but I had no difficulty in believing that a least one of them was written with her in mind.
The program was the latest in a series of recitals presented by Alvin H. Williams III and Lance G Hill, co-founders of Classical Pianists of the future. Their organization is dedicated to keeping the music of the masters alive and well, and to bringing outstanding young keyboard talent to this area to enchant us with their performances. Messrs. Williams and Hill are already hard at work on the Fall recital, and I am certain it will be as captivating as this one has been. You can follow their efforts, and read more about the artists at classicalpianistsofthefuture.org.
Reviewd by Howard James Tuckey, author and music critic, Lisle, NY – March 29, 2010
