The Catskill Chronicle

Review by Barry Plaxen

BETHEL, NY (April 26, 2014) – The concert held in the Event Gallery at Bethel Woods on Sunday, April 13 was not the usual straightforward presentation for a solo piano concert. Presented  in association with the Shandelee Music Festival, the audience was treated to a most entertaining afternoon of music and words, delivered by pianist Cristiana Pegoraro.

Though concertgoers are almost always given verbal introductions to the music by the performers, Ms. Pegoraro goes a few steps, or perhaps many strides, further with her combination of lecture and music, or better yet, “storytelling with music.” She interacts with the audience as she describes events in the composer’s life that whet your appetite to hear the music, while preparing you to be aware and listen intently.

In this case, the composer was Chopin, for whom Ms. Pegoraro has a distinct and warm simpatico. Her own compositions, which I heard the previous Monday on WJFF’s “Afternoon Classics with Gandalf,” are steeped in Chopin-esque melodies and harmonies. Her edifying explanations were not technical aspects of his music as much as his day-to-day living and how it affected what he composed.

A mixture of Nocturnes, Mazurkas, Waltzes, Etudes, Ballades and Preludes ended with perhaps Chopin’s most famous Polonaise. Ms. Pegoraro is a skilled virtuoso, and communicates his music with intense concentration and heartfelt passion. The music was not necessarily lined up with the chronological narration, but the music was always relevant melodically and harmonically to the “storytelling”. And much of the narration was in the present tense, “so he goes to Paris”, which made everything all the more involving for the audience as his life unfolded before their ears, especially when she read translations of his own letters to friends and loved ones.

No sentimentality was evident in the narration – Chopin’s unhappy times and fatal illness were offered without emotion. Whether planned or accidental, therein lay the success of the afternoon. Unemotional commentary was never evident – why should it be – as after the verbal introductions Ms. Pegoraro sat down and played some of the most emotional music ever written. We listened with interest to her conversational words and immersed our feelings in / with her / his passionate music.

Having heard Ms.Pegoraro perform her “loud and fast” passages on the radio with clarity and a wide scope of volume, I once again need to point out that either the piano or the acoustics of the Event Gallery are wanting when it comes to a solo piano concert. The fast sections sounded muddy and the pianissimo to fortissimo passages are not as widespread as her body and hands & wrists indicated they would be. And the music sounds as it is coming from a distance – it “remains” on the stage and is not projected. This is not the first time I noticed this in the Gallery. If it is an acoustic problem (the Gallery was built for events, not concerts) perhaps someday it can be rectified. To my and others’ ears it also has happened when different pianists performed here and it does not happen when those same pianists perform at Shandelee’s Sunset Pavilion in the summer.

Back to the positive aspects – thanks to all involved. What more could one ask for on the first warm day of the season than to be entertained with a simple and direct sweetness in storytelling complemented with passionate music of the highest order.