Yefim Bronfman

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" background="045fd5a3.jpg"> <div> <B>Yefim Bronfman</B></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFCC66" TEXT="#080000" background="046d2b03.jpg"> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id127.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Concerts"><U><B>Back to Local Music</B></U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="090ab813.jpg"> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="608" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#00BFBF" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 2069 WIDTH="596"><div> Yefim Bronfman's recital at Zellerbach Hall, Sunday, April 22, 2004  <A NAME="bronfman"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <bR> <div> My good friend John  Orlando took an 80 mile jaunt to Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley to hear the American-Israeli pianist, Yefim Bronfman in recital on Sunday afternoon, January 22. He opened with Beethoven D major Op 10, no. 3 and then played Beethoven's last piano sonata Op 111 (appropriately nicknamed by some as `The Testament”). The second half included Prokofief Sonata no. 2, Tchaikovsky Dumka op 59 and concluded with three preludes from op 23 by Rachmaninoff including the famous militaristic G minor prelude. </div> <div>  </div> <div> Bronfman is indisputably of the greats of our time. He has an imposing large stage presence making even a 9 foot Steinway D appear like a mere plaything. For his size, it is amazing to experience his wide range of subtle sonorities from the most delicate pianissimo's to resounding sforzandos. </div> <bR> <div> Personally the new Steinway that he performed on sounded like a wonderful instrument but after the concert he was overheard to complain that the action was still too stiff and it needed a lot of playing to break it in. --- then of course, few pianists are ever known to be satisfied with the instrument they have just performed upon. </div> <bR> <div> The three sonatas of Op 10 and especially the first two of these are youthful Beethoven with full at most energetic, spontaneous and inventive fully capable of taking off from the classical influence of Mozart and Haydn (with whom he had recently studied). Both the first sonata in C major and the second in D major are technically challenging and attest to Beethoven's acclaimed virtuosity. Bronfman's performance of the D major op 10, was played with astounding virtuosic clarity and abandon. His pensive playing of the slow 2nd movement in the relative minor key of D minor was riveting throughout. During the 19th century, key and tonality symbolized generalized expression and mood, similar to the earlier Greek modes. While the key of D major is happy and outgoing D minor symbolized a somber tragic expression. F Major, typically was typically more pastoral. Then of course there is the sense of the profound embodied in the last sonata op 111 which  partakes of the mood of the famous 5th Symphony and the Pathetheque. Even today, in many instances the fact that a piece is written in C Minor implies a certain expression.  </div> <bR> <div> Bach's use of D minor -- as in the famous toccata and fugue which, by the way some musicologists question as to whether it was composed by J.S. Bach at all -- followed by Mozart's Requiem typifies the somber expression of the key of D minor. Bronfman's playing of this movement was wonderfully slow, evoking a sense of apollonian temporal and spatial expansiveness. Never dull, each note was played with full pensive deliberation. I felt that this memorable performance set the standard for the entire program to follow.</div> <bR> <div> The third movement famous third movement offers a wide contrast typifying Beethoven's already fully developed wide range of musical expression. Unlike many of his romantic 19th composer successors Beethoven has the rare ability to communicate humor. In fact this even finds its way as joyous abandon in one of the `ragtime' styled variations written composed nearly a hundred years before ragtime ever formally occurred. </div> <bR> <div> The third movement might be understood as one of Beethoven's early examples of a lighthearted  `bagatelle,' a form that he created and composed throughout his life. Beethoven was the most famous improviser of his time and perhaps anytime. One might imagine a typical seen where upon request someone gives him the most unlikely and challenging musical motif upon which to embellish an entire piece consisting of a succession of quick and short eight notes, F sharp, G and B simply harmonized in basic tonic, dominant tonic harmonies. This movement must have presented special interpretive challenge for Beethoven's contemporaries and in fact still does for many of a contemporary performer. Bronfman brought so much sense and meaning to this movement that it may have even lost some of its humor. </div> <div>  </div> <div> Opus 111, Beethoven's last piano sonata, is often cited as the end of the classical era of the piano sonata. Its appearance on any program always presents a high point. It is quintessential late Beethoven even though many of his contemporaries felt that the adherence of classical sonata tonality and form of the first movement in