Aleksandra Kasman dove directly into the fray with her opening recital entry, J S Bach's "Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue," in which her brilliant imagination immediately grabbed our attention and held it through each surprising twist in Bach's convoluted storyline. It is a rather impressive feat to make so much sense out of such an unlikely musical tale as Bach tells in the Fantasia portion of the work; kudos to Kasman on this score. Kasman garnered equal success in the fugue following-- a fugue of such chromatic abundance that it makes King Frederick's gifted theme for Bach's Musical Offering look rather plain (though to be fair, Bach didn't attempt to write a 6-voice fugue on this one....).
With Chopin's Nocturne in Ab Major, Op 32 No 2, Kasman takes us about as far in the opposite musical direction as one can get from the Bach (the distance between the works' keys shows this distance also). Kasman proves just as convincing in this milieu as she was in Bach's chromatic world; Kasman's strongly felt and persuasive charisma lend absolute credence to every note she plays... One thinks of Horowitz.
Kasman provides a thoughtful introduction to a very different Nocturne from Lowell Liebermann, highlighting the less common phenomenon of tonal music among 20-21st century composers. She highlights images of a choir singing a grieving but "controlled" dirge and an avalanche-like climax, out of which rises the original melody, possible more resigned, but ending with a hopeful note. Not only are her musical ideas again persuasive, but her textural layering is incredible in this work. A fantastic and interesting work from Liebermann, wonderfully evoked by Kasman.
The humorous and wildly awesome Prelude and Fugue in Db Major by Dmitri Shostakovich showed a contrasting polyphonic book-end to the opening Bach work. Superbly executed by Kasman, and a rousing finish to one of the more moving recitals I have seen in recent years.
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