Young musician's debut impressive

Young musician's debut impressive

By Gus Kairupan

JAKARTA (JP): Hendry Wijaya is the name of a young pianist that deserves to be remembered.

His credits would fill a page and list such august institutions as the Royal Schools of Music, Boston University, which granted him a scholarship when he was only 16; the Manhattan School of Music; master classes by many of today's foremost pianists such as Charles Rosen, Stefan Jezierski and Michael Ponti; teachers who are attached to the Juilliard and, of course, Manhattan School itself where he is now in the process of getting his master's degree.

Hendry displayed his talent at a very early age. He began piano lessons at the age of two under the guidance of his mother, performed for Radio Republik Indonesia at four and joined the Yamaha-sponsored Junior Original Concert group where he played his own compositions by the time he was six. Through all this he was supervised by Yazeed Djamin, Muneaki Watanabe, Soetarno Soetikno and Tamam Hoesein.

A most impressive track record for one so young. The result was displayed last Saturday when Hendry debuted at Gedung Kesenian Jakarta. He has, of course, played there before, but it was his debut as a recitalist, playing before an audience the way some of his prominent teachers do. One of his teachers, Constance Keene, performed here last year.

He is now working towards and being guided through his master's degree. But afterwards? With all the prominent music education institutes from which he has received diplomas and awards, it seems that he has now been provided with all the necessary equipment to build up a career. Everything, that is, except mental, spiritual and intellectual maturity.

He displayed some of this in his recital, but, on the whole, the three elements are still too strongly traceable to his teachers. In other words, he is still adhering too much to their pointers.

Hendry must keep in mind that their pointers are to direct him to a road that he must travel alone. All teachers can do is show the way. Diplomas and awards -- no matter how excellent the institutes from which they come -- are only a beginning.

The program last Saturday was comprised of four sonatas by Beethoven, Scriabin, Schumann, and Prokofiev as well as Chopin's Polonaise Fantaisie, which Hendry opened the recital with. Barring the few understandable hitches which often occur in opening numbers, there was very little that could be faulted. The right ingredients were there, like the crisp succession of three sixteenth notes that are the most prominent feature in the rhythm of the polonaise, the harmonic shifts typical of Chopin and the melodic lines in the bass. Hendry did all the right things. Yet it seemed as if Hendry played the way he did because Lillian Freundlich or Peter Frankl or Jung-Ja Kim or Constance Keene had suggested it. He sounded as if he were playing for his teachers, not for the audience.

Another problem was that his sonorities were similar from the first piece onwards. This won't do. There is a world of difference between Chopin, Beethoven, Schumann, Scriabin and Prokofiev. They differ in personality, concept, circumstance, and life experiences. It follows that Chopin shapes his tones differently from the other four. Scriabin, with a strong streak of mysticism in his psychological make-up cannot -- sonority-wise -- be equated with Beethoven.

Half-way through the Chopin, I expected that Prokofiev would probably be the most satisfactory rendition. It was. But again, the shaping of tones were not much different from those of the other four. Throughout this sonata, I couldn't help wondering whether Hendry had ever tried playing without the use of the sustaining pedal. Of course it's an impossibility but it may provide an insight into the crispness that marks the sonata.

As for Schumann's sonata, I was quite at a loss as to how Hendry conceived it. Here is a composer who can't help being a singer -- he is regarded as one of the two giants of the German art song. It is this aspect which comes out most of all in the second movement, but song-like strophes occur throughout the entire sonata, from about three or four bars after the fortissimo G-Minor chord in the beginning. The tempo, "as fast as possible" according to Schumann's directive, was there and kept up throughout the movement. Music and speaking both deliver a message that comes in sentences, phrases and even whole chapters. And, like speaking, in delivering a musical message one also breathes, accentuates, works up to climaxes and so on.

So, what is one to make of Hendry Wijaya? He is still very young, but already has the seeds in him to become a great pianist. He must deepen his knowledge of the circumstances that led or provided composers with the inspiration for their works, including literature, painting, sculpture and contemporary world affairs (Beethoven's Eroica has such overtones). He should also study the other types and forms of music, like symphonies, operas, songs, chamber music, etc., which were written by the same composers whose piano works he plays. Most of all, he must begin to think about cutting the umbilical chord that ties him to his mentors.