PianoArts 2014, Collaborative Recital - Priscilla Navarro

Great program opener: Los requiebros from Goyescas, Op. 11 by Granados. Navarro shared with us that Granados found inspiration for these pieces from Goye (spelling? I'll come back and correct when I can!), a Spanish painter. The title, Goyescas, means inspired by Goye. And the title of this first piece, Los requiebros, means flattery. Priscilla's sensitive touch and excellent technique are well-matched to this piece. Granados is a serious composer for pianists. His piano compositions are big and demanding. Priscilla played this piece beautifully.

Her collaborative piece is Schumann's Fantasiestucke for cello and piano, Op. 73. Cellist, Adrien Zitoun, is joining Navarro for this piece. Priscilla's voicing right away was warm and sensitive to both the music itself and the cellist. The two make a wonderful duo. Navarro's phrasing and coloring  are exquisite. Similar to Shumann's concerto, the pianist has many broken chords supporting the melody. This suite is gorgeous, but has many passages that lie rather awkwardly under the hands. Additionally, this suite, built of three movements, has almost a stream-of-consciousness feeling to it within each movement as well as in the work as a whole. It can be (and is by our performers today) played straight through with almost no pause between movements. Each movement develops the thought of the previous movement a bit more, expanding and adding to the first movements idea.

Navarro is playing the first movement of Beethoven's third piano concerto in C minor, Op. 37. Stefanie Jacob is playing the orchestral reduction for Navarro. Navarro gave us a few thoughts about the concerto: All five of Beethoven's piano concerti are distinctive, however, this third concerto is really a path to the future in Beethoven's developing musical self. It has turbulent emotions and is much more direct and muscular. While this movement is in C minor, the second movement is in E major, a key very distant from C minor. Indeed, they do not have anything in common. Even today, this extreme key difference creates a breath-taking contrast, but especially in Beethoven's time this sort of key change was highly unusual and unexpected. The final movement, a rondo (and what a fabulous rondo it is!) is much lighter in character than the first movement, though they do share the same key signature. Navarro's performance was solid and accurate. Well played.