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Nowadays,
young pianists find opportunity in gaining recognition for their
talent a great deal more easily than say 20 years ago simply because
of the plethora of piano competitions that exist. Even moderate
talents would have sufficient merit for the fullest efforts at nurturing
it. Despite this, Asians, for some inexplicable reason, are still
under-represented in the international concert circuits. In fact,
the number that are of international renown can be counted with
one's fingers. We have Fou Tsong, Mitsuko Uchida, Eduardo Halim,
Frederic Chiu and Melvyn Tan… the list doesn't go on very much longer.
So it is hardly surprsing that our curiosity is aroused when we
find a new Asian face breaking in to the scene.
Mia
Chung is one such example. Born and bred in the USA, Mia, who is
of Korean descent, came eunder the expert tutelage of Peter Serkin
and Boris Berman. She went on to win the Concert Artists Guild competition,
and has since worked her way up to the top ranks of America's young
pianists. Her recording of Beethoven and Schumann have been receiving
favourable reviews in Gramaphone, even a highly desireable placement
in Gramaphone's "Best of the Year" list in 1995.
That being said, we now turn to her recording of Bach's Goldberg
Variations. To mature listeners, this monumental work hardly
needs an introduction. It is a work of immense proportions, and
is a new genre set forth by Bach and followed after by generations
succeeding him. Beethoven's Diabelli variations, Brahms' Paganini
variations and Rachmaninov's Variations on a Theme by Chpoin, all
evolve this work According to Albert Scweitzer, Bach held the opinion
that all music was to be a form of worship, that the music "ascend(s)
to God like praise too deep for utterance." Such an attitude was
held by pianists until the the early part of the 20th century, when
the Bach specialists like Wanda Landowska and Rosalyn Tureck arose
and mustered enough courage to put a big piece like the Goldberg
in public ears. Pianists began to stop playing Bach-Liszt transcriptions
and a revival took place in Bach's music that has persisted until
this day.
With
classic renditions of the work staying dominant in the market, not
to mention many other excellent recordings that are slightly short
of the classic status for some unknown reason, it is a truly daunting
task for the younger generation of pianists to even attempt to record
the work. The yardstick is just too severe for any freshie to measure
up to. Besides, the piece makes such torturous demands on the pianist
both physically and intellectually that none but the boldest of
pianists dare put it on record.
Mia
Chung offers an intensely personal account of the music that clearly
shows no regard to the traditional stylistic requirements her predecessors
strove to preserve in the music. That is what makes her recording
disparate from say Gould's or Tureck's magisterial renditions. Indeed,
right from the opening aria, Mia's playing is distinguished by an
innoncently forthright style. Her feel for the music is essentially
romantic, a fact that is made evident firstly in her employment
of an unusually wide range of dynamics, and, secondly, in her liberal
treatment of the tempi and preference for a sprinkling of rubato
in a few slower variations. Surely, this is repugnant to the purists
who demand absolute adherence to the text, but given the tasteful
way by which Mia does it, even the harshest of critics should be
pacified.
On
the whole, Mia's playing is technically adept. She always manages
to cut her way throguh convoluted passages with nonchalant ease,
notably in the running triplets of variation 26 and variation 23,
which had a tricky staccato part. Really, her efficient fingerwork
cannot be for a moment faulted. And neither can her ability to phrase
long passages. Listen to Variation 8 and you'd realise how perfectly
sculpted it is. . But there is one particularly quirky thing about
Mia. Without a doubt, she handles quick variations with the fullest
confidence and character, but in the slower variations, she lacks
the lustre to brings out all the melodic nuances, and pieces sound
dreadfully pale. She had the occasional sloopy trills and some hesitation
in the left hand for the slower variations. Interestingly, technical
problems seem to vanish when she plays the faster variations, with
lapses occuring only in slower variations. This, in my opinion,
is the strangest thing.
Another
major grouse that I have is regarding the poor sound engineering.
The bass is permanently flat and muted while the treble is a tad
too loud and chirpy, and that makes for a terribly laborious experience,
with fatigue assaulting the ears after a short period of listening.
Also, there is a reverberating hum to the piano, (either the microphones
were too near the piano or the studio had acoustic flaws) that muddles
variations that had a flurry of notes, especially in variations
8 and 14.
DAVID TAN
is a freelance contributor
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1.3.2000 © David Tan
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