Fri, 11 Nov 1994

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.