Tanski, brilliance and disappointments

Tanski, brilliance and disappointments

By Gus Kairupan

JAKARTA (JP): Prize winner, teacher at one of Austria's
foremost music academies, one-time student of Alfred Brendel...
Claudius Tanski certainly has all the assets to be placed in the
front ranks of young pianists today. And judging from his
performance last Monday at Erasmus Huis one can only say that
Tanski is indeed a master colorist and lyricist.

Claudius Tanski's is the third in a series of four monthly
piano recitals by young German pianists whose appearance here and
in Bandung is sponsored by the Goethe Institut. The two that
performed before him were equally well-armed with credentials of
the highest order.

A pity then, that Tanski's recital was marked by so many
memory lapses on his part, especially in the Bach and Beethoven
pieces. Such lapses do occur at recitals; indeed, the musical
event that is totally free from such incidents still has to take
place. I remember the performance of a French duo, one of whom
suffered just such a lapse, whereupon they both stopped and
started again from the beginning.

In Tanski's case, though, the frequency of memory lapses makes
one wonder about the preparation he has undertaken to play Bach's
D-Minor Toccata & Fugue (arranged by Busoni) and Beethoven's
Appasionata. What was also discernible was the time he took when
entering a particularly complex section, as if he were preparing
himself for the difficulties ahead. True, the time taken could be
measured in nanoseconds, but it was perceptible all the same.
One instance in particular was in the fugue -- to be exact, in
the section where all voices speak out at once while,
simultaneously, a trill runs through the entire part. Perhaps it
is easier to do on the organ (for which the piece was originally
composed) if only because the performer also uses his feet. On
the piano, however, the work is fraught with horribly difficult
passages, more so with Busoni's transcription than the one
arranged by Liszt.

These slips also occurred in the Beethoven sonata (Appasio-
nata), especially in the final movement. Incidentally, according
to the program, Tanski was to play the Waldstein sonata. It is
common usage to inform the audience of alterations in the program
and an announcement to the effect should have been made. This
applies to changes of numbers as well as omissions, because
Tanski also did not play Schumann's Widmung (arranged by Liszt).
Both the sonata and Widmung are well-known compositions -- at
least among classical music aficionados.

Brilliant pianist

The slips notwithstanding, Claudius Tanski is a brilliant
pianist, a virtuoso even. That was clear from the very beginning
when he played Busoni's transcription of a Bach choral prelude
(Awaken, the voice calls to us), a work which juxtaposes a melody
(the original version would be a choir) against a tapestry of
instrumental obbligato melodies. The way Tanski picked up the
various strands and wove them together without once getting lost
in the rich variety of melodic lines was nothing less than
magnificent and marks him as a superb artist indeed. His second
rendition (he played it again as an encore) was even better.

Just as impressive was the concert paraphrase put together by
Liszt from Verdi's opera, Rigoletto. This was the piece that
revealed Tanski as a virtuoso pianist, but it wasn't just the
typical Lisztian fiorituri that brought this out. Tanski also
pointed to the coherence between Liszt's embellishments and the
entirety of the composition. Many are the pianists who add that
bit of extra emphasis to musical decorative devices merely to
show off their technical prowess. Even maestro Liszt himself (if
what I've read about him is true) can be accused of having
indulged in it.

The Reubke sonata (B-Flat Minor) was probably a debut in
Jakarta. This composer died at a very young age (24), and, as far
as I know none of his works have ever had a hearing in Jakarta.
The one-movement work covers quite a wide range of key shifts
which at times makes it a bit difficult to follow or figure out
its direction. He was a pupil of Liszt and, besides piano music,
has also composed songs and an organ sonata which is said to have
been influential in organ composition in following periods. I
would say that in order to get to know Reubke better, listening
to his other compositions would be required provided recordings
of his works are available.

In all, Claudius Tanski's recital was something of a mixture
of brilliance and disappointments, the latter pertaining to the
Toccata & Fugue by Bach and Beethoven's sonata, both of which he
seemed not to have prepared properly. However, renditions of the
other compositions were truly masterful, so, in a way, he did
deserve the ovation.

The series of piano recitals is to be completed next month by
Rolf Plagge. Hopefully, no changes will occur in the program.