contrast to the high originality and sweeping expression of the last movement suggests that the first movement may have been composed a considerable period of time before the last and final movement. </div> <bR> <div> Beethoven composed a total of 32 sonatas spanning most of the 65 years of his lifetime. These, along with Bach's Well Tempered Preludes and Fugues are to pianists, scripture. </div> <div> After Beethoven, no other major composer seemed capable of writing ssuch a full corpus of piano sonatas. Even the great Liszt was able to write only a single, albeit monumentally great, piano sonata. Schumann and Brams each wrote three and Chopin three. It was not until the early 20th century that we find the eccentric Scriabin and Prokofief writing a little less than half the number that Beethoven composed during his lifetime. Composer's usually take their inspiration from each other and their predecessors. Out quite bluntly, The last four sonatas of Beethoven, all written at the end of the career of a one of the greatest composers of all time seem to constitute 'hard act to follow.' </div> <bR> <div> The amazing second movement, demands the highest interpretive skills of the performer as well as listening skills of the audience. It is a richly expressive piece abounding with abrupt and disjointed contrasts that somehow seem to lead down a logically sublime path to a conclusion that at once feels like the summary of a great life as it literally transcends the various `bardos' of mortal existence only to end with a final plagal high F followed by the simple affirmative dominant - tonic `amen' cadence., </div> <bR> <div> Beethoven was widely literate and seemed to derive his inspiration from many sources ranging from bird calls reflected in his pastoral symphony and the complex trills found in his last sonatas and string quartets to the unitive transcendental philosophy of Eastern mysticism. This later is based on mentions in his last book related to Chinese and Indian philosophy derived from books such as the Bhagavad Gita. </div> <bR> <div> I feel that the last variations movement signifies a life of intense spiritual seeking opening with a sustained C major theme, with a contrasting 2nd section in A minor. It is in the wandering and searching of  the last movement the most wildly unusual `ragtime' 4th variation written in 12/32 time occurs. After this a series of variations seem to literally transport us to the `realms of the Gods.” </div> <bR> <div> While the entire sonata represents inner restless seeking of a lifetime, spanning just about every known human expression, the entire work is no more than a mere 23 pages. </div> <bR> <div> While the works is sublimely challenging technically, it is even more complex interpretively which few are ever able to pull off in concert. In fact because of the abrupt asymmetrical contrasts especially of the last movement,  many a performer once `losing it' finds themselves and their helpless audience wandering a meaningless labyrinth. </div> <bR> <div> To attend a performance of OP 111 is to ask the fundamental question whether the artist is able to pull of such a difficult feat of concentration and interpretation. There's not question that Yefim Bronfman accomplished a task upon which only the greatest pianists might succeed. For me, the shear pyrotechnic ease coupled with an uncanny variety of subtle sonorities would have made this a memorable performance but finding the evanescent logic of this piece guided by Bronfman's interpretation within myself created a deep sense of inner satisfaction that one might experience after a profound meditation. </div> <bR> <div> In fact after such a truly great performance of Opus 111, despite an intermission, it was not easy to listen to remainder of the program consisting of Prokofief wildly inventive 2nd sonata, Tchaikovsky's Dumka op 59 and three Rachmaninoff Preludes from opus 23. </div> <bR> <div> Born in Russia, Bronfman exemplifies the tradition of rich sonority and complex finger legato technique and mastery of Russian pianism begun by Anton Rubinstein at the end of the 19th century and continued through the teachings of the pianist-pedagogue, Henreich Neuhaus. </div> <bR> <div> With his recent and definitive recording of all nine Prokofief sonatas, Bronfman is one of the great exponents of Russian music and pianism, following such as Horowitz, Rachmaninoff, Gilels, and Richter to name only a few. </div> <bR> <div> One of his encores was the most wildly abandoned but thoroughly entertaining performances of the last movement of Prokofief's seventh sonata. Then, just as you might have thought that you heard the full range of Bronfman's pianistic capabilities he delighted us with the most `dancing fingers' scintillating  performance of a Scarlatti sonata. </div> <bR> <div> One thing for certain if you ever need to hear a pianist by whom you might measure and compare all others, you would not want to miss a performance by Yefim Bronfman the next time he is in our part of the world. </div> <bR> <div> Michael Tierra</div> <div> Santa Cruz, California</div> <div> 2/23/04</div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <A HREF="#bronfman" TITLE="Yefim Bronfman"><U>To Top</U></A></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>