Fengqi Hou
P120: Beginning Piano Class 2
April, 2017
The Beginning of the Inspiration
Where words fail, music speaks. My initiatives of taking a beginner level
piano class is to immerse myself in classical piano music and find a unique
way to relieve and embrace the emotions in my spirit. Starting from a
performer diploma recital offered by Nine Hundred Ninety-First Program of
the 2016-17 season At Indiana University, Jacobs School of Music, I felt
the urge to free my eyes and ears with the fascinating classical pieces
dedicated by the amazing pianist Zhirong Liu, currently an active soloist
and associate professor at the University. On April 23th, 2017, Liu’s
concert began in Recital Hall at 5:00PM, and my first experience with the
elegant and formal musical education left me amazed and wondering more
about my endless pursuit of melody, rhythm, and harmony in piano; more
importantly I can connect to the performer Zhirong Liu on spiritual and
emotional levels.
The first piece leading the stage is *Valses nobles et sentimentales* composed
by Maurice Ravel in 1911. Under the main piece, there are eight individual
movements, Modéré – Très franc, Assez lent, Modéré, Assez animé, Presque
lent, Vif, Moins vif, and Epilogue: Lent. Closely manifested by English
translations, the rhythms of eight movements in “Noble and sentimental
waltzes” slide freely from frankly moderate, pleasantly slow, moderate,
full of enthusiasm and excitement, slow and steady, vivid, less lively, to
eventually vanishingly slow. I personally enjoy the first part of the
recital, *Valses nobles et sentimentales*, the most because the dynamics of
the relationship between the melodies and rhythms emphasized in the notes
clearly identified the theme of each movement, and Liu’s careful
interpretations of the story of the noble and smooth postures from movement
to movement nearly detached me from the reality and drove me to wonder the
complicated denotations of novelty, exoticness, freedom, flirtatiousness in
the spirit of the classical music.
The second set of pieces performed by Liu are *Sonata in E Major, D.459* and
*Drei Klavierstücke, D.459a*. Under the movement development in Sonata in E
Major, Liu chose two minor movements composed by Franz Schubert, including
Allegro moderato, and Scherzo: Allegro. Different from the very first
piece, Schubert’s *Snoata in E Major* is quite tricky to me because Liu
presented two movements both in cheerful, delightful, and confident rhythms
and melodies, again accurately reflected by English translations of piece
and movement. I was confused by the monotonic alignment of rhythms and
melodies, in which the lack of dynamics of emotions in two movements
created a few song-like melodies that I could not comprehend fully with my
current knowledge. But fortunately, Liu was so engaging in the performance
that I could see Liu’s body rising and falling with the tempo of the notes,
and Liu’s finger tips moving freely from one note to another. The ease of
tempo and signature melody effect did play a great factor in communicating
with the audience but personally, I found myself concentrated in the
flavors of the happiness denoted by music, but lost in the structures of
the piece.
Under the movement development in *Drei Klavierstücke*, Liu manifested his
dynamic interpretations of three minor movements composed by Schubert,
Adagio, Scherzo: Allegro, and Allegro patetico. Once again, trying to
understand the essences of the piece from their English translations,
“Three Piano Pieces” includes movements from Slow yet revealing, jokingly
cheerful to cheerfully pathetic. I do find differences between two Schubert
pieces, in which *Drei Klavierstücke* showed us multiple deviations from
the monotonic cheerfulness and happiness. Especially in the third movement
of Allegro patetico, spiritually, I can picture the scene where sunset
terminates the brightness of the earth, and the nature starts its nostalgia
toward the past day of joy, and we gratefully wish for a sweet reunion with
our family. Musically, melodies overpower rhythms and tempo in the piece,
but in this case, song-like melodies remove the potential boredom, rather
adds a collective transition of progressive musical notes. Liu did an
amazing job demonstrating the evolution of the piece in the most
sophisticated way as Liu had a satisfying smile on the face, nothing too
overwhelming. Liu had a determination in the ease, because the back is
straight, giving the pianist dignity and self-confidence, and the shoulders
are relaxed, having a natural tense-free position. The performance of this
part felt so natural and close to heart that it inspired me to imagine
rather than forced me to do so.
Finally, the third piece, *Polonaise-fantaisie in A-Flat Major*, meaning
polish fantasy, contained one movement, Op. 61, was composed by Fryderyk
Chopin. The piece, representing “a construction of incredible harmonic
ambiguity and structural intricacy”, flows from meditation, imagination, to
melodramatic emotions. I can only imagine by just listening to Liu’s
effective demonstration and interpretation of this piece that it is
incredibly difficult to convey the piece to its fullest emotions or
sophistication. The structure is bewildering as there is no obviously
emergent melody at many progresses, the harmonic shifts are unexpected and
sprawling, and the rhythmic pulse of the piece varies dramatically. But I
do think the rhythmic effect of the piece sets it to be distinctive among
all three performed during this recital. I admired Liu’s performance the
most in this piece, because, from the transcendent peace to the
rhythmically escalating ending, back and forth, Liu truly showcased many
individual moments of musical excellence and sensitivity, and more
importantly, Liu’s effort to manage the piece into a coherent whole.
Evolutions of Liu’s postures conveyed what a creative pianist becomes
brilliant in communicating with piano and audiences at the same time.
Moreover, I could tell, in this most revealing peak of Liu’s piano skills
and musical interpretations, that how much Liu loves to be part of the
music, itself.
Music is a universal language and – metaphorically speaking – it has the
power of touching our heart and spirit directly, without the need for a
proper translation. I do recognize, after my first close encounter with
such a sophisticate piano performance, that I need more musical elements,
backstories, and structures of the piano analytics and interpretation. But
I have faith that for someone, a melody could reflect the beauty of nature;
for others, the same melody may lead to an association with love, anger,
despair, and hope like I encountered during the performance. And