CÉDRIC PESCIA, PIANO, Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, Sept. 21
This season, the Gina Bachauer International Piano Concert Series focuses on past gold medalists. Between now and next April, four former first prize winners will be returning to Salt Lake City to perform.
Cédric Pescia (Photo Courtesy Cédric Pescia)
Opening the series Saturday was 2002 winner Cédric Pescia playing the final three sonatas by Beethoven. Performed without a break in between, it was a demanding program that tested the endurance and mettle of the pianist. And Pescia delivered a stunning account of each of these three works.
Beethoven lived at a crucial time in music history. He is a transitional figure between the mature classicism of late Haydn and Mozart and the emergent romanticism of the early 19th century. This stylistic change can be clearly traced in his symphonies, string quartets and piano sonatas. The early works are unmistakably classical, while the later works, especially those written in the last decade of his life, point clearly towards the future.
In the final three piano sonatas (Nos. 30 in E major, op. 109; 31 in A flat major, op. 110; and 32 in C minor, op. 111) Beethoven definitely moves towards romanticism and begins to define the parameters of expression, emotion and creative variety of the later 19th century. He is clearly moving into as yet barely explored territory.
The Swiss-born Pescia is a superb musician with remarkable technique and impressive interpretative talents. He delved into the music of these three works with a passion that enabled him to capture the essence of each. He played these works with the broad gestures and sweeping lines that they demand. His readings were at times bold and aggressive (in the Prestissimo of op. 109 and the Allegro molto of op. 110), but there was always a finely crafted expressiveness in his playing that brought depth and definition to the music. Pescia’s interpretations were certainly stamped with his personality, but he nevertheless allowed the spirit of Beethoven to come through. These were intelligent, thoughtful and perceptive readings.
Among the highlights of his playing were his beautifully phrased and eloquent treatment of the opening movement of the op. 109; his leisurely account of the Moderato cantabile of op. 110; and his heartfelt and gorgeously expressive perusal of the opening Adagio section from the final movement of op. 110.
Pescia has recorded these three sonatas and showed his audience Saturday that he is without question a master of Beethoven’s late style.