Serkin's concert demonstrated an extremely high level of musicianship and talent. Although this was thoroughly enjoyed during his classical selections, I believe that his genius was lost among many audience members (myself included) during the performances of more modern repertoire.
Serkin opened the concert with "Bagatelle," by living composer Charles Wuorinen. The piece started out inconspicuously: A series of dissonant chords slowly gained momentum until the sudden interruption of a forte chord, which abruptly halted the forward thrust. The driving musical concept of the piece appeared to be the contrast between dissonance and consonance. When Serkin struck a rare consonant chord, its sweetness of sound was greatly enhanced by of the surrounding musical tension. Although this certainly was a provocative piece, Serkin's body language did not give any indication of the musical or emotional intensity of the music which he played. He looked stiff, intensely focused, yet serene. The end of the piece was met with hearty applause - the audience's acknowledgment that something amazing had just taken place, even if they were unsure exactly what it was.
"Bagatelle" was followed by another modern piece, "Petites Esquisses d'Oiseaux," in which each of the six movements imitated a different birdcall. Serkin was sensitive to the programmatic nature of Olivier Messiaen's composition, abandoning his previous serenity and smoothness in order to create the shrill, darting and skipping musical figures characteristic of birds. Trills, runs, leaps in range and an accent on the second note of a two-note figure all contributed to this birdcall effect. After the conclusion of the piece, a student sitting next to me commented, "That was a little strange for my taste." Although neither of Serkin's first two selections was of the Western classical style typically studied in music classes, he agreed that the performance was certainly creative in purpose, insightful and skillfully executed.
After the dissonance and unclear meter of the first two pieces, J.S. Bach's "Capriccio on the Departure of the Beloved Brother" was a pleasant relief to my ears. This was a strategically clever choice of program order on Serkin's part-just when the audience members cannot take any more modern music, he delivers the beautifully familiar V-I chord progressions and simple melodies of Bach. Nesting the Bach within a context of surrounding musical tension was ingenious of Serkin because it allowed me to appreciate the subtleties of Bach's music much more actively than I otherwise would have.
Serkin opened the second half of the concert with a piece personally commissioned for him, Elliot Carter's "Intermittences." Both the title and subject matter were inspired by a phrase from a Proust novel: "the intermissions of the heart." This concept is reflected in the musical structure of the piece. It is full of short outbursts of sound, spaced between ample silences. Thus, these miniature motifs are intermittent in the stillness of the work as a whole. Although I think this is a beautiful concept in theory, I found the work's stop-and-go quality to be brash, overly abrupt and disorienting, like a skipping CD-the few sounds you hear are beautiful, but their fleetingness is too frustrating to endure. While my impressions probably have a lot to do with the fact that the majority of my training is in the Western classical tradition, I know that I was not alone in my sentiments. It is unfortunate that a substantial portion of the audience was not able to appreciate a piece that obviously carries profound meaning.
The last piece of the concert returned to the classical style with Johannes Brahms's "Variations and Fugue in B-flat on a Theme by Handel." This piece takes a simple and cheerful melody originally composed by Handel and expands upon it with 25 different variations. The effect of this work was accomplished by Brahms's exploration of dynamic, tempo and stylistic contrast between different variations. The listener is taken from a fluid, floating melody, to a fanfare, to energetic runs and embellishments. I could tell that Serkin was having fun conveying the rich contrast of this piece to the audience, and from their reception, it was clear that they enjoyed it as well.
Although the Brahms was probably easier for the audience to relate to than some of the other pieces performed that afternoon, one undisputed impression of the concert resonated: Everyone felt privileged to have been in attendance at the performance of so fine a musician.