South Florida Classical Review

Pianist Arsenii Moon. Photo: Courtesy of Miami International Piano Festival

Within just twenty-four hours, two piano recitals in Miami showcased the talents of a recent competition winner and an acknowledged master of the instrument. Both concerts aptly demonstrated that the solo recital is anything but an endangered species, despite rumbling to the contrary.

Russian pianist Arsenii Moon made his American debut on Sunday night at the Wolfsonian Museum in Miami Beach with a wide-ranging program for the Miami International Piano Festival. The 2023 first prize winner of the Ferrucio Busoni Competition, Moon displayed a flawless technique wedded to distinctively personal interpretive instincts. In the layered textures of Busoni’s transcription of Bach’s chorale “Nun komm der Heiden Heiland,” every note and undertone emerged transparent and cleanly articulated. Moon brought out the grave aura and depth of expression in Bach’s creation.

Alexander Scriabin’s music was deeply influenced by the idea of synesthesia, leading the composer to equate notes and tones with specific colors. In the composer’s Twelve Preludes, Moon fully captured that array of hues with a lightness of touch that did not preclude immense power in climactic moments. He handled the live acoustic of the Wolfsonian’s atrium adeptly, avoiding pounding, ear-splitting salvos. Moon conveyed the preludes’ contrasting moods – by turns languid, solemn, feathery and tinged with fire. Scriabin’s keyboard-spanning octaves were rendered with bravura pizzazz and showmanship. Avoiding extremes of volume and speed, Moon made every bar compelling.

Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit is considered one of the most difficult scores ever conceived for solo piano. Moon conquered the challenges of the work’s three impressionistic portraits. The ripples of water that surrounded the nymph “Ondine” were exquisitely portrayed, Moon’s keyboard sonority always beautiful. He also conjured up the eerie atmosphere of “Le Gibet,” a snapshot of a man’s corpse hanging from the gallows. Moon’s rhythmic dexterity at a rapid clip in “Scarbo” generated visceral excitement. The final crescendo was masterfully built, avoiding overt bombast.

Moon’s pearly touch imbued the opening section of Chopin’s Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise Brilliante with flowing melodic songfulness. There were fireworks galore in the polonaise without loss of the dance impulse. The quirky, moody vignette “Lent” from Erik Satie’s Gnossiennes proved an enterprising encore, finely rendered. Moon is a pianist one wants to hear again and soon.

Ariel Lanyi plays music of Schubert, Bartók, and Chopin 5 p.m. February 23 at the Aventura Arts and Cultural Center miamipianofest.com

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Pianist Stephen Hough

For over four decades, Stephen Hough has been a commanding force on the world’s concert stages. His Miami recitals for the Friends of Chamber Music have always been standout events. On Monday night, he returned with a stellar performance at Florida International University’s Wertheim Performing Arts Center. Hough’s musical insight and stunning technical facility have only deepened over the years. He was introduced by South Florida-based British conductor James Judd, a longtime collaborator.

While his repertoire is huge, including many rarely heard pieces, music of the romantic era has always been Hough’s forte and it formed the main focus of his program. Three short pieces by Cécile Chaminade were enchanting appetizers. Hough gave full reign to the lyricism of Automne, the sentimentality in Les Sylvains, and the folksy charm of L’Autre Fois.

In lesser hands, Liszt’s Piano Sonata in B minor can seem episodic and overtly bombastic. Hough’s freshly minted reading revealed the thematic inventiveness, structural mastery, and depth of passion at the heart of Liszt’s canvas. The initial statement of the principal motif was emphatic and decisive. Hand crossings and knuckle-busting octaves were flawlessly executed. His fiery rendition was tempered by restraint, with the quiet interludes allowing a poetic touch. While generating high musical drama, textures were consistently clear.

In introducing his own Sonatina Nostalgica, Hough said he was influenced by composers like Frank Bridge and John Ireland. The brief score’s first two sections – “The Road to Danebank” and “The Bridge by the Dam” – suggested their pastoral tones with an impressionistic overlay. The pianist’s vigorous attack and fleet figurations in “A Gathering at the Cross” emerged more virtuosic.

Hough’s Chopin has always resounded in a highly personal manner. Not for him, the elegant Chopin of the salon. His performance of Piano Sonata No. 3 was sweeping, broadly scaled, and throbbing with tension. In the Scherzo, his hands glided across the keyboard, the thematic threads rising in long-limbed spans. He allowed the Largo’s graceful themes to flow organically, without overly emphatic exaggeration. Hough took a big-boned approach to the Presto non tanto finale, played with propulsive energy at a lightning clip.

A standing ovation and cheers repeatedly brought Hough back to the stage, and he offered two contrasting encores. Chopin’s Nocturne in F-sharp major (Op. 15, no. 2) was marked by tonal allure and perfectly etched filigree. Hough’s own set of variations on the song “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” from the film Mary Poppins was a wild, Lisztian ride with wit and pyrotechnics galore. The entire evening displayed one of the concert scene’s great artists at the peak of his powers.

Friends of Chamber Music presents the Hermitage Piano Trio 8 p.m. March 4 at Coral Gables Congregational United Church of Christ. miamichambermusic.org

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