FMS-Blog : The Wildly Whimsical, Mostly Musical WebLog
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Inside Kunz
Watching Eduard Kunz playing piano at the Leeds College of Music's 'The Venue' yesterday lunchtime was an awe-inspiring experience. This young pianist wowed the crowd with the most virtuosic playing, and often seemingly without as much as breaking a sweat. Watching his performance was certainly a great way to spend a Wednesday lunchtime!
I thought that Kunz had a somewhat strange manner about the way he approached the performance - almost meditative in nature. He first sat down at the keyboard of LCM's Steinway grand, placing a handkerchief neatly inside the casing by the music stand, and simply sat staring forward for a length of time that probably seemed much longer than it was. Then, he struck the first few notes of the opening piece in this set, the Scarlatti Sonata in B Minor (K197), as if to be just trying out the piano. Soon after, however, it became clear that this was the real deal : Kunz had a remarkably potent sense of contrast throughout his playing, often making use of the left (soft) pedal to take even the quickest passages down to barely a whisper. This combined with intermittent use of the piano's more metallic forte, particularly in the lower register, made for a stunning show.
Perhaps due to time constraints, Kunz left out the Haydn sonata that was billed and chose to go straight on into Debussy's L'Isle Joyeuse (reminiscent of his preludes, written on Jersey in the opening years of the 20th Century) and then onto some incredibly colourful Moments Musicaux by Rachmaninov : if Kunz's performance of these six miniature pieces can't reignite your enjoyment of the Rachmaninov piano repertoire then surely nothing could! Truly a boldly marked end to a wonderful concert.
This event was the first in a series of lunchtime recitals to be held at LCM's The Venue over the coming months. Take a look at my FMS Forum for further info.
I thought that Kunz had a somewhat strange manner about the way he approached the performance - almost meditative in nature. He first sat down at the keyboard of LCM's Steinway grand, placing a handkerchief neatly inside the casing by the music stand, and simply sat staring forward for a length of time that probably seemed much longer than it was. Then, he struck the first few notes of the opening piece in this set, the Scarlatti Sonata in B Minor (K197), as if to be just trying out the piano. Soon after, however, it became clear that this was the real deal : Kunz had a remarkably potent sense of contrast throughout his playing, often making use of the left (soft) pedal to take even the quickest passages down to barely a whisper. This combined with intermittent use of the piano's more metallic forte, particularly in the lower register, made for a stunning show.
Perhaps due to time constraints, Kunz left out the Haydn sonata that was billed and chose to go straight on into Debussy's L'Isle Joyeuse (reminiscent of his preludes, written on Jersey in the opening years of the 20th Century) and then onto some incredibly colourful Moments Musicaux by Rachmaninov : if Kunz's performance of these six miniature pieces can't reignite your enjoyment of the Rachmaninov piano repertoire then surely nothing could! Truly a boldly marked end to a wonderful concert.
This event was the first in a series of lunchtime recitals to be held at LCM's The Venue over the coming months. Take a look at my FMS Forum for further info.
