Young pianist tames his savage breast
Young pianist tames his savage breast
M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
Young pianist Mario Santoso may have been in possession of all
the traits needed to become a future maestro, but he seemed to
lack the very thing that could have immediately won him instant
recognition: an ability to come to grips with himself.
At his recent recital at Gedung Kesenian Jakarta (GKJ), the
23-year-old delivered a rabid performance that resulted more from
a hurried attempt to display his technique than an impassioned
interpretation of the program.
Small wonder that Mario chose to play as openers pieces by
Frederic Chopin, a Polish composer best known for the complexity
of his works, which demand formidable skill in their execution.
In Chopin's Ballade No. 1 in G minor Op. 23, Mario approached
the piano the way a rock musician might attack rhythm guitar.
At times, his chords were two-fisted affairs, thundering along
in a staggering gait. The piano turned into a vehicle through
which Mario produced an outlandish interpretation of every
composition.
In the second part of the Ballade, when the sonic assault was
through and the tempo slowing down, he unwittingly drained the
elegance that was supposed to emanate from the composition. The
occasional surrender of ripples in a placid sea was later drowned
in a raging torrent.
From a distance, what appeared was furious and knowing, but
when studied up close, it turned out to be somewhat hollow.
Mario regained his self-control by the third composition from
Chopin, Andante Spianato & Grande Polonaise Brillante in E-flat
major Op. 22.
Staying true to the composition's graceful and moderate tempo,
Mario made effective use of the keys and sustaining pedal to take
the half-full GKJ audience on a journey to a land of dreams.
Each individual tone flowed like a stream of consciousness and
the crowd was carried along in its slipstream.
In one part of the Andante, Mario produced a gorgeous, drawn-
out solo that was built from two or three notes, and,
figuratively speaking, time was brought to a standstill at the
venue. Rarely has so much beauty been wrung from so few notes.
In the second part of the concert, in which two compositions
were performed -- Felix Mendelssohn's Rondo Capriccio in E major,
Op. 14 and Franz Schubert's "Wanderer" Fantasy in C major D. 760,
Mario was seemingly in full control.
His versatile piano-playing enabled him to develop drama that
sprang to life from a funereal hymn, chiming church bells and
looming thunder.
Speaking after the recital had concluded, Mario, winner of the
2002 Abilene Collegiate Orchestra Concerto Competition in Texas,
U.S., defended his choice of Chopin and the other two Romantic
composers by saying they were more crowd-pleasers than a means to
display his craft.
"An artist must be able to develop a repertoire that will be
well-accepted by the audience. Here in Jakarta, the audience is
fond of those three composers and I decided to play pieces by
them," he said.